According to a blog post on the Wi-Fi Alliance’s website, certification of Wi-Fi 7, the next-generation wireless networking technology for homes, enterprises, and industrial settings, is expected before the end of the 1st quarter of 2024.
“Wi-Fi Certified 7” based on IEEE In a recent post, the Alliance, which is an industry group responsible for setting Wi-Fi standard and driving adoption, said that 802.11be would be available in Q1 2024.
The report added, “WiFi 7 products are now available on the market. Wi-Fi Certified will allow for worldwide interoperability as well as bringing advanced Wi-Fi performance in the next generation of connected devices.”
The group argued that Wi-Fi 7 brings cutting-edge features to applications that demand high throughput and reliability. This includes applications such as immersive 3D training and streaming ultra-high-definition videos.
Speed Demon
Kristen Hanich from the company, a researcher with Parks AssociatesDallas is home to, a company that specializes in consumer technology.
She told TechNewsWorld that “Wi-Fi 7 is the key feature that differentiates it from Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E. It supports extremely high throughput speeds, up to 46 Gbps as opposed to 10 Gbps maximum for Wi-Fi6E.”
She continued, “This is much more than what the vast majority residential subscribers need today and also beyond what most residential Internet service providers currently offer.”
She added that “a more immediate benefit for users is lower energy consumption from client devices like laptops or smartphones, but it’s still to be seen what difference this will make in real-world situations.”
Benefits of Dynamic Band Switching
Andrew Spivey is a senior analyst at BT and he noted that multi-link operation was one of the most eagerly anticipated features of WiFi 7. ABI Research, an international technology intelligence company.
He told TechNewsWorld that it would help solve the spectrum congestion problems faced by consumers and businesses today, as well as improve spectrum efficiency. MLO achieves that by aggregating multiple radio links into wider channels than otherwise necessary.
“Today, if you connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot, you need to decide which band to connect to — 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz or 6 GHz — and that’s it. As long as you are connected, you will be using that band,” Ross Rubin is the principal analyst at Reticle ResearchTechNewsWorld was told by a consumer tech advisory firm in New York City.
He went on to say that “multi-link operation” allows users to connect dynamically with multiple bands.
Spivey added that another key benefit of Wi-Fi 7 is that it allows access to the recently released 6 GHz band, which effectively doubles the available spectrum — and therefore capacity — in the U.S., which will also help overcome spectrum congestion challenges.
Gaining Market Traction
Rubin said that the Wi-Fi Alliance is accelerating the time it takes to standardize Wi-Fi compared to the first couple of generations.
“One reason 6E was adopted so soon after 6 was because the U.S. government approved the 6 GHz band — the main feature of 6E — and the alliance wanted to accommodate that,” he said.
By contrast, he said “WiFi 7 is closer to what we’d expect in terms of improvements over previous generations.”
Those previous generations — Wi-Fi 6 and 6E — have been gaining traction in the market since their introductions in 2019 and 2021. According to the WiFi Alliance, over half of the WiFi-enabled products shipped in 2022 will be 6 or 6E-certified.
Hanich stated that the Alliance anticipated over 350 millions Wi-Fi 6E products to be on the market in 2013. This is a much faster generation than previous Wi-Fi.
It’s unlikely that the market will lose interest in Wi-Fi 6 products. Spivey said that, while Wi-6 demand will continue to grow, Wi-7 will also see rapid growth, due to the demand for many of its new features.
Competing with 6 and 6E
Hanich noted that newer standards always compete with the older ones — on price if nothing else.
She said that the Wi-Fi 6 and 6E adoption were helped by the shortage of Wi-Fi 5 chipsets, which made them difficult to find and expensive once they were found. “7 will not have this advantage and will compete directly with WiFi 6 and 6E.”
“Although WiFi 6E is a much faster standard, 7 offers significantly more bandwidth,” she said. “There are niches where it will do very well, however — AR/VR applications, enterprise environments where people need to move large quantities of data quickly, and so on.”
However, there are some signs that Wi-Fi 7 may not be affected as much by Wi-Fi 6.
Spivey noted in a November research report that anticipation for Wi-Fi 7, which is expected to be released by 2023, has been high. Spivey continued by saying that Wi-6E deployments were few in 2018, reflecting the widespread belief that Wi-6E is merely a stepping stone standard, and its importance will rapidly diminish with the arrival of Wi-7.
Slow Market Integration
The Wi-Fi Alliance certification is only the beginning of Wi-Fi 7’s market journey.
Mark N. Vena (President and Principal Analyst with ) said that the time required to implement a new WiFi standard into the market can vary, but typically it takes between two to three year for widespread adoption. SmartTech ResearchTechNewsWorld reported that a resident of San Jose, Calif. told them this.
He mentioned several factors that affect adoption, such as device availability, cost, perceived benefits, and marketing to raise awareness about the standard.
Hanich also agreed that the market takes many years to adopt a new standard. She said that it depends on the leap in technology and demand.
“Wi-Fi 6 and 6E had quick uptake compared to prior generations, partially due to the pandemic — ISPs upgraded their routers, and consumers went out and bought new products,” she continued.
She added that “pre-certified Wi-Fi 7 products are already on the market and premium products will likely include 7 once certified chips become available.” But it takes longer for the system to catch up with the rest.
