Qualcomm has unveiled its Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7 capable platforms which we will get to witness in routers in 2023. The new platform comes with Multi-Link Capabilities, Modulation Evolution, and Flexible Channel Utilization, which is leaps ahead of what current-generation routers has to offer.
With technological innovations increasing by leaps and bounds, Wi-Fi 7 bears the responsibility of giving the best wireless network to enjoy instances like 8K video streaming, social cloud-based gaming, and low-latency extended reality (XR). All are feasible with Qualcomm’s new Wi-Fi 7 capable chipsets that are part of its ‘Immersive Home’ platform series.
Wi-Fi 7: What is it? Wi-Fi's generation, which might provide speeds up to four times faster than Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, offers significant advancements over its predecessors. Ingenious innovations that lower latency, raise capacity, and improve stability and effectiveness are also included. According to the previous nomenclature, Wi-Fi 7 is IEEE 802.11be, whereas Wi-Fi 6 was IEEE 802.11ax, and Wi-Fi 5 was IEEE 802.11ac. Wi-Fi 7 will be backwards compatible with prior standards. But you'll need to update your devices if you want to benefit from the added features and enhanced performance it promises. That requires purchasing new routers and access points in addition to new cellphones, computers, TVs, and other electronic devices.
With Qualcomm leading 27% of the total Wi-Fi chipset market, Qualcomm’s Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E-enabled chipsets are already over the globe. Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7 shares the same architecture as their enterprise-driven ‘Pro’ series but is tuned to be used in a house. With a peak speed of 33 Gbps in the ‘Pro’ series, Qualcomm has tried to capture both industrial and homebody audiences.
Some notable features of Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7:
If we talk about the features, there are some very highlighted ones, like increasing the channel bandwidth to 320 MHz. What it means is that in Wi-Fi 6E, the use of wide-channel spectrum started getting popular in regions where it was available, Wi-Fi 7 doubles the possible channel bandwidth to 320 MHz, doubling the theoretical capacity and improving data transfer speed remarkably.
Another tremendously useful feature is the Multi-link Technology. Depending on regional accessibility, the high band support by access points may be two channels in the 5 GHz band or one in each 5 or 6 GHz band. But with Multi-link technology, the device will get multiple options to use these channels. The channels can be used in an Alternating Multi-link where the device switches between two channels depending on the congestion hence lowering latency or High Band Simultaneous Multi-Link, where high bands are used simultaneously, aggregating their outputs.
With high-performance characteristics like these and Multi-Link Mesh, 4K QAM, and Adoptive Interference Puncturing, Qualcomm is ready to ship Wi-Fi 7 technology to available home routers and mesh devices in the second half of 2023.
