WiFi 7 Reference Guide
Introduction
Introduced in 1997, the IEEE 802.11 WiFi standard has become the ubiquitous method for
network connectivity. The standard has continually evolved to deliver higher data rates,
longer range, reliability, and security. With the arrival of WiFi 7, otherwise known as 802.11be
or ‘Extra High Throughput’ (EHT), comes the promise of a huge increase in speed, super-low
latency, twice the channel bandwidth, and rock-solid reliability.
The journey to WiFi7
WiFi 7 builds upon the developments in WiFi 6/6E to deliver outstanding performance while
remaining backward compatible with earlier standards
Source: Intel: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/wireless/wi-fi-7.html
Frequency bands, Channels & Bandwidth
Like 6E, WiFi 7 will utilise 6GHz spectrum to offer channel bandwidth up to 320MHz,
effectively doubling transmission speed.
Source: Intel: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/wireless/wi-fi-7.html
Modulation
In common with other wireless protocols, WiFi uses Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) to
encode data on to the modulated RF. WiFi 7 uses 4K QAM enabling a 20% increase over WiFi 6/6E.
However, this comes at a cost of higher noise sensitivity.
Source: ONSemi: https://www.onsemi.com/company/news-media/blog/iot/wi-fi-7-morethan-just-extremely-high-throughput
Wi-Fi 7 supports 4096 QAM— each constellation point on the right represents 12-bit data
(symbol). In other words, each point modulated with QAM in Wi-Fi 7 can carry 2 more bits of
information than Wi-Fi 6. That is a 20% increase in speed.
Spectral efficiency: OFDMA and Multiple Resource Units (RU)
Rather than dedicating a single high-speed channel to a single user, WiFi 7 divides channels
into frequency blocks known as resource units (RU), sharing these across multiple users,
optimising bandwidth usage and spectral efficiency. For users, this means reliable, lowlatency
connectivity.
Multi-Link Operation
Instead of using a single frequency band/link to transmit data, WiFi7 enables the user to send and
receive data across multiple frequency bands, improving reliability, reducing latency and increasing
throughput.
Enabling advanced applications
The near real-time latency of WiFi 7, combined with increased reliability and throughput, will unlock
a host of new applications, including Immersive Gaming, Extended Reality, Industrial IoT, Remote
Connectivity and Video Conferencing, Cloud Computing, medical use cases such as Tele-Medicine
and even remote robotic surgery.
Glossary and Acronyms
MLO Multi-Link Operation
MU-MIMO Multi-User
OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
RU Resource Unit