Wi-Fi 7 is the fastest wireless network around – up to 5.8 Gigabits per second and beyond. Fast enough for you?

Written by Steven Vaughan-Nichols, Senior Contributing Editor

Feb. 28, 2024 at 2:00 a.m. PT

Recently, the Wi-Fi Alliance gave Wi-Fi 7, officially known as 802.11be, its blessing, and our homes and offices will soon see speeds of — believe it or not — almost 5.8 Gigabits per second (Gbps).  

Actually, just between us, I don’t believe Intel when it states, “a typical Wi-Fi 7 laptop [will] have a potential maximum data rate of almost 5.8 Gbps.” I’ve benchmarked too many networks to buy the top-end numbers. 

However, I can believe that a Wi-Fi 7 hookup can hit real-world speeds of over half that number, say 4Gbps, and that’s more than fast enough for anyone not running a high-performance supercomputer cluster at home. 

So, how will Wi-Fi 7 leave Wi-Fi 6E, which I’ve seen running at up to 1.5Gbps, eating its dust? The answer is that Wi-Fi 7 manages that kind of speed thanks to multiple new features, including:

  • Increased Channel Bandwidth: Wi-Fi 7 doubles the maximum channel bandwidth from 160MHz to 320MHz, allowing for faster data transmission. The bigger the MHz range, the more data you can pack into it. With this expanded bandwidth, you can see higher-than-ever wireless download speeds.

  • 4K Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM): This feature enables each signal to pack up to 120% more data into a channel than Wi-Fi 6E. 

  • Multi-Link Operation (MLO): This feature allows devices to spread connections across two or three bands (2.4 GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz), enhancing speed and stability. If one band is out of range, the device seamlessly switches to another without needing to reconnect. This process is called bonding or aggregation.

  • Improved Latency: The integration of all three bands reduces the airtime restriction, increasing the likelihood of immediate data packet transmission. This aspect is particularly beneficial for applications requiring low latency, such as online gaming and video conferencing.

  • MU-MIMO Enhancement: Wi-Fi 7 supports more multi-user, multiple-input, multiple-output (MU-MIMO) spatial streams. This enables routers to communicate with more devices simultaneously. This feature enhances network efficiency, especially in crowded environments.

  • Multi Resource Units (RU): With legacy Wi-Fi 6/6E and earlier, when part of a high-speed channel is being used by another device, the entire channel is unavailable. With Wi-Fi 7, the channel can be shared if there’s available room. 

Wi-Fi 7 operates on the same 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands, so it’s backward compatible with previous Wi-Fi standards. But while older devices can still connect to Wi-Fi 7 networks, they won’t benefit from its higher performance or most of its new features. Some features, however, such as beamforming, which targets devices, may deliver higher data rates.

By doubling the number of supported MU-MIMO streams to 8×8 MU-MIMO, Wi-Fi 7 can also talk to 16 devices at once. That capability could help your older devices as well — if, and it’s a big if, your router comes with 16 antennas. Many 6E routers, for example, which can support up to eight antennas, only come with four, while most Wi-Fi-enabled devices, such as phones and laptops, only come with two antennas.

Source https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/networking/what-is-wi-fi-7-and-just-how-fast-is-it/