Wi-Fi 7 is Ready To Go Mainstream

The Wi-Fi Alliance is now starting to certify devices that use the latest generation of wireless connectivity, and the goal is to make sure these devices work with each other seamlessly. Android Central: Basically, the certification allows router brands and device manufacturers to guarantee that their products will work with other Wi-Fi 7 devices. Qualcomm, for its part, is announcing that it has several designs that leverage Wi-Fi 7, and that it achieved the Wi-Fi Alliance certification -- dubbed Wi-Fi Certified 7 -- for the FastConnect 7800 module that's baked into the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and 8 Gen 2, and the Networking Pro portfolio.

Wi-Fi Certified 7 is designed to enable interoperability, and ensure that devices from various brands work without any issues. In addition to Qualcomm, the likes of MediaTek, Intel, Broadcom, CommScope, and MaxLinear are also picking up certifications for their latest networking products. I chatted with Andy Davidson, Sr. Director of Technology Planning at Qualcomm, ahead of the announcement to understand a little more about how Wi-Fi 7 is different. Wi-Fi 7 uses the 6GHz band -- similar to Wi-Fi 6E -- but introduces 320Mhz channels that have the potential to deliver significantly greater bandwidth. Wi-Fi 7 also uses a clever new feature called Multi-Link Operation (MLO) that lets devices connect to two bands at the same time, leading to better signal strength and bandwidth. Further reading: Wi-Fi 7 Signals the Industry's New Priority: Stability.

Does that include interoperability...

[Anonymous Coward]

... with the radio Bill Gates included with the COVID shots? Asking for a friend.

Re:

[korgitser]

You're in luck, actually. Since Bill pissed off telcos with the Skype purchase like forever ago, the telcos have been excerting their influence against Bill wherever they can. So already starting expreimentally with 6E, and now fully launching with 7, wifi actually uses the harmonizing energy available on the 6GHz spectrum to hijack the vaxxine nanobots over their radios and align them into nanocrystals that are going to improve your aura flow and purify your inner sanctum. As an added benefit, this also in

Re:the radio Bill Gates included with the COVID sh

[Tablizer]

And what happened to the 6g chips that were gonna be injected? They jumped to 7 already, skipping 6?

I suspect 6 is reserved for the Deep State. We're on to them now! SixGate is about to be blown wide open, just like we did with Hunter's Dominion pizza basement laptop and the FIB Ghost Buses!

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[UnknowingFool]

Simply rebranding. The public will keep looking for 6g chips and never suspect a thing.

Re:

[pete6677]

You have to get the RSV shot in order to get the Wifi 7 update.

No

[OverlordQ]

There's not even reasonably priced 6E stuff for your home yet.

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[Xenx]

That's going to be a matter of perspective, and location, but I would argue 6E is reasonably priced. You can buy a 6E router for $150. Sure, you can get a dual-band wifi 6 router for half the price. However, if you consider the fact that 6E has to be tri-band because of the 6ghz the price difference is minimal.

Wifi 7, however, generally costs twice as much.

Re:

[OverlordQ]

Only brand-spanking-new apple products like the Nov 2023 MBPs or the iPhone 15 Max, or the Pixel 6 or the Samsung S22 Ultra support 6E.

So yeah, if you're already spending thousands on a phone or new laptop, or want the cutting edge, none of your devices support it yet.

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[Xenx]

I understand where you're coming from, but there is more to it than that. The 6ghz band is also useful for backhaul in a mesh. I know the higher frequency means there could be challenges. However, I've seen enough customers at work with mesh units reporting 5ghz interference across multiple channels. 6ghz might well be the solution for them.

Aside from the immediate benefit, if you're in the market for a new router right now it only makes sense to buy as new of a standard as you can reasonably afford. It'll

Re:

[poptix]

Pixel 6 and 7 came with WiFi 6E, Pixel 8 already has WiFi 7

Apple is behind the times.

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[OverlordQ]

Those are also flagship phones. It's hasn't tricked down into the "everybody else" category yet.

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[cmseagle]

I've had my current home access points for four years (still going strong) and used the router that they replaced for eight. If I bought a 6E-capable router today I'd likely still be using it by the time more of my devices support the spec, even if they don't currently.

Wi-Fi 7 is ready

[93 Escort Wagon]

Please start demanding it! We need those licensing fees...

