Wireless replaces wired: Wi-Fi 7 transmits speeds comparable to Thunderbolt 3

IT Home January 24 news, last week MediaTek announced that based on Filogic chip products, the world's first demonstration of Wi-Fi 7, but MediaTek did not disclose too much data, only said that Wi-Fi 7 is 2.4 times faster than the previous generation of networks, and said that it will truly replace wired / Ethernet networks for the first time.

IT House understands that current consumer electronics generally support Wi-Fi 6 and earlier technologies, and a handful of products are starting to use Wi-Fi 6E. Semiconductor producer MediaTek has been demonstrating Wi-Fi 7 to "major customers and industry collaborators," including successfully completing the world's first live demonstration, Digitaltrends reported. The test included a demonstration of MediaTek's WiFi 7 "Filogic" technology to help achieve maximum Speed of Wi-Fi 7.

Wi-Fi 7, also known as IEEE 802.11be, is expected to deliver speeds that are approximately 2.4 times faster than Wi-Fi 6, using the 2.4Ghz, 5GHz, and 6GHz spectrum to achieve such speeds by widening the channel to 320Mhz and supporting 4K quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM).

Wi-Fi 6 speeds are as high as 9.6Gbps, and the Wi-Fi Alliance says Wi-Fi 7 should be able to deliver "at least 30Gbps" connection speeds and potentially reach 40Gbps.

For reference, Thunderbolt 3 has a connection speed of 40Gbps, and a single peripheral device is limited to 32Gbps. As a result, full-speed Wi-Fi 7 can deliver speeds close to Thunderbolt 3 and are transmitted wirelessly.

As part of the demonstration, MediaTek showcased its Multilink Operation (MLO) technology, which can combine multiple channels in different frequency bands. A connection can use different frequency bands at the same time, which alleviates any potential interference or congestion in a particular frequency band.

For now, Wi-Fi 7 is still a draft specification, but it is expected to be certified by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2024. Although it will take two years, MediaTek believes that the first Wi-Fi 7-enabled consumer products can be shipped by 2023.