In recent years, wireless technology has developed rapidly, and the freedom it provides has changed all aspects of our work and life. It can be said that WiFi is everywhere with the Internet!

In recent years, wireless technology has developed rapidly, and the freedom it provides has changed all aspects of our work and life. It can be said that where there is a network, WiFi is everywhere! The history of

WiFi

WiFi can be traced back to 1971. The University of Hawaii in the United States provided the first public demonstration of the wireless packet data network ALOHAnet, which runs on UHF (ultra-high frequency) radio waves. The system includes seven computers distributed on four islands that can communicate with the central computer on Oahu without a telephone line. At this time, the prototype of the wireless network has actually been born.

985, driven by Michael Marcus, engineer of FCC (FCCh) , the U.S. telecom regulator opened the ISM (industrial, scientific and medical) band of the wireless spectrum for communication without government permission, with release frequencies including: 900 MHz, 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz.

988, CR Corporation and AT&T Corporation released WaveLAN, designed for cash register systems, proposed to use it as a wireless alternative to existing Ethernet and token ring systems, WaveLAN running at 900MHz or 2.4GHz, delivering speeds of 1 to 2 Mbps.

989, NCR submitted the WaveLAN design to IEEE ( Association of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ) 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee.

990, the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN Working Group was chaired by Vic Hayes, the "Father of WiFi".

996, Australia Federal Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) patented a technology to reduce multipath interference in radio signals transmitted by computer networks. This technology developed by John O'Sullivan finally entered the 802.11A (and later) standard.

After that, starting from 1997, the 802.11 protocol version began to be born!

• 997, the 802.11 protocol was born, speed: 2Mbps
• 999, the 802.11B protocol was born, speed: 11Mbps
• 999, the 802.11A protocol was born, speed: 54Mbps
• 003, the 802.11G protocol was born, speed: 54Mbps
• 009, WiFi 4 (802.11N) Born, speed: 600Mbps
• 013, WiFi 5 (802.11AC) was born, speed: 7000Mbps
• 019, WiFi 6 (802.11AX) was born, speed: 10000Mbps

Brothers, please pay attention to the latest 802.11 protocol has reached AX, which is what we often call WiFi 6, the speed has reached an astonishing 10000Mbps. It can be roughly regarded as a transmission rate of 10G per second, and the speed can be described as a terrible one!

WiFi 6 is so powerful, where is WiFi 7?

WiFi 7

Wi-Fi 7, or 802.11be, is the next Wi-Fi standard being formulated by the Association of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Its speed is as high as 6Gbps. is nearly five times faster than Wi-Fi 6, with a much reduced latency. Wi-Fi 7 has extremely high throughput, which can provide higher spectrum efficiency, higher power efficiency, better interference mitigation, higher capacity density and higher cost efficiency.

WiFi 7 Features

1, 320MHz channel bandwidth

Thanks to the wider channel and capacity gain of the 6GHz spectrum, Wi-Fi 7 can provide huge throughput gain, and Wi-Fi 7 can provide peak rates of over 40 Gbps, 4 times that of Wi-Fi 6E.

2, multi-link capability

Wi-Fi 7 introduces several multi-link options that can significantly increase throughput and reduce latency. The most powerful multi-link alternative is high-band simultaneous multi-link, which uses two Wi-Fi radios running simultaneously in the high-band (5 or 6 GHz) to create an aggregated data pipeline to provide optimal performance.

3, 4K QAM

Wi-Fi 7 is standardizing an advanced modulation scheme called 4K QAM that can increase peak rates for increased throughput and capacity compared to Wi-Fi systems that use 1K QAM modulation.

4, flexible channel utilizing

. This technological advancement is based on preamble perforation to avoid interference with the channel, so that wider channels can be used in the face of interference.

5, multi-AP operation

In the previous Wi-Fi standards, each access point was independent in accepting connection requests from an endpoint and moving traffic back and forth to the endpoint. Multi-AP operation created a mesh configuration where adjacent APs can work together to improve spectrum and resource utilization. Multi-AP operations can be programmed so that a set of APs form a subsystem where channel access and transmission scheduling can be closely coordinated. Will

WiFi 7 replace 5G?

Since WiFi 7 is so powerful, will it replace the same powerful 5G?

The answer is definitely: won’t !

These two are completely different things. Wi-Fi is a kind of LAN (LAN), which is mainly used in indoors, such as homes or workplaces. Cellular networks, such as 4G LTE networks used by major operators, are Wide Area Network (WAN) used indoors and outdoors, usually used over long distances.

5G networks will provide 50x speed, 10x latency and 1000x capacity compared to 4G/LTE, which means 5G will be able to connect more devices and transfer more data than ever before, providing fast connectivity and significantly enhancing the user experience. Like LTE, mobile operators will provide subscription services for their 5G networks, which requires 5G-enabled devices.

So 5G technology and WiFi technology will always be the complementary relationship between !

Wi-Fi is costly to deploy, maintain and expand, so it is generally used for access networks, and 5G is used for mobile connections, such as smartphones, connected cars, smart cities deployment, and even for large-scale manufacturing scenarios.

Summary

This article mainly introduces the history of WiFi, the basic knowledge of WiFi7, and analyzes its relationship with 5G. I hope this article will be helpful to you!