What You Need to Know About Wi-Fi 7
What You Need to Know About Wi-Fi 7
"While Wi-Fi 7 will offer higher speeds between wireless devices, increased efficiency and capacity and improved interference management, very few wireless devices today support Wi-Fi 7. The Internet connection also has to support those speeds to take advantage of them,” explains Lewis Donzis, CEO of PerfTech, which is the creator of the commercial-grade Island Router.
“However, Wi-Fi 7 is geared to make those enhancements available in the future both from a device perspective and a provider perspective
The world of Wi-Fi continues to push forward at a rapid pace. A few years ago, wireless networking technology went from Wi-Fi 5 to Wi-Fi 6 and now we're quickly transitioning to Wi-Fi 7. The change from Wi-Fi 5 to Wi-Fi 6 brought several improvements, and now custom integrators and their homeowner clients will be able to experience numerous more enhancements. Some chief benefits of Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) include even faster speeds, interference-free throughput to ensure those speeds are achieved, the ability to transmit more packets of data and capabilities to connect more devices and users. For now, we are only on the cusp of what is possible with Wi-Fi 7 as more product offerings catch up with the technology. Early adopters who are willing to spend more to upgrade their wireless networks will gain the initial experiences.
Wi-Fi 7 features and benefits
While Wi-Fi 7 will offer higher speeds between wireless devices, increased efficiency and capacity and improved interference management, very few wireless devices today support Wi-Fi 7, especially IoT devices. The Internet connection also has to support those speeds to take advantage of them,” explains Lewis Donzis, CEO of PerfTech, which is the creator of the commercial-grade Island Router.
“However, Wi-Fi 7 is geared to make those enhancements available in the future both from a device perspective and a provider perspective.
Most of today's home routers, even those that are wired, are not prepared for the extremely intensive applications expected to come down the road,” he says. Wi-Fi 7 is setting the foundation for the necessary bandwidth and throughput.
“While today's Wi-Fi routers in the home AV arena are making improvements in their wireless capabilities, few, if any, have a router function that can handle the speed and capacity requirements of a now more heavily loaded wireless component on the network,” he says.
“It will land on the integrator to find and install a router whose hardware and software can accommodate Wi-Fi 7 and have been designed for this scenario.
Most of today's home routers, even those that are wired, are not prepared for the extremely intensive applications expected to come down the road,” he says. Wi-Fi 7 is setting the foundation for the necessary bandwidth and throughput.
“While today's Wi-Fi routers in the home AV arena are making improvements in their wireless capabilities, few, if any, have a router function that can handle the speed and capacity requirements of a now more heavily loaded wireless component on the network,” he says.
“It will land on the integrator to find and install a router whose hardware and software can accommodate Wi-Fi 7 and have been designed for this scenario.
Comparing Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7
“The main difference between Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 is higher speed and use of a wide open 6GHz channel,” notes Andrew Ward, business development manager for enterprise-level provider Access Networks.
“Each iteration of Wi-Fi is meant to solve a problem facing connectivity at the time and improve on the previous certification,” he comments.
“Wi-Fi 5 gave us faster transmission and a dedicated backhaul 5GHz band, resulting in better throughput. Wi-Fi 6 focused on connectivity, spectral efficiency, security and improved battery life, resulting in greater Wi-Fi stability and higher capacity.”
In accordance with the Wi-Fi Alliance, Wi-Fi 7 certified products must deliver the following characteristics, Ward details:
- 320MHz channel width in the 6GHz band, double that of Wi-Fi 6
- Multilink Operation (MLO) allowing aggregate connection between spectra
- 4K Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), which has 20% higher transmission rates than 1024 QAM in Wi-Fi 6
- 'Puncturing,' which allows use of most of a channel, even with interference
Bjørn Jensen, founder and CEO of network and cybersecurity specialist WhyReboot, elaborates on why “This is a huge upgrade compared to anything that has come out previously for multiple reasons.”
