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It seems like every time the IEEE finalizes a new wireless standard, they also start to float specs for the next one. Focusing on what’s best for your business is the way through, but it’s also worth keeping tabs on next-gen standards to ensure you’re at least conceptually current and can bring that awareness to your next hardware refresh conversation.

WiFi 7 is indeed faster than WiFi 6, provided you have the client and infrastructure hardware to take advantage of it, but it also brings some useful features that go beyond speeds and feeds. @humbledavid breaks it down in his latest article for Spiceworks.

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I’m not worried about 7, as the majority of the wireless devices aren’t even WiFi6 compliant yet. By the time 7 is a ‘thing’ we might be using 6…we’re still using 4 and 5 without any issues.

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Nobody is complaining about the speed of my AC Wave 2 WAPs that are 8 years old.

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*Nobody here: and I am complaining about your 8 y/o tech, and I don’t even use it!
ZOMG!

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I can’t wait for WiFi 7 - I have a giant wireless/hub/router thing from Asus, on initial setup it connected wirelessly to my phone at a 1Gb connection (screen shot lost when that phone was lost/stolen)
WiFi 7 , multiplexes ALL the wireless connections on the one device! THATS going to replace hardwired connections: this is the first step we need to take to light the loads carried by ships & craft of all sizes and purposes: land/sea/air & space.
Think about it: how much weight an oil taker carried in wires, or an aircraft, much less now with fiber, agreed, but remove even that, and components connecting wirelessly will further imp[rove the travel distance to fuel loads.

I’m looking forward to it!

Good article BTW, I liked that!

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I’m not sure I want my flight controllers fully wireless…the whole radio interference causing an outage over the Atlantic thing…

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I barely care about WIFI6E at the moment. I have 6 and it is more than enough for a network that operates at gigabit speeds. We would see nothing improved moving everything to 7. 6e does add more frequency ranges so there is an appeal to that. But unless I am working with ultra high client densities, there is not much there for me to be excited about. With Wifi, going from 4 to 5 and 5 to 6 were good improvements, I think we would need to operate on 2.5 gigabit or higher to see any improvement with wifi7.

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We’re on the cusp of a network refresh for our switches & APs, so we’re definitely looking at least having the ability to enable Wifi 7, but we mainly want to ensure we have Wifi 6. I think we’re hoping to have the newest network devices last at least 8 years.

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I wouldn’t be swapping wired for wireless in anything mission critical. wired still wins for reliability

I am looking at wifi 7, but not because of any specific features in it. More of If I am going to by hardware I am going to buy the latest available so I get the longest useful life I can

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After reading the article, and the acronyms and terminology, I need to get out of IT. Good article, nonetheless.

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At this time yes absolutely: I always recommend wired: especially for streaming movies, or for flight controls, /Agreed 110%.

WiFi 7 is the next step in the right direction so that wired is not the only answer. THATS why I am excited about it!

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@HulkSmash

…but you can’t! I say so.
I have to stay here, then dag nabbit, your stuck too!

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and then it takes one bad actor with a radio jammer an you loose those flight controls

this is something that should definitely stay wired

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What about using CRT’s the old school tubes vice silicone chips? Those can’t be jammed, and they would provide wireless, I think…(trying to recall an article I read some years back)
My point is that WiFi 7 is the next step in the right direction: I am not saying install wifi7 on aircraft now/today - it is still not advanced enough for that, in our professional opinions.

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Keep QAM and upgrade to Wifi 7.

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Wifi 7 will be for specific purposes and will/can not replace Wifi 5 or 6 directly. The penetration of Wifi 7 frequencies is much less than the others (think penetration difference between Wifi 4 and 5 X 50) so will require a completely different deployment strategy.

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Let’s make this really simple. You almost, undoubtably do not need or care about WiFi7 from a functional standpoint. Neat? Yes! Future value? Probably, unless the value only comes after WiFi9 is out. 6 and 6E covered all of the major density issues that almost no one had to begin with. Wave 2 is still the functional standard. Sure, 6 gets used because it’s there. No, it’s not saturated. Trying to build this instead of physical infrastructure? not if it’s critical. We all know WiFi isn’t perfect that’s why CSMA/CA is a thing. Neat, good to see progress in the space, It will all eventually be valuable, but I don’t think many care as far as implementation yet.

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I wish we could all just get SDR (software defined radio) APs, and never have to worry about what standard comes next: just update the firmware (and maybe swap out an antennae).

To throw a wrench in the monkeyworks, I give you: the 6GHz sell off:
WiFi7 and 6GHz spectrum selloff
Thankfully our WiFi APs are able to automatically find unused portions of the 6 GHz spectrum (thanks IEEE!).

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wifi 7 is a protocol. it doesn’t change the radio frequencies used or the power and penetration

6GH was introduced along side wifi 6. but the frequency and the standard are two different things

6Ghz should never get saturated. that’s sorta the point. it doesn’t penetrate walls and therefor won’t propagate far enough to interfere with other 6Ghz networks. you literally have to be line of site to the AP to be able to use it.

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Exactly the point I was making…

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