Earlier this year, the Wi-Fi Alliance officially launched the Wi-Fi 7 certification program. This marks the finalization of the Wi-Fi 7 standard, allowing device manufacturers to begin releasing products that meet this standard. The draft standard for Wi-Fi 7 began in 2021, and according to the IEEE’s schedule, Wi-Fi 7, known as IEEE 802.11be, aims to further improve the speed and efficiency of wireless networks.
So, what exactly has been improved? What will be the biggest impact for consumers?
Let’s first look at the technical differences between Wi-Fi 6 and the new Wi-Fi 7.
- Bandwidth: Wi-Fi 6 has a bandwidth of 160MHz, while Wi-Fi 7 doubles this to 320MHz. This increase in network throughput means higher data transmission capacity.
- QAM: Wi-Fi 6 uses 1024-QAM, whereas Wi-Fi 7 employs 4096-QAM. Although the number seems to have quadrupled, the actual data rate increase is around 20%.
- MLO: Wi-Fi 6 does not support MLO (Multi-Link Operation), but Wi-Fi 7 introduces this feature. MLO allows devices to transmit and receive data across multiple bands simultaneously, such as 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz. This improves network reliability, throughput, and reduces latency.
- RUs: Wi-Fi 6 introduced Resource Units (RUs), and Wi-Fi 7 expands on this with Multi-RUs, allowing devices to allocate multiple RUs to increase spectral efficiency.
Returning to QAM, while QAM alone only increases by 20%, this needs to be considered alongside bandwidth. Since bandwidth doubles, the overall theoretical data rate improvement is about 4.8 times. Wi-Fi 6 supports a maximum theoretical speed of 9.6Gbps, whereas Wi-Fi 7 reaches up to 46.1Gbps, although this is under ideal conditions.
What does “maximum theoretical speed” mean? Simply put, it’s an ideal value. This means the data rate can be achieved in perfect conditions without considering signal interference, device capability, or network congestion.
In short, for consumers, the most noticeable benefit of Wi-Fi 7 will be a significant boost in network speed, especially in high-bandwidth applications such as 8K video streaming or VR gaming. This improvement will also have a major impact on smart home systems, industrial applications, and high-demand environments. Consumers can expect a smoother and more efficient wireless network experience, with stable connections even in crowded network settings.