Here's everything you need to know about Wi-fi 7

Many people have just upgraded to Wi-Fi 6 and some may be considering switching to Wi-Fi 6E, the successor has been released when Wi-Fi 7 arrives. This is the next big step forward, and like its predecessors, the new standard promises faster connections, lower latency, and the ability to manage more connections than ever before.

If you're looking to improve your Wi-Fi today, Wi-Fi 7 isn't the answer, because it's still over a year away (and, in fact, much longer). let people get used to it. If you need to upgrade, first find out what Wi-Fi 7 is.

The 7th generation of Wi-Fi promises major improvements over Wi-Fi 6 and 6E and can deliver speeds up to 4 times faster. It also includes smart advancements to reduce latency, increase capacity, and increase stability and efficiency.

Wi-Fi 7 will be faster, supporting more connections.

Wi-Fi 7 is IEEE 802.11 according to the old naming convention, where Wi-Fi 6 is IEEE 802.11ax and Wi-Fi 5 is IEEE 802.11ac. Like previous standards, Wi-Fi 7 will be backward compatible. But to take advantage of the new features and improved performance it promises, you'll need to upgrade your device. That means buying new routers and access points, not to mention new smartphones, laptops, TVs…

Wi-Fi 7 will be faster, support more connections, and more adaptive to maintain reliable low-latency performance.

These benefits will help deliver high-quality video and better cloud gaming, and they will serve AR and VR applications that require high throughput and low latency. Wi-Fi 7 also solves congestion and interference problems, clearly benefiting areas with dense device density or overlapping neighboring networks. This is the most important factor for businesses and crowded locations.

You will surely wonder what distinguishes Wi-Fi 7 from Wi-Fi 6E? That is, it has an advantage over previous standards in that it opens the 6 GHz band. Especially since Wi-Fi 7 will use the same three bands 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz. Here are some notable upgrades.

Wider channel

Each band is divided into channels. The 2.4 GHz band consists of 11 channels of 20 megahertz (MHz) each. The 5 GHz band has 45 channels, but instead of being limited to 20 MHz wide, they can be combined to create 40 MHz or 80 MHz channels. The 6 GHz band supports 60 channels, and with Wi-Fi 6E, they can be as wide as 160 MHz. Wi-Fi 7 supports channels up to 320 MHz wide. The wider the channel, the more data can be transmitted.

To put it simply, imagine how much traffic a single-lane road can handle compared to a three-lane highway or a six-lane superhighway.

Higher QAM

Quadratic amplitude modulation (QAM) is a method of transmitting and receiving data using radio frequency waves. The higher it is, the more information you have. Wi-Fi 7 supports 4K-QAM, Wi-Fi 6 supports 1024-QAM, and Wi-Fi 5 is limited to 256-QAM.

The potential benefits are complicated by signal strength, background noise, and interference. Therefore, when the QAM goes up, the range decreases and a stronger signal is needed. So the jump to 1024-QAM in Wi-Fi 6 provides about a 25% increase in data speeds over Wi-Fi 5. The leap to 4K-QAM in Wi-Fi 7 means a 20% increase efficiency.

Perhaps the most exciting advancement in Wi-Fi 7 is Multi-Link Operation (MLO). All previous Wi-Fi standards established a connection between two devices on a single band. Even a tri-band Wi-Fi 6E router connects two devices on one band on a fixed channel (the router decides to connect on the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, or 6 GHz bands).

MLO can combine multiple frequencies across bands into a single connection. Wi-Fi 7 routers can connect to Wi-Fi 7 devices simultaneously on two or more channels in different bands. MLO is capable of allowing wider channels to carry more data — back to our highway analogy, you can send traffic on highways and superhighways simultaneous.

Speed ​​is not always a priority, but MLO also allows for more efficient operations. Wi-Fi 7 routers can take into account congestion and other interferences and transmit on the best channel to get through it, switching to maintain a stable connection and low latency.

Wi-Fi 7 also enhances existing technologies such as OFDMA, MU-MIMO, and TWT.

It may be more than a year before we see the first Wi-Fi 7 devices and routers launch, but the new standard is starting to take shape.

Qualcomm has announced its Wi-Fi 7 chipset and Networking Pro Series platform, which can deliver quad-band connection speeds of up to 33 Gbps across 16 streams. Partners are working to integrate their technologies into devices. Broadcom and MediaTek have also announced Wi-Fi 7 technology. Undoubtedly, more vendors will announce plans in the coming months as the new standard is solidified and made official by the Wi-Fi Alliance. point.

Even when Wi-Fi 7 arrives, it won't immediately eliminate Wi-Fi 6. The two will likely coexist as complementary technologies for years to come.