What is WiFi 7 | Benefits or advantages of WiFi 7
This page covers WiFi 7 standard basics and WiFi 7 features. It mentions benefits or advantages of WiFi 7 as per IEEE 802.11be standard.
Introduction: The latest in the series of WLAN standards is WiFi-7 which is successor to WiFi-6/6E. At the time of writing, Wireless-Fidelity (Wi-Fi) 7 standard is being developed by IEEE 802.11be EHT (Extremely High Throughput) working group. IEEE has planned to approve and publish the 802.11be (i.e. WiFi-7) by mid of 2024. Once the products are developed as per WiFi standards, they will be certified under certification program by WiFi Alliance. This ensures interoperability tests among the WiFi devices (APs and STAs).
What is WiFi 7 ( IEEE 802.11be ) ?
WiFi-7 refers to 7th generation of wifi standard. It follows the specifications outlined in IEEE 802.11be standard. It is developed to meet following requirements which include higher data rate, low latency, high spectrum efficiency, high power efficiency, better interference mitigation, high capacity density, higher cost efficiency etc. PHY (Physical Layer) and MAC (Medium Access Control) layers have been modified to support EHT mode in new wifi-7 standard.
It has been planned to deliver better performance compare to existing WiFi 6/6E devices. To meet the goal it will use enhanced OFDMA, 4096-QAM, MU-MIMO with 16 spatial streams, 320 MHz channel size and other new features. It will offer greater amount of increase in data rate (~ 46 Gbps). It uses frequency bands from 1 to 7.25 GHz which covers all the three bands viz. 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz used by its predecessors. Refer difference between WiFi 6 and WiFi 7 >> WLAN standards.
Following features have been planned to be incorporated in WiFi 7 technology based devices. These are the features mentions in IEEE 802.11be PAR (Project Authorization Request).
• 320 MHz maximum channel size : Supports 160 + 160 MHz, 240 + 180 MHz, 160 + 80 MHz channels to combine non-adjacent spectrum blocks. It offers double
throughput compare to WiFi 6.
• Higher order modulation : 4096 QAM which increases throughput by 20%. Lower modulation schemes are also supported.
4096QAM requires higher SNR. Hence Beamforming is used when 4096QAM is used as modulation scheme.
• Enhanced OFDMA : It allocates punctured RUs (Resource Units) to single station using direct link transmission.
• 16 spatial streams MU-MIMO
• Multi-Link Operation (MLO) : Using MLO, devices can transmit and/or receive across different bands and channels simultaneously.
They use separate data and control planes.
• Multi-AP i.e. Multiple Access Point Coordination e.g. coordinated and joint transmission
• Deterministic low latency
• Multi-RU i.e. Multiple Resource Units (Puncturing)
• EHT Preamble and packet format
• Enhanced link adaptation and retransmission protocol using HARQ
Benefits or advantages of WiFi 7
Following are the benefits or advantages of WiFi 7:
➨Use of 320 MHz channel doubles throughput compare to WiFi 6.
➨Use of 4096QAM increases throughput by 20%.
➨Enhanced OFDMA increases spectrum efficiency, reduces latency and improves user experience.
➨Doubling spatial streams helps in doubling network throughput than wifi 6 version.
➨Using Coordinated OFDMA, collaborative APs synchronize their data transmissions and use orthogonal time/frequency and spatial resources more efficiently.
➨It uses puncturing to eliminate transmission in parts of the channel to accommodate spectrum restrictions which may
prohibit use of part of the band. Puncturing makes it possible to use wide channels where insufficient contiguous spectrum is available.
➨It provides secured connections as it uses WPA3 protocol like wifi-6. WPA3 is more secure compare to WPA2, WEP and WPA.
WPA3 uses protected management frames along with specific hardware with specially developed chips to support the WPA3 technology.
➨WiFi-7 is ideal for various use cases which include AR/VR, 4K and 8K video streaming, cloud computing, video calling, video conferencing,
remote office etc.
WiFi 6 Resources as per IEEE 802.11ax
Advantages and disadvantages of 802.11ac (WiFi 5) Advantages and disadvantages of 802.11ax (WiFi 6) BSS coloring in 11ax RU in 802.11ax MU-OFDMA in 802.11ax MU-MIMO in 802.11ax Difference between 802.11ac Wave1 and Wave2 Difference between 802.11n,11ac,11ad WLAN 802.11ac tutorial WLAN 802.11ax tutorial WLAN 802.11ac frame structure WLAN 802.11ac Physical Layer 802.11ac MAC Layer 802.11ax basics WLAN 11a,11b,11n,11ac frame structures
Useful Links to Legacy WLAN Standards
WLAN SIFS, PIFS, DIFS, EIFS, AIFS What is DCF and PCF in WLAN What is RTS and CTS in WLAN What is wlan? WLAN standards-11a,11b,11g,11n,11ac 11a WLAN Physical layer 11b WLAN Physical layer 11n WLAN Physical layer WLAN basic tutorial 802.11ac tutorial 802.11ad tutorial Difference between 11a,11b,11g,11n Difference between 11-n,11-ac and 11-ad WLAN router providers WLAN providers
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What is Difference between
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