Awsume for comcast

[jmccue]

Awesome, I can now have WIFI 7 that work well with Comcast's 5G internet speed. That means my 40Mbps speed will be, well, 40Mbps with WIFI 7.

How about forcing real competition in places forced to use Comcast ?

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[UnknowingFool]

You get 40Mbps with Comcast? What do voodoo do you practice to get such speeds with them? :P

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[jmccue]

I was surprised to see that too, that is via site http://speakeasy.net/speedtest... [speakeasy.net]

But it is much lower then what Comcast promised.

Multi-Band

[crow]

I think the big feature here is multi-band connections. I keep seeing WiFi configured with a separate 5Ghz SSID, so you have to decide if you want higher speed or longer range. Now you'll connect to both and effectively migrate as you move around, letting you always have the optimal connection for your location.

Or at least that's how I'm reading it, but it's possible that the marketing statements are misleading me. If you know better, please elaborate.

Of course, this only helps when everything is WiFi 7 (or above), so it will be a long time before we stop seeing separate 5GHz SSIDs. And even when they make no sense, people will configure them because that's how they've always done it.

Re:

[mattventura]

You can do both, since most if not all AP hardware supports multiple SSIDs. If your SSID is "foo", you could have your 5ghz radio broadcast the "foo-5" and "foo" SSIDs, and the 2.4ghz radio could broadcast "foo-2" and "foo". So legacy devices can connect to foo-5 or foo-2 as they prefer, while new devices can connect to just foo.

Re:

[AnyoneEB]

The separate SSIDs thing was never the right way to set up a network. I still see it all the time. As far as I can tell, it was a workaround for some clients being stupid when 5GHz Wi-Fi was first introduced, but this 12-year old StackExchange answer [superuser.com] says it's an obsolete idea.

Re:

[UnknowingFool]

Back then was the problem that all SSIDs were visible to all devices regardless if they could connect to it? A user could try to connect a 2.4GHz device to a 5Ghz network. Of course it would not work without any feedback leaving the user frustrated. Updates since then make it that the 2.4Ghz device would not see the 5Ghz network now.

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[ls671]

Different SSIDs allow you to more easily chose what speed you want to connect at. Even if your device supports 5GHz Wi-Fi and sees the 5GHz network, you may want to connect at 2.4 because the AP is far away and/or the signal is going through walls, 2.4 is better in that case.

Re:

[UnknowingFool]

You can obviously use slower WiFi but if I remember right, you could try to unsuccessfully use faster WiFi. I think that nothing major happened to the hardware itself, but minor software updates to the OS would hide the options that your hardware could not use. Like the Windows UI in the taskbar would not show the 5G networks you could not use but you could use a command line to show them all.

Weary

[bill_mcgonigle]

I have a little VESA-mount machine with a new AC USB 3 dongle in it, which doubled my NFS speed from 40Mbps to 80Mbps.

But ... copying one large 4K file still takes longer than it would take me to cut some drywall and pull a Cat 6 cable to that room and gigabit is built in to that mini pc.

I can probably put one faceplate on each wall in the house for $200 so I should shut up and just do that.

Even the TV has USB Ethernet as an option in Developer Settings.

Plus wirh the wifi jamming home invasion spree going o

Re:

[The-Ixian]

But ... copying one large 4K file still takes longer than it would take me to cut some drywall and pull a Cat 6 cable to that room and gigabit is built in to that mini pc.

Wow, that's a slow network if a 4 kilobyte file takes that long to transfer!

Re:

[UnknowingFool]

Obviously he has to retire his pigeons and upgrade to mongooses? Mongeese?

That last bit looks like it could be nice.

[twocows]

Wi-Fi 7 also uses a clever new feature called Multi-Link Operation (MLO) that lets devices connect to two bands at the same time, leading to better signal strength and bandwidth.

That could be useful, if only for the signal strength. At this point, ISPs near me don't offer sufficient speeds for bandwidth increases to really matter all that much. Signal integrity and resiliency improvements are always nice, though.

I look forward to performance lies

[AbRASiON]

The rule of thumb with wifi claims is always divide the claimed maximum Mb speed by 10 (not 8) to convert to MB, then divide that figure by about 2.5 to 3 to get the true, sustained, might actually see in the home, performance figures.