The wireless network connection has become an important part of life with the developing technology and the resulting needs. Wi-Fi technology continues to evolve to meet the different demands of users and provide faster internet access. As the last link of this development, Wi-Fi 7 draws attention as new technology. Wi-Fi 7 is the next-generation wireless internet networking standard and is currently in development. The latest Wi-Fi standard, Wi-Fi 6E, received final approval in early 2021. Wi-Fi 7 products are expected to be on the market towards the end of 2023 and take their place on the shelves. This article will discuss the latest standard, Wi-Fi 6E, and the upcoming standard, Wi-Fi 7.
Over the past 20 years, IEEE 802.11 commonly referred to as Wi-Fi has evolved from 2 Mbps to over gigabit speeds as you can see in the Figure below.
The capacity and applications of Wi-Fi have expanded from computing and networking to mobile, consumer, and IoT-related devices. Wi-Fi 6 was developed to address both low-power IoT nodes and broadband applications. Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 introduce a new 6GHz spectrum to support greater bandwidth applications such as 8k video and XR display. A new 6GHz band improves interference and latency for high-reliability industrial IoT application cases.
The Wi-Fi 6E market began distribution in the United States in 2021, followed by Europe in 2022. Wi-Fi 7 will be available in 2023 and is expected to outperform Wi-Fi 6E by 2025. Broadband, gaming, and video streaming applications, as well as certain industrial IoT use cases that demand highly reliable, low-latency communication, such as factory robotic automation and other types of robots, benefit greatly from the 6GHz frequency of both Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7.
Finally, let’s take a look at the differences between Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7. One thing is for sure, with Wi-Fi 7, more advanced wireless features will be available. In the Figure below you can see the differences between these two standards.
Wi-Fi 7 appears to combine the fragmentation of Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E to build a unified Wi-Fi strategy that delivers faster internet and truly reliable connections.
