WiFi 7, also known as IEEE 802.11be or Extremely High Throughput (EHT), is the seventh generation of Wi-Fi technology and the successor to WiFi 6. It brings significant advancements in speed, capacity, and latency to wireless networking. Key features of WiFi 7 include:
- Support for up to 320 MHz channel bandwidth, which is double that of WiFi 6, allowing for much higher data rates.
- Use of 4096-QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation), which carries 12 bits per symbol compared to 10 bits in WiFi 6, enabling a theoretical 20% data rate increase.
- Multi-link operation (MLO), allowing devices to transmit and receive data simultaneously across multiple frequency bands (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz), improving performance and reliability.
- Ability to allocate multiple resource units (MRU) to a single user at once, enhancing spectrum efficiency.
- Support for up to 16 spatial streams, increasing the network's capacity and throughput.
- Maximum theoretical throughput up to 46 Gbps, roughly 4.8 times faster than WiFi 6 and 13 times faster than WiFi 5.
WiFi 7 is designed to address the increasing demand for high-speed, low- latency, and high-capacity wireless connectivity needed for applications like 4K/8K video streaming, virtual and augmented reality, online gaming, video conferencing, and cloud computing. Overall, WiFi 7 delivers ultra-fast speeds, lower latency, and greater network capacity compared to previous WiFi generations, offering a significant upgrade to wireless network performance for both home and enterprise environments. However, to take advantage of these improvements, users will need compatible WiFi 7 routers and devices. In short, WiFi 7 is the next major leap in WiFi technology, pushing wireless speeds and efficiency to new levels while supporting the increasing number of connected devices and high-bandwidth applications in modern networks.