WiFi 7 vs WiFi 6 and 6E

The WiFi 7 customary turned official initially of 2024, solely 4 years after the earlier customary, WiFi 6E. Now in 2025, we’re seeing increasingly WiFi 7 succesful routers and entry factors available on the market, so the query arises, how does WiFi 7 evaluate to WiFi 6 and 6E?

And, possibly much more importantly, is it price to begin upgrading your entry factors or router to WiFi 7? Or is it possibly higher to attend a bit?

On this article, we are going to have a look at the technical variations between the three WiFi requirements and talk about why you must or shouldn’t improve your entry factors.

What’s new with WiFi 7

WiFi 7, also referred to as IEEE 802.11be, provides a few new options that basically make a change on the subject of pace, effectivity, and reliability. Now essential to remember, is that producers usually are not required to implement all the options, some are literally non-compulsory within the new customary.

320 MHz Channel Bandwidth

Wi-Fi 7 doubles the utmost channel bandwidth from 160 MHz to 320 MHz, leading to larger throughput speeds, (as much as 2.4Gbps per stream) and decrease latency. The channel is accessible on the 6 GHz band, the place we will use as much as three 320 MHz channels.

In some areas is the 6 GHz band a bit narrower than within the USA for instance. This can end in much less usable 320 MHz channels. However to counter that, WiFi 7 can mix the two.4, and 5 GHz bands with the 6 GHz band, with the assistance of Multi-Hyperlink Operations.

Multi-Hyperlink Operation (MLO)

The Multi-Hyperlink Operations permits the system to make use of a number of channels throughout a number of frequency bands into one single digital connection to the consumer. With the older WiFi customary, the units may solely talk by means of a single-frequency band.

Inside the band, the units may use a number of channels to extend the pace. And naturally, units are at present additionally able to switching between the totally different bands relying on the sign energy.

However with Multi-Hyperlink, units are able to utilizing all three bands (2.4, 5, and 6 GHz) to realize a better throughput. Nevertheless this comes with a price, and that’s vary. To mix a number of bands all of them want to have the ability to attain the consumer. Which means should you mix the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands, the vary of the 5 GHz will drop to the vary of the 6 GHz band (which is roughly 75% of the 5 GHz band).

I don’t actually count on to see the Multi-Hyperlink expertise quickly in smartphones, notebooks, or different consumer units, due to the complexity and energy consumption of this expertise.

4096-QAM (4K-QAM)

The modulation scheme in Wi-Fi 7 has been upgraded to 4096-QAM. Now this will likely sound very technical, nevertheless it’s really fairly easy. QAM refers back to the variety of bits which can be despatched with every sign.

So the upper the quantity of bits which can be being despatched which every sign, the extra knowledge we will ship on the identical time. Nevertheless, this comes with a trade-off of needing higher sign high quality.

When the sign is weak or when there may be an excessive amount of noise on the channel, the system could wrestle to decode the extra densely packed knowledge. This can end in extra retransmissions, which might enhance the latency of your connection.

OFDMA

OFDMA isn’t a brand new expertise, it was really launched within the WiFi 6 customary, however the WiFi 7 customary affords true simultaneous bidirectional communication. Which means units now can transmit and obtain knowledge on the identical time whereas utilizing OFDMA and MU-MIMO.

The benefit of OFDMA is that it divides the frequency into small frequency models, known as Useful resource Models (RUs). This permits the entry level to ship knowledge to a number of units on the identical time.

As you may see within the illustration above, earlier than OFDMA (WiFi 5 for instance), an entry level may solely ship knowledge to at least one consumer at a time. However by dividing the frequency up into smaller models, it will possibly now ship knowledge to a number of units concurrently.

Enhanced MU-MIMO Capabilities

MU-MIMO, which stands for Multi-Consumer, A number of Enter, A number of Output, permits an entry level to ship knowledge to a number of purchasers concurrently. The time period MU-MIMO isn’t new, the time period has been used since WiFi 5, however there is a vital distinction.

The unique MU-MIMO was solely in a downlink (DL) route, which means solely from the entry level to the purchasers. With WiFi 5, an entry level may ship knowledge to 4 purchasers on the identical time. WiFi 6 improved this to eight and now with WiFi 7 and entry level can in principle even ship knowledge to 16 purchasers concurrently.

However this isn’t the place the enhancements finish. WiFi 7 now additionally helps uplink MU-MIMO. Which means a number of purchasers now can ship knowledge again to the entry level concurrently. This, mixed with OFDMA, actually improves the latency between the purchasers and entry factors.

