Speaker 1: Imagine this. You're on a plane right thirty thousand feet
Speaker 1: up and there's this little kid, maybe four years old,
Speaker 1: gaming device in hand, turns to their mom and asks, mom,
Speaker 1: does the plane have Wi Fi?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: That moment, it just perfectly sums up how well, how
Speaker 1: completely essential Wi Fi is. Now. It's just part of
Speaker 1: the fabric of life.
Speaker 2: It really is. The kid isn't thinking about the tech
Speaker 2: behind it, just yeah, does my world work? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Or not exactly. And today we're doing a deep dive
Speaker 1: into what's next for that invisible essential tech Wi Fi
Speaker 1: seven also known technically as the eight h two point
Speaker 1: one to one BB protocol. And look, this isn't just
Speaker 1: about you know, faster Netflix streams. It's a pretty fundamental
Speaker 1: shift in how our devices connect and well interact.
Speaker 2: Yeah, big shift.
Speaker 1: So our mission today, drawing from this really comprehensive guide
Speaker 1: Wi Fi seven in Depth, is basically to give you
Speaker 1: the inside track all the important stuff, the surprising bits
Speaker 1: about what's coming for wireless fast tract.
Speaker 2: For you, distilling it down right.
Speaker 1: So what's the big promise here, Well, WiFi seven is
Speaker 1: designed for way more capacity, some really new ways to
Speaker 1: handle interference, better reliability, definitely and maybe the biggest thing
Speaker 1: more predictable lower latency connections.
Speaker 2: That predictability piece is key, it really is.
Speaker 1: It's like way more than just a speed bump. It's
Speaker 1: a foundational evolution.
Speaker 2: It's striking how quickly the demands on Wi Fi just exploded. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know that's what pushed us here. Yeah, we went
Speaker 2: from just needing to connect like more devices to suddenly
Speaker 2: needing to connect countless devices and not just connect them,
Speaker 2: but connect them with really specific demanding needs.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right. I mean Wi Fi six that was
Speaker 1: eight hone two point of an X that was all
Speaker 1: about high efficiency for high density.
Speaker 2: Wasn't it high efficiency? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It brought in clever stuff like OFDMA, which I guess
Speaker 1: you could think of it like letting lots of cars
Speaker 1: share one highway lane at the exact same time, each
Speaker 1: in its own little slot instead of lining up.
Speaker 2: That's a decent analogy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It slices up the channel and BSS coloring too, like
Speaker 1: giving different now works unique color code, so your device
Speaker 1: ignores the neighbors noise. Right, reducing that digital shouting mac right.
Speaker 2: Helped sort out the signals and crowded areas. There's a
Speaker 2: big step for supporting more clients per network, per BSS,
Speaker 2: and yet still not enough, not even close. The demand
Speaker 2: just kept skyrocketing. This densification thing wasn't just you know,
Speaker 2: more laptops and phones. It was this huge wave of
Speaker 2: IoT devices, surveillance cameras, industrial robots, all the smart home
Speaker 2: stuff like door bells, watches, even connected scales and treadmills.
Speaker 1: Huh, everything's connected pretty much.
Speaker 2: And beyond that there was the rise of mission critical
Speaker 2: operational technology OT stuff that didn't just need a connection,
Speaker 2: it needed rock solid reliability, deterministic performance.
Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense, and that ties into the other
Speaker 1: huge driver, right, this massive shift towards real time interactions exactly.
Speaker 1: We're way past the days where you know, waiting half
Speaker 1: a second for a video buffer.
Speaker 2: Was fine, totally acceptable back then.
Speaker 1: Now it's all about real time, day, high volume, super
Speaker 1: strict latency, think video conferencing. It became totally essential, didn't it.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, Pandemics sealed that deal.
Speaker 1: And if the throughput wasn't consistent, you got that awful
Speaker 1: pixelization or the resolution dropping over those little audio clicks
Speaker 1: and drops drives you nuts.
Speaker 2: And in dense places you had that really annoying headline
Speaker 2: blocking issue, right, explain that. So imagine like a kid
Speaker 2: starts up an online game, uses a lot of bandwidth suddenly,
Speaker 2: and bam, their parents really important video calls starts stuttering
Speaker 2: or freezing. That new high demand traffic could just clabber
Speaker 2: the existing connection quality.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we've all been there, But.
