What are the key technologies in WiFi 7?

While most users don’t need or want to look ‘under the bonnet’ of networking solutions, it’s also good to get an understanding of what exactly it is that makes a new technology special. With WiFi 7 there are several advancements that deliver the higher performance and quality that users will experience on a consistent basis.

There are four main technologies that make all the difference in WiFi 7: extended use of the 6GHz frequency band; 4K quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM); multi-link operation (MLO); and 16 x 16 MU-MIMO.

By making extensive use of the 6GHz frequency band, WiFi 7 doubles the maximum channel width to 320MHz. This enables WiFi 7 to deliver significantly faster data rates to many more devices. But with the extra spectrums available in the 6GHz band, it has a lot more room to manoeuvre and provide optimised connections.

Ultra-high capacity 4096 (4K) QAM enables more data to be sent over a single channel, expanding bandwidth and speeding transmission of rich content such as HD video and multimedia files. This is four times the capacity offered by WiFi 6 and 6E (1024 QAM) and sixteen times more than WiFi 5 (256 QAM).

MLO is the most innovative technology used in WiFi 7. It delivers a big improvement in throughput and stability, making it easier to move between access points. It works by using different frequency bands and channels and taking advantage of their unique capabilities, such as higher speed, bandwidth, or increased range.

The 16 x 16 MU-MIMO technology used in WiFi 7 provides more spatial streams available, which means more devices can be connected at high speed. A WiFi 7 access point can have up to 16 antennas – double the number possible with WiFi 6/6E.

Used together, these fantastic new technologies make a huge difference, potentially multiplying performance five times and allowing many more users to get stable, fast connections right across the coverage area.