Introducing Wi-Fi 7: The Next Generation of Wireless Connectivity

October 18, 2024
Jonathan Osborne
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Wi-Fi 7, known by its IEEE standard as 802.11be, is the latest wireless networking standard designed to deliver significantly faster speeds, lower latency, and greater capacity compared to its predecessors. It's poised to revolutionise how we connect to the internet, enabling seamless streaming, gaming, and virtual reality experiences.

Below is a quick table showing how Wi-Fi 7 compares to previous Wi-Fi standards:

5 key technologies used by Wi-Fi 7:

6GHz spectrum availability:

The 6GHz spectrum availability was first introduced with Wi-Fi 6e and built on with Wi-Fi 7.

This gives us a new set of frequencies with substantially more channels allowing more throughput and a better user experience.

The 6GHz spectrum currently has far less congestion and thus interference.

To take advantage of this new set of frequencies, client devices need to be Wi-Fi 7 compatible.

4096-QAM modulation and up to 320MHz channel width:

With our new channel availability, we can take advantage of much higher modulations brought about by extremely wide 320MHz channel widths.

If we think of the Wi-Fi data stream as a courier van, Wi-Fi 7 allows us to have a larger van (increased channel width) and that larger van allows us to carry more parcels (higher modulation).

Multiple Resource Units (MRUs) with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA):

MRUs are a way for Wi-Fi 7 networks to effectively manage and organise the data being sent to clients in the most efficient way possible. This is particularly advantageous in dense Wi-Fi environments.

OFDMA divides a wireless channel into smaller subchannels (resource units or RUs), allowing multiple devices to communicate simultaneously.

In Wi-Fi 7, MRU allows a device to be assigned multiple RUs at once, providing more flexibility and adaptability. This is especially beneficial in scenarios with fluctuating network conditions or when a device requires a burst of high data throughput.

MRU involves the following steps:

1. RU Allocation: The AP determines the optimum number of RUs based on various factors regarding the current network conditions.

2. Data Transmission: The device then uses the allocated RUs to transmit or receive data.

3. Dynamic Adjustment: The AP can dynamically adjust the number of RUs allocated to a device based on changing conditions, ensuring optimal performance at all times.

Channel Puncturing:

While wider channel width for more throughput sounds initially like a relatively easy way to increase performance, it does present a problem.

Wider channel width means more wireless spectrum is being used and this leaves us more susceptible to interference from other devices.

This could cause our data transmission to stall simply because a small part of the wider channel is being used by another device.

What Wi-Fi 7 devices do to combat this is to effectively break the channel being used, into many small sub-divisions called Resource Units as discussed previously in the MRU section.

Previously with Wi-Fi 5 and 6, channels would be examined to see if they are being used, and if so, the portion of the channel up to the interference would be used to transmit data.

Where Wi-Fi 7 improves on this is that if there is a portion of the channel after the interference available for transmission, that part of the channel will also be used thus greatly increasing the spectral efficiency and speed of transmission.

This allows data transmission to occur even if a part of your chosen channel is currently in use by a different AP.

Multi-Link Operation (MLO):

Finally, we have probably the stand out feature of Wi-Fi 7 networks - Multi-Link Operation (MLO).

MLO allows the use of all 3 frequencies simultaneously either for greater throughout, lower latency or for redundancy.

In the higher throughput mode, the data is split across up to 3 frequencies allowing for simultaneous transmission over each one.

Redundancy mode would send the same data of each frequency increasing the likelihood of the data being received correctly.

Low latency mode allows data to be sent and received from any of the available frequencies at any given time reducing the time that the AP is inactive

If we return to our courier example from before, we have the well-organised vans, but all of them travel down the same lane of a 3-lane highway where each of the lanes is analogous to each frequency (2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz).

MLO allows us to use all 3 lanes in various ways to allow faster and/or more reliability of those deliveries.

As we can see, Wi-Fi 7 is not just a new standard that increases speeds using simple existing methods like increasing channel width.

Wi-Fi 7 has looked at the various weaknesses of previous standards and sought to improve it in every way, from the amount of raw data that can be transmitted to ways that organise that data in a highly efficient way and even methods that allow high data transmission in congested channels.

We will assist in creating a next generation Wi-Fi 7 network that will deliver the best possible exprience to your customers.

Get in touch with our sales team on sales@miro.co.zaor 012 657 0960 for any futher information or assitance.