What does WiFi7 bring? Do you really need it?

Firstly, WiFi 7 has brought a larger spectrum applicability, thereby pushing up the limit rate indicator: it allows the use of spectrum resources from 1GHz to 7.2GHz, and focuses on compatibility with the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz frequency bands of previous WiFi standards. Through the large spectrum, a larger theoretical bandwidth is achieved, resulting in a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 30Gbps.

However, at present, even the commercialization of WiFi6E in the 6GHz band has not been officially approved in China. All WiFi6E routers must be adjusted in the regional settings to be able to use WiFi6E in non Chinese regions, and there is a suspicion of violation, let alone 7.2GHz and lower 1GHz. Although theoretically, using the 1GHz frequency band can achieve super strong wall piercing ability.

Therefore, as far as the WiFi7 frequency band is concerned, you can't use all the WiFi7 devices at present. Besides, there is no terminal device of any kind of WiFi7 devices, from notebook Wireless network interface controller to mobile phones and tablets.

Next, let's take a look at the practical significance and current practicality of other new technologies introduced by the WiFi7 standard:

320MHz bandwidth: theoretically, it can allow devices to enjoy higher single device throughput. WiFi6 can reach a maximum of 160MHz, while WiFi7 has doubled. It seems that our phones can have greater wireless throughput in the future. However, the 320MHz bandwidth is based on the use of the 6GHz or even 7.2GHz frequency band, which also involves the issue of whether a country has approved it. Approved, how many terminals support it? Taking mobile phones as an example, currently supporting 160MHz include Huawei's full line WiFi6 phones, Snapdragon 888, and Snapdragon 8Gen1 solution phones. Other WiFi6 phones (including Apple iPhone 13) are mostly 80MHz. So, the current significance is not significant.

16 Spatial Streaming: In terms of MIMO, it has been improved from WiFi 6's 8x8 MIMO (uplink and downlink, multi user mode, also known as UL/DL MU-MIMO) to 16x16 MIMO. In theory, the physical transmission rate can be increased by more than twice. Supporting more data streams will also bring more powerful features - distributed MIMO, where 16 data streams can be provided simultaneously by multiple access points instead of just one, which means that multiple APs need to work together.

In theory, a single router can transmit and receive signals through 16 antennas, and in the future, there may be a "16 claw fish" router. However, currently, the vast majority of mobile phones are 2x2 MIMO, so the additional space flow actually mainly improves the carrying capacity.

4096QAM: Incorporating 4096QAM (12bit) into the standard increases the 1024 QAM (10bit) compared to WiFi 6 by 20%, yes, only 20%, rather than quadrupling.

This data is mainly used to improve the limit speed of a single (frequency band) signal flow. In the case of full WiFi7 and 4KQAM, the maximum speed of a single signal stream can reach 2880Mbps in the 6G frequency band, which means that as long as your terminal supports it, your single device can reach a maximum connection speed of 2880Mbps.

4KQAM is actually not a rarity anymore. Some high-end AX5000 level and above WiFi6 routers have already been installed (such as TP-LINK's XDR5480), so this feature will have good compatibility in the future.

Multi frequency band and multi link collaboration: This small A believes that it will have a significant impact on future WiFi7 networking and is also a characteristic that suppresses WiFi6. The common features of existing WiFi devices, such as automatic tuning and intelligent roaming between APs, are customized by manufacturers. The purpose of collaboration between APs is only to optimize channel selection, adjust the load between APs, and achieve efficient utilization and balanced allocation of RF resources.

The collaborative scheduling among multiple APs in WiFi 7, including coordination planning between cells in the time and frequency domains, interference coordination between cells, and distributed MIMO, can effectively reduce interference between APs and greatly improve the utilization of air port resources.

In WiFi 7, as shown in the figure above, different APs allow multiple devices to be connected to multiple frequency bands at the same time, but now only a single device can be connected to a single frequency band.5G Industrial Router

This feature will greatly balance the AP load after networking, achieving better performance sharing and network stability.Industrial DTU

Therefore, overall, although WiFi7 currently has many features due to spectrum approval, terminal device support, and other reasons, its practicality is relatively low for a considerable period of time. But the high bandwidth, low latency, high balance, and high collaboration it represents are still worth looking forward to.Industrial Router