With WiFi 6 technology commonplace in smartphones and other devices on sale at this point in 2022, MediaTek is looking to the future by demonstrating Wi-Fi 7 hardware to its customers and partners. The Filogic Wi-Fi 7 demonstrations aim to show the technology’s super-fast speeds and low-latency transmission capabilities.
What is Wi-Fi 7?
Well, it’s an unfinalized Wi-Fi standard that will offer new capabilities in all available spectrums for users, including 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz. It’s said that Wi-Fi 7 will deliver 2.4X faster speeds than WiFi 6 using the same number of antennas because the new technology uses 320Mhz channels and supports 4K quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) technology. According to the WiFi Alliance, 802.11be will be able to reach a throughput of 30Gbps or more which is more than treble the speed that Wi-Fi 6 is capable of. In layman’s terms, you should expect Wi-Fi 7 to offer increased speeds and responsiveness when compared to Wi-Fi 6.
“The rollout of Wi-Fi 7 will mark the first time that Wi-Fi can be a true wireline/Ethernet replacement for super high-bandwidth applications,” said Alan Hsu, corporate vice president and general manager of the Intelligent Connectivity business at MediaTek. “MediaTek’s Wi-Fi 7 technology will be the backbone of home, office and industrial networks and provide seamless connectivity for everything from multi-player AR/VR applications to cloud gaming and 4K calls to 8K streaming and beyond.”
MediaTek says that it plans to start shipping products with Wi-Fi 7 support in 2023, although the actual standard is only thought to be finalized sometime during 2024.
Press Release:
SAN JOSE, CA – January 19, 2022 – MediaTek today announced the world’s first live demo of Wi-Fi 7 technology, highlighting the capabilities of its forthcoming Wi-Fi 7 Filogic connectivity portfolio. MediaTek is currently showcasing two Wi-Fi 7 demos to key customers and industry collaborators to demonstrate the technology’s super-fast speeds and low latency transmission.
“The rollout of Wi-Fi 7 will mark the first time that Wi-Fi can be a true wireline/Ethernet replacement for super high-bandwidth applications,” said Alan Hsu, corporate vice president and general manager of the Intelligent Connectivity business at MediaTek. “MediaTek’s Wi-Fi 7 technology will be the backbone of home, office and industrial networks and provide seamless connectivity for everything from multi-player AR/VR applications to cloud gaming and 4K calls to 8K streaming and beyond.”
MediaTek’s demo shows how its Wi-Fi 7 Filogic technology can achieve the maximum speed defined by IEEE 802.11be and demonstrates its multi-link operation (MLO) technology. MLO technology aggregates multiple channels on different frequencies bands at the same time to highlight how network traffic can still flow seamlessly even if there is interference or congestion on the bands. MLO technology will be critical for delivering faster and more reliable video streaming, gaming, and anything else that requires constant, sustained, and real-time throughput.
“Faster broadband Internet access and more demanding applications such as higher resolution video streaming and VR gaming are driving demand for Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, and soon Wi-Fi 7,” said Mario Morales, group vice president, Semiconductors at IDC. “Wi-Fi 7’s advances in channel width, QAM, and new features such as multi-link operation (MLO) will make Wi-Fi 7 very attractive for devices including flagship smartphones, PCs, consumer devices and vertical industries like retail and industrial; as service providers begin to deploy a wider spectrum of hotspots across these market segments.”
MediaTek has been involved in the development of the Wi-Fi 7 standard since its inception, and the company is one of the first adopters of Wi-Fi 7 technology.
“Today’s consumers want an always-connected, reliable, and fast Wi-Fi connection for many applications such as video calls, 4K/8K TV entertainment, real-time gaming, and others,” said Moon Ho Lee, president at Korea Mercury. “MediaTek’s Wi-Fi 7 technology can fulfill the current need for all the applications consumers enjoy today and also open the door for future AR/VR applications which we can’t even imagine today.”
Wi-Fi 7 is unique in that it offers completely new capabilities in all the available spectrums for Wi-Fi uses, including 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz. Wi-Fi 7 will deliver 2.4X faster speeds than Wi-Fi 6 – even with the same number of antennas – since Wi-Fi 7 can utilize 320Mhz channels and support 4K quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) technology. Other notable features of Wi-Fi 7 include MLO to reduce latency by transmitting Wi-Fi on multiple bands, in addition to multi-user resource unit (MRU) features for enhanced interference avoidances and mitigation.
Products with Wi-Fi 7 are expected to hit the market starting in 2023.