Speaker 2: Even that pales compared to the demands of extended reality xrs.
Speaker 2: That's ARVR, mixed reality headsets.
Speaker 1: Right, the immersive stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those need a huge throughput, but with incredibly low
Speaker 2: and incredibly consistent delays. We're talking four K even eight
Speaker 2: K stereo video at one hundred and twenty frames per second. Wow.
Speaker 1: And the guide it really spells up the consequences if
Speaker 1: the network hiccups. There. It's not just annoying pixelation.
Speaker 2: No, it's serious. It says the user may lose their
Speaker 2: balance and fall or lose the object of focus.
Speaker 1: WHOA.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a network glitch isn't just irritating. It can be
Speaker 2: physically disorienting or even dangerous. That kind of delay is
Speaker 2: just totally unacceptable for XR. It breaks the whole experience.
Speaker 1: Okay, so the demands just kept piling up. More devices,
Speaker 1: more real time needs, mission critical stuff, crazy XR demands.
Speaker 1: Wi Fi was getting stretched.
Speaker 2: Thin fris to its limits.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, it became clear faster wasn't the only answer. We
Speaker 1: needed predictable, We needed reliable, especially under all that pressure.
Speaker 2: Exactly, and that's really the core problem wi Fi seven
Speaker 2: was designed to solve, which leads us to its really
Speaker 2: game changing innovations.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into those. What's the first big one?
Speaker 2: Okay, so number one has to be multi link operation MLO. Now,
Speaker 2: before MLO, your access point, your AP, it would basically
Speaker 2: advertise each radio band two point four gig of five gig,
Speaker 2: six gig as kind of separate network, separate aps.
Speaker 1: Right, and your phone or laptop, but just pick one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, pick one to connect to you, usually based on
Speaker 2: just like the signal strength.
Speaker 1: It'saw first, which okay, I know this one that led
Speaker 1: to the dreaded sticky client problem. Right then go exactly,
Speaker 1: your device hangs onto that slower two point four gigglehertz
Speaker 1: connection for dear life, even if there's a perfectly good,
Speaker 1: much faster five or six gigahertz signal right there from the.
Speaker 2: Same router, super common, super frustrating, it congested the slow
Speaker 2: bands left the fast bands underused and just gave you
Speaker 2: a worse experience overall.
Speaker 1: So how does MLO fix that?
Speaker 2: Okay, So MLO flips the script completely. It lifts a
Speaker 2: single client device now called a multilink device or MLD,
Speaker 2: connect to multiple radios or links on an APMLD at
Speaker 2: the same time simultaneously.
Speaker 1: Ah okay, multiple links at once, right.
Speaker 2: And the whole connection process authentication association that now happens
Speaker 2: at this MLD level using something called a basic mL element.
Speaker 2: It basically simplifies the whole thing for the user. You
Speaker 2: just connect to one network entity.
Speaker 1: Gotcha. So the big insight here is like a double benefit.
Speaker 1: You get more speed because you're using multiple lanes, multiple.
Speaker 2: Ban aggregate throughput. Yeah, that's a big.
Speaker 1: Part and also much better robustness. Like if one link
Speaker 1: gets crowded or hits interference, exactly.
Speaker 2: Your device can dynamically shift some or even all of
Speaker 2: its traffic over to another clearer link instantly without needing
Speaker 2: to drop the connection and completely reconnect.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's huge, especially for businesses. Right, Like if an
Speaker 1: AP needs a reboot or a software update, or just
Speaker 1: needs to balance.
Speaker 2: The load, MLO allows for that dynamic reconfiguration, adding or
Speaker 2: removing links on the fly without that disruptive reassociation process.
Speaker 2: It's vital in enterprise settings.
Speaker 1: Cool, So MLO is a big one. What else is
Speaker 1: fundamental in Wi Fi seven?