Multi-RU Puncturing

One of many present issues with WiFi 6 and 6E is that channel interference can render an enter channel unusable. This turns into a much bigger drawback when utilizing wider channels like 40Mhz in 2.4Ghz or 80 or 160 Mhz in 5Ghz band.

When there may be interference on a large channel, the entry level can not use the whole channel for transmission. As a substitute, it should scale back the channel width, leading to a decrease throughput.

WiFi 7 solves this subject with Multi-RU Puncturing, which permits units to make use of a number of RUs (see OFDMA) inside a channel, whereas solely taking out the unusable portion that’s affected by the interference.

So as an alternative of dropping a whole channel when interference is detected, WiFi 7 can “puncture” (take away) solely the affected subcarriers whereas utilizing the remaining bandwidth. This ends in a better throughput and improved reliability.

Multi-AP Coordination

The final function that I wish to spotlight is the Multi-Entry Level Coordination. This function permits a number of entry factors to work collectively as one digital unit. Which means a number of APs can be utilized to transmit knowledge to a consumer, growing the throughput and sign energy of the connection.

Now for this to work, your consumer might want to have a very good connection to each entry factors That is additionally a function that I don’t count on to see quickly on consumer units, however it should most likely be helpful for mesh networks or bridge connections.

WiFi 7 vs WiFi 6 vs WiFi 6E

Now we’ve seemed on the capabilities of WiFi 7, how does it actually evaluate to WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E? First, WiFi 6 and 6E usually are not actually that totally different. WiFi 6E solely added the 6 Ghz band for a coupl ofe areas.

WiFi 7 takes issues additional by providing even wider channels (as much as 320 MHz), 4K QAM (extra knowledge per sign), and Multi-Hyperlink Operation (MLO), which permits units to make use of a number of frequency bands on the identical time.

These upgrades considerably enhance speeds (theoretically over 40 Gbps), scale back latency, and enhance total community stability.

Must you improve to WiFi 7?

To completely profit from all the brand new options that WiFi 7 affords, all of your units in your community should help it. This not solely means your entry factors but in addition all consumer units, laptops, smartphones, tablets, and so on. Till then, your community is restricted to the slowest system in your community.

If we have a look at a few of the units in my community within the screenshot under, you may see that solely three units at present help WiFi 6. All of the IoT units are set to 2.4 GHz solely, in order that they use WiFi 4 and the remainder of the purchasers solely help WiFi 5.

Should you have a look at the units that help WiFi 6 within the screenshot above, you will note that they solely use 2 and even 1 spatial stream (2×2 and 1×1). Which means the consumer system solely has one or two antennas. So regardless that WiFi 6 helps as much as 8 spatial streams, the consumer system solely makes use of 2 on the max.

One other subject is that loads of options in WiFi 7 are non-compulsory, which means that not all producers will implement each function. Have a look at the brand new UniFi U7 Lite for instance, it doesn’t have the 6 GHz band, solely affords 2×2 MU-MIMO (as an alternative of 16×16 MU-MIMO), and doesn’t help MLO.

Now, with an entry-level entry level just like the U7 lite, this isn’t a giant deal, nevertheless it reveals that you might even purchase a WiFi 6 entry level as an alternative.

The 6 GHz Downside

The 6 GHz band brings extra bandwidth and suffers much less from interference or congestion, nevertheless it has horrible object penetration. Which means the 6 Ghz band is nice when you find yourself in the identical room because the entry level, or possibly within the adjoining room, nevertheless it gained’t cowl your complete home.

It’s nice for open workplace buildings, the place you might have loads of consumer units, typically loads of congestion and interference on the decrease bands. That is the place the 6 GHz band really shines, however for a house community, I gained’t put money into it.

WiFi 7 Implementation

Now apart from all of the technological advantages and disadvantages, it’s going to take a while earlier than each producer has appropriately applied the brand new applied sciences. Options like Multi-Hyperlink Operation (MLO), 4096-QAM, and Multi-RU Puncturing, all require exact coordination between totally different chipsets and units to work flawlessly.

Wrapping Up

So whereas WiFi 7 does provide some good options don’t rush with changing your entry factors with new WiFi 7 succesful ones. Your consumer units gained’t help it but, and it would take a few years till all of the firmware bugs and compatibility points are mounted.

Should you want a brand new entry level, then there may be nothing fallacious with shopping for a WiFi 7 succesful one if the value isn’t that a lot larger than the WiFi 6 model, simply don’t rush with changing your current ones.