Wi-Fi 7 is starting to appear on the market through compatible products, such as routers and processors for cell phones, but a new generation of wireless network is already in the projects of the IEEE, the standardization body of the technology. Dorothy Stanley, chair of the IEEE 802.11 working group, confirmed the start of development on the Wi-Fi 8 network.
In an interview with Tele.Synthesis this Tuesday (28), the executive revealed that studies for the successor technology of Wi-Fi 7 are already underway in the IEEE laboratories. The expectation is that Wi-Fi 8 will begin to be implemented in the middle of 2030. Stanley says that one of the bands studied for the future generation is the 60 GHz spectrum.
“It’s still preliminary, very early studies, but at 60 GHz there’s a lot of spectrum available,” said the president of the technical team responsible for standardizing the IEEE 802.11 protocol.
In parallel, the international organization expects Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) to undergo a “boom” over the next two years under the influence of popular devices compatible with the technology, such as the Samsung Galaxy S23. This protocol is still limited for use indoors, but should reach outdoors in the coming months.
Wi-Fi 7, in turn, should not become a technology mainstream before 2024. This generation will be able to use three 320 MHz channels in the 6 GHz band (versus six 160 MHz channels in 6 GHz in Wi-Fi 6E) and should reach speeds of at least 30 Gbps. Remember that Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E reach up to 9.6 Gbps.
Stanley highlights the importance of Wi-Fi standard evolutions, specifically the extensive use of radio frequency spectrum. During the coronavirus pandemic, wireless home network traffic has increased significantly, which has allowed a reduction in the data load transferred over mobile networks.
“Carriers have a love-hate relationship with Wi-Fi. They love it because it frees up more capacity for networks by offloading it, but they hate it because of their historical inclination to control the network, and Wi-Fi doesn’t give them control,” he concluded.
