When any new technology is about to debut, it’s hard to decide when to stay pat and when to upgrade. Or even whether it’s worthwhile. These questions will be front and center for many organizations when Wi-Fi 7 reaches the market early next year.
Wi-Fi 7 is already generating keen interest. This new standard will offer faster connections and lower latency, as well as the ability to manage more connections than preceding generations.
Organizations starting from scratch have an easier choice. But what about current Wi-Fi customers? Should they stick with the current Wi-Fi 6 and 6E? If so, for how long? And if they want to move to Wi-Fi 7, do the advantages come with any costs?
Past is usually prologue
This isn’t the first significant Wi-Fi transition, and I expect the move to Wi-Fi 7 to follow previous historical patterns. Consider the following:
- Wi-Fi 4: The release of Wi-Fi 4 in 2009 brought Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology, allowing for the transfer of more data with 2x speed improvements over previous Wi-Fi generations. This was well timed for smart phones as the mobile device market enjoyed 25% annual growth from 2010 to 2014. It also helped spur greater Wi-Fi deployment in select verticals, such as the hospitality sector, where mobile devices increased up to 175% during that same period.
- Wi-Fi 5: After Wi-Fi 5 became available in 2014, wireless networks leaped forward in speed with a 33% increase in the QAM rates and faster speeds due to packet aggregation, higher MCS rates and MU-MIMO. Coincidentally, the consumer entertainment market saw a massive growth in high-speed streaming media from online content and screen mirroring technology.
- Wi-Fi 6: With Wi-Fi 6’s release in 2019, consumers reaped major benefits from the technology’s more efficient use of the RF spectrum with more concurrent media streams on high density networks operating with fewer radios. Wi-Fi 6 has enjoyed the fastest adoption rate of any wireless technology in history. In large part, this was due to the introduction of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDMA), a frequency resource management technology that transmits small frames of data (in resource units) so multiple devices can send and receive data in the same period. The follow-on standard, Wi-Fi 6E, operates in the 6 GHz band, bringing the efficiency standards forward into an uncrowded spectrum with up to 1200 MHz of new spectrum useful for indoor Wi-Fi networks.
Wi-Fi 6 was great. Wi-Fi 7 is even better
First, let’s get rid of a common mistake in definitions. Wi-Fi 6 is not the same as 6 GHz. In fact, Wi-Fi 6 is still a 5 GHz and a 2.4 GHz technology, based on the published IEEE 802.11ax. I also encourage people not to focus so much on the numbers, as Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 are very close to each other in what they are and what they allow. Both share a powerful enabler: they each operate in 6 GHz.
Wi-Fi 6 earned a place in the record books when it took just three years to reach mass market acceptance, the fastest of any Wi-Fi technology to date. In large part, that’s because Wi-Fi 6 fixed many of the inefficiency issues associated with Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi 7 is looking to the future where AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) will become commonplace in education, homes, healthcare, and industrial applications.
What is the main benefit of this technology? Simply put, latency-sensitive technologies like wearable devices will be able to switch between frequencies without dropping packets. The new standard promises faster and more stable Wi-Fi transmissions between routers and networking equipment and PCs, smartphones, and other devices.
The major Wi-Fi 7 improvements in latency come through a new technology called Multi-Link Operation (MLO) that allows a device to connect with multiple radios and switch transmissions from one radio to another if congestion is detected. Another speed boost comes from support for 320 MHz wide channels – double the theoretical max in Wi-Fi 6. And finally, Wi-Fi 7 standards include new techniques to coordinate scheduling and overall make better use of the shared wireless medium by all the devices in the network.
In addition, Wi-Fi 7 proposes a way to extend resource coordination for MIMO streams from multiple access points. In practice, that means your device will receive data streams from up to four different access points, not just one – and then combining them into a reliable, high speed, low latency, and low error rate signal. What’s the advantage? In a word, reliability. It’s essentially a guarantee that the full data streams will be received.
Your next move
Your decision ultimately depends on what’s being managed on the network. Any new Wi-Fi standard both predicts and enables new applications – and applications drive the standards.
If network managers expect the increasing use of augmented reality and virtual reality or other applications that need the higher performance offered by 6 GHz, that’s an argument in favor of considering either Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7. The same holds true if you’re deploying apps or communication tools like Zoom and web conferencing that require low latency and reliable bandwidth.
If you don’t think you’ll be using many bandwidth-intensive apps for the foreseeable future, you can remain with Wi-Fi 6 for now. But you’ll still need to keep an eye on the applications that get added to your environment. Mark any changes in the use and deployment of existing and new applications in case it begins to hurt network performance.
It’s also a good idea to keep an eye on prices for Wi-Fi equipment that works with 6 GHz technologies. As the technology matures, prices will decline to the point where Wi-Fi 7 is going to lure any fence sitters to invest in what’s going to be a significant technology transition.
Finally, the decision will need to consider the technology available in the devices. Wi-Fi is a two-way communication: the access point and the device. To engage the new Wi-Fi 7 features will require a compatible and enabled client device. If your network will support 5 GHz devices for the foreseeable future, stick with Wi-Fi 6 and enjoy its efficient performance. If your network supports leading edge consumer mobile devices, where we expect to see Wi-Fi 7 first, then keep a close eye on the applications needed on your network.
Dependable Wi-Fi is now critical for business operations. While that’s something we just as easily might have said five years ago, it’s even truer today. Given the changes in applications and Wi-Fi density since then, you can’t afford to get this wrong.