Speaker 2: Well, moving down to the physical layer, the phy layer,
Speaker 2: there's some really serious upgrades there too. Wider channels. We're
Speaker 2: talking at three hundred and twenty middles wide channels now
Speaker 2: mostly available up in that nice roomy six gigahertz band.
Speaker 2: That just massively increases the highway size for data.
Speaker 1: Double the width of the widest Wi Fi six channels
Speaker 1: right exactly.
Speaker 2: And they've also cranked up the modulation density significantly.
Speaker 1: Okay, modulation density, that's like how much data you pack
Speaker 1: into each signal Precisely.
Speaker 2: Wi Fi six topped out at one in twenty four QM,
Speaker 2: Wi Fi seven leaps to forty ninety six QAM.
Speaker 1: Four times the points. I remember seeing that comparison. It's
Speaker 1: like an artist having way more colors to paint with.
Speaker 2: That's a great way to put it. Yeah, forty ninety
Speaker 2: six distinct signal states compared to ten twenty four. Each
Speaker 2: little signal pulse can carry twelve bits of data instead
Speaker 2: of ten so that's.
Speaker 1: A twenty percent increase in raw data rate just from
Speaker 1: the modulation.
Speaker 2: Yep, a straight twenty percent bump. But there's a.
Speaker 1: Catch, always a cat it.
Speaker 2: Needs a really clean signal, very strong, very low noise.
Speaker 2: You won't get forty ninety six qam speeds unless the
Speaker 2: connection is basically pristine.
Speaker 1: Makes sense. Higher fidelity needs better conditions. What about that
Speaker 1: six giga HITZ band itself. You mentioned it's key for
Speaker 1: the wide channels.
Speaker 2: Right, So important to note it has two main power levels.
Speaker 2: There's low Power Indoor LPI for typical home and office use, okay,
Speaker 2: and then there's standard power sp which allows for higher
Speaker 2: power crucially for outdoor use or larger venues.
Speaker 1: But don't hire power signals risk interfering with other things
Speaker 1: already using that six gig HURT spectrum, like satellite links
Speaker 1: or point to point microwave.
Speaker 2: Good question, Yes they do. That's where the Automated Frequency
Speaker 2: Coordinator or ASC system comes in. It's mandatory for standard
Speaker 2: power operation AFC.
Speaker 1: What does that do?
Speaker 2: It's basically a database system that tells the outdoor Wi
Speaker 2: Fi seven aps which specific frequencies they can use in
Speaker 2: their exact location and what power level to avoid interfering
Speaker 2: with those existing incumbent users. It ensures peaceful coexistence.
Speaker 1: Clever. Okay. One feature in the guide that really jumped
Speaker 1: out at me was preamble puncturing. Sounds painful but useful.
Speaker 2: Huh. Yeah, the name's a bit traumatic, but the concept
Speaker 2: is actually really smart and intuitive. Like you said, so,
Speaker 2: how's it work? Okay, So imagine you want to use
Speaker 2: a nice wide eighty megahertz channel before Wi Fi seven.
Speaker 2: If even a small chunk of that channel, say just
Speaker 2: twenty megaherds of it, was busy with some other signal
Speaker 2: or interference, the whole.
Speaker 1: Eighty megaherts channel was basically unusable. You had to drop
Speaker 1: down to something much narrower.
Speaker 2: Exactly, You'd be forced down to maybe just twenty megahertz,
Speaker 2: losing a ton of potential speed. Preamble puncturing, let's the
Speaker 2: device say, Okay, that little twenty megoherd slice is busy, fine,
Speaker 2: I'll just puncture it, basically ignore it, and I'll transmit
Speaker 2: on the rest of the eighty mega huts channel to
Speaker 2: clear parts.
Speaker 1: Ah, so you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Speaker 1: It's like, uh, finding a small pothole on a highway
Speaker 1: lane and just steering around it instead of closing the
Speaker 1: whole lane.
Speaker 2: Perfect analogy, that's exactly it. You utilize the spectrum much
Speaker 2: more efficiently even when there's minor interference.
Speaker 1: Okay, that makes total sense. So the core insight here
Speaker 1: is really that Wi Fi seven isn't just making the
Speaker 1: pipe wider with three hundred and twenty megahertz channels, it's
Speaker 1: also packing way more data in with forty ninety six
Speaker 1: QAM and getting much smarter about using the bandwidth has
Speaker 1: even navigating around interference with puncturing.
