Wi-Fi 7 vs. Wi-Fi 6 vs. Wi-Fi 5

Wi-Fi 7, along with its predecessors Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5, represents different generations of IEEE-established Wi-Fi standards. While newer naming conventions have emerged, these older standards persist in use among end users, each identified by a unique set of numbers like "802.11." Wi-Fi 7, officially known as IEEE 802.11be, is generating considerable excitement as it's slated for a public release in January 2024. Despite not yet being widely available, select devices, including some from Qualcomm and TP-Link, already support this advanced standard. Wi-Fi 7 brings substantial improvements, offering blazing-fast speeds with a theoretical data rate of around 46.1 Gbps, operating across all three frequency bands, and significantly reducing latency compared to Wi-Fi 6. It also employs advanced Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) technology and introduces Multi-Link Operation (MLO) for simultaneous multi-channel connections. However, adopting Wi-Fi 7 necessitates hardware upgrades, as consumer-ready devices are currently limited, and this transition comes at a cost.