While many people just upgraded to Wi-Fi 6and some people may be considering switching to Wi-Fi 6E, their successor is ready. Wi-Fi 7 is the next big step forward, and like its predecessors, the new standard promises faster connections, lower latency, and the ability to efficiently manage more connections than ever before. .
If you are looking for improve your Wi-Fi Today, Wi-Fi 7 is not the answer, as support will be scarce for a while. But early adopters will be excited by the news that the first batch of Wi-Fi 7 routers will land in early 2023. In fact, it will take a good while before most of us. should consider switching. If you need an upgrade right away, consider digging in first how to buy a router before you check out our selection of best Wi-Fi router and The best mesh Wi-Fi system.
Update November 2022: We’ve adjusted the timeline as Wi-Fi 7 gets closer and added news about TP-Link’s Wi-Fi 7 router lineup.
What is Wi-Fi 7?
The 7th generation of Wi-Fi promises major improvements over Wi-Fi 6 and 6E and can deliver speeds up to four times faster. It also includes smart advancements to reduce latency, increase capacity, and increase stability and efficiency.
Wi-Fi 7 is IEEE 802.11be following 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, etc.
What benefits will Wi-Fi 7 bring?
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 overcomes congestion and interference, providing tangible benefits to areas with dense device density or overlapping neighboring networks. The latter is most important for businesses and larger venues.
How does Wi-Fi 7 compare to Wi-Fi 6E?
Understandably, you might be wondering what sets Wi-Fi 7 apart from Wi-Fi 6E, which promises similar advantages over previous standards by opening up the 6th band. GHz. 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 strip is divided into channels. The 2.4 GHz band includes 11 channels at 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.
A simple analogy is to imagine the amount of traffic a single-lane road can handle compared to a three-lane highway or a six-lane highway.
Higher QAM
Quadratic amplitude modulation (QAM) is a method for transmitting and receiving data in the form of radio frequency waves. The higher it is, the more information you can add. Wi-Fi 7 supports 4K-QAM, Wi-Fi 6 supports 1024-QAM, and Wi-Fi 5 is limited to 256-QAM.
The potential gains are complicated by signal strength, background noise, and noise. Therefore, when the QAM goes up, the range goes down and you need a stronger signal. So the leap to 1024-QAM in Wi-Fi 6 translates to about a 25% increase in data rates over Wi-Fi 5. The leap to 4K-QAM in Wi-Fi 7 means peak performance 20% increase.
Multi-link operation
Perhaps the most exciting step forward 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 a single 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 via two or more channels in different bands. MLO has the potential to allow wider channels to transmit more data—going back to our highway analogy, you can send highway and superhighway traffic at the same time. at the time.
Speed is not always a priority, but MLO also allows for more efficient performance. Wi-Fi 7 routers can take into account congestion and other interference and transmit on the best channel to get through it, switching to maintain a stable connection and low latency. MLO can also help mitigate the relatively short range of the 6 GHz band.