Speaker 2: The combination is key. Yeah, it's what unlocks the capacity
Speaker 2: for those really demanding high fidelity real time experiences, especially
Speaker 2: when things get crowded.
Speaker 1: Right, and speaking of real time, that brings us to
Speaker 1: quality of service QoS, making performance predictable.
Speaker 2: Yes, and this was another area needing a serious overhaul.
Speaker 2: Remember we mentioned how critical predictable latency is. Well, the
Speaker 2: old standard for QoS a POH two point one one
Speaker 2: Ease Traffic Specification or TSPEC. It's just way too complicated.
Speaker 2: How so, it required applications to specify something like fifteen
Speaker 2: different traffic parameters to describe their needs. Minimum this maximum
Speaker 2: that averaged something else. It was so complex that almost
Speaker 2: nobody actually implemented or used it.
Speaker 1: So applications needing reliable performance were basically just what shouting
Speaker 1: their needs into the void and hoping for the best.
Speaker 2: Pretty much. Yeah, there wasn't a practical way for say,
Speaker 2: your video call app to tell the Wi Fi network, hey,
Speaker 2: I need this much bandwidth consistently with this maximum delay.
Speaker 1: So Wi Fi seven fixes this.
Speaker 2: It introduces something much simpler. It's called the Stream Classification
Speaker 2: Service SCS uses a quality of Service Characteristics element or QC.
Speaker 2: Much easier.
Speaker 1: How much easier.
Speaker 2: It boils it down to just four key parameters minimum
Speaker 2: maximum service interval, minimum data rate, and crucially delay bound.
Speaker 1: Oh just four okay, much more practical.
Speaker 2: Now applications can actually signal their real time needs to
Speaker 2: the network in a standardized way. So your video call
Speaker 2: can say I need xmbps with less than y milliseconds delay,
Speaker 2: and the Wi Fi seven network can actually understand and
Speaker 2: try to deliver that.
Speaker 1: Which should drastically cut down on those annoying drops and
Speaker 1: glitches for real time stuff.
Speaker 2: That's the goal, and to really help nail that predictable latency,
Speaker 2: there's another feature called restricted TWT.
Speaker 1: R T T TT.
Speaker 2: It was target wake time right for saving battery.
Speaker 1: Right, but RTWT builds on that. It provides enhanced channel
Speaker 1: access protection and basically lets the AP reserve specific scheduled
Speaker 1: times slots on the airwaves for critical traffic.
Speaker 2: Like reserving a private, guaranteed fast lane on the highway
Speaker 2: for your important.
Speaker 1: Data exactly like that scheduled dedicated airtime. And there's also
Speaker 1: EPCs Priority Access, which lets the AP fine tune channel
Speaker 1: access rules the EDCA parameters to give even more priority
Speaker 1: to certain types of traffic, ensuring the really critical stuff
Speaker 1: gets through first. Okay, so Wi Fi seven is tackling
Speaker 1: reliability and predictability head on. But the evolution doesn't stop there, right,
Speaker 1: what's cooking for Wi Fi eight and beyond?
Speaker 2: Yeah, the roadmap keeps going. Two really interesting areas are
Speaker 2: localization figuring out where devices are and RF sensing.
Speaker 1: Okay, localization, we've had some form of that for a while,
Speaker 1: haven't we based on signal strength?
Speaker 2: We have, yeah, the old RSSI based method, but it
Speaker 2: was pretty crude. Accuracy was maybe ten to twenty meters
Speaker 2: and easily confused. How so, Well, things like walls block
Speaker 2: Wi Fi signals. Right, a simple wall might knock the
Speaker 2: signal down by six decibels to the system that looked
Speaker 2: like the device that suddenly doubled its distance from the AP.
Speaker 2: Not very reliable, right.
Speaker 1: Not great for pinpointing things.
Speaker 2: No, that's why fine timing measurement or FtM, introduced back
Speaker 2: in eight oh two point one V was a big
Speaker 2: step up FtM.
