Issue link: https://resources.mouser.com/i/1520712
30 Next-Gen Connectivity for Smart Living Downlink and Uplink MU-MIMO Where previous Wi-Fi versions supported only downlink MU-MIMO, Wi-Fi 7 also proposes the ability to support uplink MU-MIMO. This new feature allows for simultaneous transmission and reception among multiple devices across all spatial streams. Enhanced Quality-of-Service Management There are many quality-of-service (QoS) enhancements proposed with Wi-Fi 7. This crux is that Wi-Fi 7 should feature a defined QoS provisioning model that includes a dedicated, low-latency, deterministic, and reliable access category. The following are the main QoS enhancements in Wi-Fi 7: • Managed QoS and restricted service periods • Deterministic low latency • QoS signaling • Forward-compatible preamble design U-SIG • Restricted service periods • National Security and Emergency Preparedness (NSEP) Priority Service • Triggered peer-to-peer (P2P) Operation • Four types of physical layer protocol data units (PPDUs) • Single user (SU) PPDU • Multi-user (MU) PPDU • Trigger-based (TB) PPDU • Extended range (ER) PPDU Though Wi-Fi 6 devices can reach latencies as low as single- digit milliseconds, this is often under ideal circumstances, and the worst-case latency can be extremely high in congested environments. With Wi-Fi 7, QoS enhancements and new technologies are being developed to ensure that single-digit millisecond latencies can be sustained for devices in this access category. Multi-AP Coordination Multi-access point (MAP) coordination is now a key feature of Wi-Fi 7, designed to improve utilization of limited radio resources. Current Wi-Fi technologies are geared toward fully distributed operations without any significant coordination capability among these APs (with the exception of proprietary Wi-Fi mesh technologies). However, even these solutions are focused on long-term network configurations, and the performance and features of these meshes depend widely on the manufacturers' approach and hardware configurations. Wi-Fi 7 MAP will provide tighter optimization of the PHY and media access control (MAC) layers to achieve better performance in MAP systems. Several schemes are being considered for MAP: • Coordinated OFDMA • Coordinated spatial reuse (SR) • Coordinated time domain multiple access (TDMA) • Coordinated beamforming (BF) • Coordinated joint processing (JP) Conclusion To meet user demands for AR/VR, hardline replacement, real-time networking, and many other time-critical and high- performance applications, Wi-Fi latency must be consistently reduced, and determinism is essential. The next evolution of Wi-Fi is being prepared to offer performance enhancements across the board and specific new technologies and features to enable previously underserved or novel use cases. Though the latest Wi-Fi standard, IEEE 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7), is yet to be set in stone, early 2024 will herald the new Wi-Fi amendment and open the floodgates to fully compliant Wi-Fi 7 technologies ranging from smartphones, laptops, and tablets to smartwatches, access points, AR/VR headsets, and more. References 1. "Wi-Fi 7: Advanced connectivity for the next generation." The Beacon, October 31, 2023, https://www.wi-fi.org/beacon/the-beacon/wi-fi-7- advanced-connectivity-for-the-next-generation 2. "What to expect from Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be)?" Intricate Research, February 27, 2023, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-expect-from- wi-fi-7-ieee-80211be-intricate-research/