Amazon’s Eero brand recently made headlines with the announcement of its firstWi-Fi 7 router, the Max 7. However, it doesn’t have a release date just yet. With the major news, you may have wondered: What is Wi-Fi 7? We’re here to answer that question, along with a list of the new wireless standard’s benefits, what devices already support it, and when we can expect mass adoption.
What is Wi-Fi 7?
Wi-Fi 7 is the next generation of IEEE’s 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) standard, specifically the still-in-development IEEE 802.11be revision. A “simplified generational name” marketed by the Wi-Fi Alliance - a non-profit organisation that certifies Wi-Fi devices - Wi-Fi 7 is the successor to Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 6, which were part of IEEE’s 802.11ax standard.
802.11be or Wi-Fi 7 has been termed as Extremely High Throughput (EHT) Wi-Fi, describing IEEE’s goals with the new standard. In comparison, 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 6) was dubbed High Efficiency (HE) Wi-Fi. Despite these goals, Wi-Fi 7 can be expected to be a generational improvement, offering higher data rates, efficiency, capacity, and range than the previous standard, apart from lower latency and improved security. It is aimed at offering a throughput of at least 30 gigabits per second (Gbps).
With these improvements, Wi-Fi Alliance projects that Wi-Fi 7 devices will enable wireless innovations for “time sensitive networking applications including AR/VR, 4K and 8K video streaming, automotive, cloud computing, gaming, and video applications, as well as mission critical and industrial applications.”
A few devices are already available that support Wi-Fi 7, thanks to the draft IEEE 802.11be amendment floated in March 2021. However, most Wi-Fi devices will become available after the final version of the amendment - which is expected to be officially adopted in early 2024. Just like previous generations, Wi-Fi 7 will be backward compatible with legacy devices that support any of its bands.
Wi-Fi 7 vs Wi-Fi 6E/ 6
Wi-Fi 7 supports three bands - 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz. Wi-Fi 6 only supports two bands - 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, while Wi-Fi 6E supports just the 6 GHz band. The theoretical maximum link rate of Wi-Fi 7 is roughly 46 Gbps, though real-world performance will be significantly lower. In comparison, the maximum link rate of Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 6 is about 9.6 Gbps. While that means Wi-Fi 7 is 4.8 times faster than Wi-Fi 6, on the same radio configuration, it’s about 2.4 times faster.
The new Wi-Fi 7 standard uses the denser 4096-QAM (or 4K-QAM) modulation for data transmission, theoretically capable of 20 percent higher transmission rates than Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 6’s 1024-QAM. It doubles the channel bandwidth - up to 320 MHz, compared to 160 MHz on Wi-Fi 6E - doubling the capacity (number of concurrent devices) and increasing user data speeds on individual devices.
A new feature that Wi-Fi 7 brings over Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 6 is Multi-Link Operation (MLO), which allows routers, access points (AP), and clients to simultaneously send and/ or receive data across multiple bands and channels, apart from quickly switching between them. This increases the network throughput and capacity while also reducing latency by up to 100 times compared to non-MLO configurations. Combined with 320 MHz ultra-wide channels, MLO can increase network capacity by 5 times.
Wi-Fi 7 also offers flexible channel utilisation with what’s being called Multi-RU Puncturing, which improves resistance from interference. Essentially, if a portion of the channel is impacted, that portion can be blocked while the rest of the channel can be continued to be utilised. While Wi-Fi 6 had Preamble Puncturing, Wi-Fi 7’s Multi-RU Puncturing is set to be a major improvement in interference resistance.
Another advantage Wi-Fi 7 has over Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 6 is twice the number of spatial streams in a multi-use, multi-input, multi-output (MU-MIMO) setup, going from 8 to 16. Combined with Multi-AP coordination, Wi-Fi 7 can support a more distributed MIMO interface than earlier iterations.
What Wi-Fi 7 devices are available?
While a great way to find a specific type of Wi-Fi Certified devices would have been onWi-Fi Alliance’s Product Finder page, the organisation has yet to list Wi-Fi 7 as a filter. This should change once the final standard is released in 2024. In the meanwhile, here’s a non-exhaustive list of consumer products that are either already available, or have been recently announced, with support for Wi-Fi 7.
Bear in mind most of these devices support the standard in a limited way, for example, offering 2x2 UL/DL MU-MIMO support when the standard supports up to 16x16 UL/DL MU-MIMO.
Amazon eero Max 7
The Eero Max 7 is Amazon’s first mesh Wi-Fi system utilizing Wi-Fi 7 technology, delivering impressive speeds of up to 9.4 Gbps wired and 4.3 Gbps wirelessly, while supporting over 200 connected devices and covering homes up to 7,500 square feet with a three-pack setup. Additionally, the Eero Max 7 serves as a smart home hub compatible with Thread, Matter, and Zigbee devices.