Speaker 1: How does that work?
Speaker 2: It's much smarter. It actually measures the time it takes
Speaker 2: for the radio signal to travel between the device and
Speaker 2: the AP, back and forth. Since we know the speed
Speaker 2: of light, you can calculate the distance much more accurately.
Speaker 1: Okay, speed of light timing? What kind of accuracy? Did
Speaker 1: FtM get.
Speaker 2: Us down to? Maybe two to four meters? Much better
Speaker 2: useful for general location within a building.
Speaker 1: But things are getting even more precise.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the upcoming amendments eight hundred two point one
Speaker 2: to one AS and eight to two point one one AKK.
Speaker 2: They're aiming for submeter accuracy first maybe one two meters,
Speaker 2: then pushing down to less than a one meters, less.
Speaker 1: Than a meter. Wow, what's the use case for that
Speaker 1: level of precision?
Speaker 2: Well, the guide gives examples like imagine a warehouse worker
Speaker 2: scanner knowing if it's in their left hand.
Speaker 1: Or right hand seriously, yeah.
Speaker 2: Or finding a specific small box of as on a
Speaker 2: store shelf telling you it's, you know, thirty centimeters to
Speaker 2: your right. The kind of fine grained location awareness that's incredible.
Speaker 1: But you also mentioned are up sensing That sounds different.
Speaker 2: It is different and maybe even more profound. This is
Speaker 2: coming with eight ohto two point one point one BF.
Speaker 2: The idea here is using the Wi Fi signals themselves, almost.
Speaker 1: Like radar radar to see thing, to detect.
Speaker 2: The presence or absence and even the movement of people
Speaker 2: or objects in the environment, even if those people or
Speaker 2: objects aren't carrying a Wi Fi device themselves.
Speaker 1: WHOA Okay, that is mind bending. How how detailed can
Speaker 1: that sensing get? What kind of movement are we talking?
Speaker 2: It depends heavily on the bandwidth of the Wi Fi
Speaker 2: signal being used, So like a standard twenty meyor Hurtz channel,
Speaker 2: it can probably detect course movements, maybe someone walking around
Speaker 2: within seven point five meters or so, but jump up
Speaker 2: to a three hundred and twenty menti hertz channel in
Speaker 2: the six gigahertz band like Wi Fi seven uses, the
Speaker 2: resolution improves dramatically down to maybe fifty centimeters half a meter.
Speaker 2: You could detect someone shift position in a chair, get
Speaker 2: them pretty precise. And then if you move up into
Speaker 2: the millimeter wave bands like fifty seven to seventy one gigahertz,
Speaker 2: where you can get channel bandwidths of say one point
Speaker 2: seven six gigaherts, Okay, the potential resolution gets down about
Speaker 2: seventeen centimeters.
Speaker 1: Seventeen centimeters, that's tiny. What can you see with that?
Speaker 2: Potentially really subtle movements like detecting hand gestures in the air,
Speaker 2: finger movements, maybe even breathing patterns.
Speaker 1: Wow, that opens up completely new ways to interact with technology,
Speaker 1: doesn't It Like controlling things with gestures without needing a
Speaker 1: camera or systems responding just to your presence exactly.
Speaker 2: The environment itself becomes interactive. It's a huge paradigm shift potentially.
Speaker 1: Okay, with all this incredibly precise location tracking and now
Speaker 1: sensing people's movements, even breathing price the alarms are going
Speaker 1: off in my.
Speaker 2: Head, and they should be. It's a massive consideration. We've
Speaker 2: already seen steps taken with things like randomized MN addresses
Speaker 2: RCM on our devices today.
Speaker 1: Right, the MD address randomization. Why did that become a thing.
Speaker 2: Well, there's the dote about the j Loo effect, the idea,
Speaker 2: maybe apocryphal, that celebrities were being tracked through stores by
Speaker 2: their phones unique may addresses, pinging the store Wi fi ah.
Speaker 1: So randomization was to stop that kind of tracking by
Speaker 1: making your device look different each time it connects, or.
Speaker 2: Probe exactly, to prevent easy tracking of individuals across different
Speaker 2: locations or even within your own home network by outside
Speaker 2: observers breaking that linkability.
