Wi-Fi 7 Technology Trends

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IEEE 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) Outline

The IEEE 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) standard aims to implement wireless communications at much faster speeds and larger capacities than the previous 802.11ax. Wi-Fi 7 will continue to support the 802.11ax 6GHz band and extend the channel width up to 320 MHz. It will also use 4096QAM symbols and 16 spatial streams. It is expected that Wi-Fi 7’s high data throughput beyond 30 Gbps with low latency will be a key technology supporting new applications and services, including higher definition video streaming over 4K, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR).

IEEE 802.11 Evolution

The WLAN standard is evolving continuously as summarized in the following table.

IEEE802.11		11b	11g	11n	11ac	11ax	11be
Transmission Vector Format		Non-HT (Non-High Throughput)	Non-HT (Non-High Throughput)	HT (High Throughput)	VHT (Very High Throughput)	HE (High Efficiency)	EHT (Extreme High Throughput)
Definition		1999	2003	2009	2014	2021	Planned in 2024
Freq.	2.4 GHz	✓	✓	✓		✓	✓
	5 GHz			✓	✓	✓	✓
	6 GHz					✓	✓
Bandwidth [MHz]		22	20	20/40	20/40/80/160/80+80	20/40/80/160/80+80	20/40/80/160/320
Maximum throughput rate [bps]		11M	54M	540M	6.93G	9.6G	30G～
Modulation scheme		DBPSK DQPSK	BPSK QPSK 16QAM 64QAM	BPSK QPSK 16QAM 64QAM	BPSK QPSK 16QAM 64QAM 256QAM	BPSK QPSK 16QAM 64QAM 256QAM 1024QAM	BPSK QPSK 16QAM 64QAM 256QAM 1024QAM 4096QAM
Stream				4x4	8x8	8 Steam OFDMA	16 Stream OFDMA

New IEEE 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) Functions

IEEE 802.11ax and 802.11be Channel Widths

IEEE 802.11ax and 802.11be Max. Symbols

Comparison of IEEE 802.11ax and 11be Max. Spatial Streams

New technologies, such as Multi-link device (MLD) and Multi-Access Point Coordination, not implemented in the 11ax and previous standards are introduced by IEEE 802.11be to secure efficient frequency usage and stable throughput.
To learn more, read the Key Technologies for IEEE 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) White Paper.