The Next Generation Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 7
1Wi-Fi 7 is the latest in wireless network protocols that are commonly used for networking and internet access. While Wi-Fi 6 is just now beginning to pick up steam, it has been criticized as being an incremental update over Wi-Fi 5. Wi-Fi 7 promises to be more than twice as fast as Wi-Fi 6, with theoretical peak data rates of 40Gbps. The new standard isn't set in stone yet, and the technical specifications are still being worked out, but even at this early stage Wi-Fi 7 looks to be the next generational leap forward for wireless data networks. For comparison, Wi-Fi 5 had peak data rates of 6.9Gbps, whereas Wi-Fi 6 and 6E maxed out at 9.6Gbps. Wi-Fi 7 will also introduce new technologies to reduce latency within the network, and also promises to increase network capacity to connect more devices on a single connection.
Just like with Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) and Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Wi-Fi 7 will require routers that support the 802.11be IEEE standard. It will be backward compatible with Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E devices, Wi-Fi 5, and Wi-Fi 4 devices. The new standard will also retain all technologies that were introduced with Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, namely Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Multi-user, Multi-input, and Multi-Output (MU-MIMO).
Without complicating things too much, OFDMA is responsible for faster data transfers, by allowing data to be distributed in smaller packets to multiple devices at once. MU-MIMO allows for multiple streams of these data transfers simultaneously, increasing network performance. Wi-Fi 7 will retain these technologies while adding new ones to lower latency and increase data transfer rates.