Overview and Performance Evaluation of Wi-Fi 7

Abstract

The arrival of Wi-Fi 6 in late 2019, which is based on IEEE 802.11 ax, marked a giant leap forward in improving the capacity, efficiency, and coverage in most WLAN environments. While Wi-Fi 6 introduced various features to enhance the network performance and user experience such as in high-dense deployment scenarios, emerging applications like 4K/8K video, augmented reality, virtual reality, industrial Internet of Things, and real-time collaborations demand more deterministic connectivity. Meeting the most stringent requirements in throughput and latency in a deterministic fashion is beyond the capabilities of Wi-Fi 6 and therefore motivates the development of a new Wi-Fi 7 generation. As a result, the IEEE 802.11 Task Group be has been formed to define extreme high throughput (EHT) PHY and MAC layers capable of supporting a maximum throughput of at least 30 Gb/s, as well as reducing worst case latency and jitter to improve support for latency-sensitive applications. In this article, our primary goal is to identify and describe the main PHY and MAC elements that will shape Wi-Fi 7, which will operate in the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands. For each of the main features, including key PHY enhancements, multi-link operation, and enhanced quality of service management, we discuss how Wi-Fi 7 is designing the corresponding enabling mechanism and present performance results as appropriate.