For a long time, Wi-Fi has shared about 63% of the mobile communication network traffic, and Wi-Fi technology has deeply connected people and people with things. Not only are people inseparable from it now, Wi-Fi technology is also an important technological promotion for realizing digitalization and industrialization. Since 2022, Wi-Fi7 has continued to ignite the market and become the next-generation technology that major manufacturers around the world are planning.
Next generation Wi-Fi technology
Recently, TP-Link announced that it will release its first Wi-Fi7 router on November 14, 2022.
TP-Link says that after Wi-Fi5, Wi-Fi6E has further improved efficiency, taking the wireless network to the next level by utilizing the 6GHz band and 160MHz channels. But the evolution of Wi-Fi technology does not stop there. In order to adapt to large-scale data transmission applications, Wi-Fi7 has developed with the mission of "enhanced high throughput".
Compared with the previous generation of technical standards, Wi-Fi6, the biggest technical highlight of Wi-Fi7 is that it supports 320MHz channels - a channel that has never been used by home router in the past, which can achieve greater wireless throughput capabilities. For example, Wi-Fi6 can reach a maximum of 160MHz, while Wi-Fi7 directly doubles.
In addition, Wi-Fi7 has stronger wall-walking ability. Wi-Fi7 allows the use of spectrum resources from 1GHz to 7.2GHz. 1GHz is the spectrum with the strongest penetration power at present, making the wall-through ability of Wi-Fi7 routers reach an unprecedented level.
The digital age has arrived. With the help of the intelligentization of industries such as the metaverse, the Internet of Things and smart cars, the Wi-Fi market has achieved rapid growth. Up to now, the cumulative shipment of devices equipped with Wi-Fi has reached 37.5 billion units, and 16.4 billion units in use, and the shipment in 2021 is expected to reach 4.2 billion units. Wi-Fi effectively shares about 63% of the mobile communication network traffic.
Wi-Fi technology brings huge economic and social value to the world. According to data released by the Wi-Fi Alliance, the value brought by Wi-Fi to the global economy in 2021 is about US$3.3 trillion, and by 2025, this value is expected to grow to US$4.9 trillion.
The significance of Wi-Fi7 is that the new technology will significantly improve data transmission efficiency and reduce latency, and help promote the further development of industries such as video streaming, video/voice conferencing, online games, real-time collaboration, cloud/ edge computing, , industrial Internet of Things, immersive AR/VR and interactive telemedicine.
Industry insiders said that "The advances in new functions such as channel width, QAM and multi-link operation (MLO) will make Wi-Fi7 extremely attractive to devices including flagship smartphones, PC consumer devices, and vertical industries such as retail and industry."
Global major manufacturers compete for Wi-Fi7 first year
2022 can be called the first year of Wi-Fi7.
The first one to participate in the competition was overseas chip manufacturers. Since 2022, the world's top three Wi-Fi chip suppliers Broadcom (AVGO), Qualcomm (QCOM), and MediaTek (2454TW), have all demonstrated the Wi-Fi7 chip platform or related technical solutions to the outside world.
In January 2022, MediaTek conducted the world's first live demonstration of Wi-Fi7 to demonstrate the technology's ultra-high speed and low latency transmission. However, MediaTek said that its Wi-Fi7 technology products are expected to be available in 2023.
Immediately in March, Qualcomm launched the world's first Wi-Fi7 wireless integrated chip FastConnect7800, and also claimed that it will be commercialized in the second half of the year.
At the same time, Qualcomm's professional networking platform has been used in nearly 300 product designs, covering many brands such as Cisco , New H3 , netware, TP-Link, Linksys, Xiaomi (01810.HK) and other brands.
Broadcom also launched WiFi7 system portfolio products at the beginning of this year, including BCM67263, BCM6726, BCM43740, BCM43720 and BCM4398, covering Wi-Fi routers, residential gateways, enterprise access points and client devices.
In addition, Broadcom also demonstrated the application of Wi-Fi7 on laptops with Intel , with transmission speeds exceeding 5.02Gbps.
Recently, Intel said it is also developing Wi-Fi7 chips, and related products will be installed in laptops and other products in 2024.
Domestic heavyweight technical solutions and products have also been implemented.
At the technical level, ZTE actively participates in the discussion and technical research of FTTR/Wi-Fi7 standards, and has launched the SCP intelligent cloud Wi-Fi management platform. At MWC2022, ZTE also showed off the world's first 5G CPE flagship product mc888, which adopts Wi-Fi7 standard, integrates 5G high-speed and Wi-Fi7 high-concurrency technology, and the peak rate of network downloads reaches 10Gbit/s.
In terms of Wi-Fi7 terminal devices, Huawei released the first enterprise-level Wi-Fi7 AP device; this year, , a subsidiary of , Unigroup , released the world's first enterprise-level Wi-Fi7 AP new products Gemini WA7638 and WA7338, as well as the first Wi-Fi7 home router; Ruijie Network , which is currently sprinting A shares, also released Wi-Fi7 AP devices. There is also the TP-LINK, which has just announced that it will be released soon.
The battle for Wi-Fi7 by manufacturers around the world is about to break out.
Author: Li Ying
