Intel and Broadcom, the two US chip manufacturers, have recently demonstrated Wi-Fi 7, a new version of the next generation of Wi-Fi technology. It is said to be the industry's first interoperable Wi-Fi 7 technology. It claims to achieve speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second (5 Gbps) between Intel chip-powered laptops and Broadcom Wi-Fi 7 access points.
Wi-Fi 7 is the upcoming Wi-Fi standard, also known as IEEE 802.11be Extremely High Throughput (EHT). It works across all three bands (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz) to fully utilize spectrum resources. Wi-Fi 7 introduces 320 MHz ultra-wide bandwidth, 4096-QAM, Multi-RU, and Multi-Link Operation to provide speeds 4.8× faster than Wi-Fi 6 and 13× faster than Wi-Fi 5.
Technology companies have been working on the development of Wi-Fi technology for a long time. However, after testing Intel and Broadcom's Wi-Fi technology, it is believed that they have also developed hardware for the new version of Wi-Fi technology. As a result, new wireless network technologies will soon be seen.
Intel and Broadcom officials say that the next generation of Wi-Fi Technology, i.e. Wi-Fi 7, will be faster than the present Wi-Fi 6E technology by up to 2 Gbps. As a result, the use of augmented and virtual reality technology will be beneficial.
Wi-Fi 7 enables significantly faster speeds by packing more data into each transmission. 320 MHz channels are twice the size of previous Wi-Fi generations—which is somewhat like using a semi-truck to move boxes, compared to a moving van.
4K QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) enables each signal to more densely embed greater amounts of data compared to the 1K QAM with Wi-Fi 6/6E, which – to continue the truck analogy-- is like having professional movers optimize truck cargo space to pack the maximum number of boxes.
The benefit for a typical Wi-Fi 7 laptop is a potential maximum data rate of almost 5.8 Gbps. This is 2.4X faster than the 2.4 Gbps possible with Wi-Fi 6/6E and could easily enable high quality 8K video streaming or reduce a massive 15 GB file download to roughly 25 seconds vs. the one minute it would take with the best legacy Wi-Fi technology.
Intel and Broadcom claim that Wi-Fi 7 will be the wireless technology platform of the next 10 years. However, Wi-Fi 7 supported devices will not be available in the market this year and it is expected to come by 2023. So, if you are looking for Wi-Fi 7, you will have to wait a little more.