A new form of Wi-Fi is rolling out that offers multigigabit speeds for the new era of extended reality, gaming, automotive use and artificial intelligence.
The Wi-Fi alliance says it has begun certifying complaint devices as “Wi-Fi 7 Certified”. It says 233 million devices are expected on the market this year growing to 2.1 billion devices by 2028.
Multi-user AR/VR/XR, immersive 3-D training, electronic gaming, hybrid work, industrial IoT, and automotive uses will benefit from a dramatic improvement in streaming speeds and bandwidth.
“Cutting-edge capabilities in Wi-Fi Certified 7 enable innovations that rely on high throughput, deterministic latency, and greater reliability for critical traffic,” it says in a statement.
“Smartphones, PCs, tablets, and access points (APs) will be the earliest adopters of Wi-Fi 7, and customer premises equipment (CPE) and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) equipment will continue to gain early market traction. Wi-Fi Certified 7 pushes the boundaries of today’s wireless connectivity.”
The new Wi-Fi 7 technology includes 320 Megahertz ultra-wide channels that double today’s widest channel size for multigigabit device speeds. High throughput 4K QAM (digital modulation) will achieve 20 percent higher transmission rates than 1024 QAM.
There’s improved spectrum efficiency, and an Emergency Preparedness Communication Service (EPCS) that is delivered while maintaining the priority and quality of service in Wi-Fi access networks, the statement says.
Broadcom, CommScope RUCKUS Networks, Intel, MaxLinear, MediaTek, and Qualcomm are forming the test bed for certification and are among the first Wi-Fi Certified 7 devices, the alliance says.
MediaTek, which produces billion of chips for the Android mobile market, says it is already working closely with the alliance to launch a complete first wave of Wi-Fi Certified 7products, which will be featured as part of MediaTek’s global ecosystem showcase at CES 2024, the global technology conference, currently under way in Las Vegas.
“In an era where people rely on artificial intelligence to improve their lives and productivity, a fast and reliable network ensures consumers and professionals have the connectivity needed to utilize the latest AI tools,” says MediaTek.
“These devices, powered by MediaTek Filogic Wi-Fi Certified 7 chipsets, represent fast, reliable and always-on connected experiences for a wide variety of consumer and enterprise products, including residential gateways, mesh routers, televisions, streaming devices, smartphones, tablets, laptops, and more.”
“The introduction of Wi-Fi Certified 7 marks the emergence of the latest generation of Wi-Fi and will be an accelerant to mass adoption of Wi-Fi 7,” says Kevin Robinson, president and CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance.