Speaker 1: But that creates a new problem, doesn't it. If your
Speaker 1: device always looks new, how does your own network recognize
Speaker 1: you for things like I don't know parental controls or
Speaker 1: troubleshooting or giving you the right access.
Speaker 2: That's the core challenge eight poh two point one to
Speaker 2: one d buy is trying to tackle. It's this balancing
Speaker 2: act between user privacy not being easily trackable, and necessary
Speaker 2: network operability.
Speaker 1: How does it try to solve that.
Speaker 2: It's looking at ways to sort of obviously skate the
Speaker 2: tracking elements while still allowing network's mechanisms to recognize returning
Speaker 2: devices for legitimate purposes. It's complex, and it might even
Speaker 2: mean breaking backward compatibility with older devices that don't support
Speaker 2: these new privacy methods.
Speaker 1: It sounds like a really tricky tightrope to walk.
Speaker 2: It absolutely is, because if you connect this sensing capability back,
Speaker 2: the potential utility is amazing, but the privacy implications are
Speaker 2: equally significant. The standard's bodies are trying to grapple with
Speaker 2: this proactively, but it's an ongoing challenge.
Speaker 1: Okay, And looking even further ahead Wi Fi eight, are
Speaker 1: there other big directions emerging?
Speaker 2: Yeah? A couple other areas mentioned are MULTIAP coordination or MAPC.
Speaker 1: MULTIAP like multiple access points working together better.
Speaker 2: Exactly, especially really dense environments like stadiums are large offices.
Speaker 2: Instead of each AP just managing its own little bubble,
Speaker 2: MAPC aims for them to coordinate much more intelligently, almost
Speaker 2: like a single distributed brain, optimizing the whole network. Think
Speaker 2: of it like a real time dynamic bandwidth system for
Speaker 2: the entire venue.
Speaker 1: More efficiency, more deterministic performance in those tough spots.
Speaker 2: Right. And another one is adapting an IET standard called
Speaker 2: L four S Low latency, low loss, scalable throughput for
Speaker 2: Wi Fi L fours.
Speaker 1: What's the focus there?
Speaker 2: It's all about aggressively reducing network delay and jitter. That
Speaker 2: variation in delay especially critical for those super delay sensitive
Speaker 2: ARVR x our applications we talked about. It tries to
Speaker 2: bring some Layer three congestion control principles down into the
Speaker 2: Layer two Wi Fi interaction between the AP and the
Speaker 2: device and.
Speaker 1: Making sure that critical data gets there exactly when it
Speaker 1: needs to, reliably precisely.
Speaker 2: Every millisecond counts for those applications.
Speaker 1: The implications here are just huge. Yeah, it feels like
Speaker 1: the future of Wi Fi isn't just about faster downloads anymore.
Speaker 1: It's about the network understanding its environment, understanding application needs,
Speaker 1: and responding in real time.
Speaker 2: It's becoming much more intelligent, much more context to wear
Speaker 2: a truly transformative vision.
Speaker 1: So okay, let's wrap up this deep dive. It's really
Speaker 1: clear that Wi Fi seven is way, way more than
Speaker 1: just another speed bump. What's more, it's this really sophisticated
Speaker 1: leap forward in efficiency, in reliability, and responsiveness. It feels
Speaker 1: like it's truly engineered to meet these intense demands of
Speaker 1: our modern world. All the IoT clutter, the real time interactions,
Speaker 1: the immersive XR stuff. It's not just trying to keep
Speaker 1: up anymore. It feels like it's actually getting ahead of the.
Speaker 2: Curve, yeah, providing the foundation for what comes.
Speaker 1: Next exactly, which leaves us and you with maybe a
Speaker 1: final provocative thought to chew on. What kind of completely
Speaker 1: new human computer interactions might emerge when our networks can
Speaker 1: sense us as accurately when they can detect our breathing
Speaker 1: or our finger movements in the air. And what are
Speaker 1: the privacy challenges we haven't even thought of yet when
Speaker 1: the very environment around us becomes this well interactive Wi
Speaker 1: Fi canvas