On January 8, WiFi Alliance officially announced the launch of the WiFi CERTIFIED 7 certification program. This means that the WiFi 7 standard is frozen and the WiFi 7 standard is formalized, and it is expected that more companies will join the space and launch more WiFi 7-enabled devices to meet consumer demand for higher data throughput, lower latency, and higher reliability for wireless networks. In the background, WiFi 7 testing will become a hot topic at present. At the same time, Keysight Technologies and other manufacturers have also launched related test equipment.
2024 will be the first year of the WiFi 7 market
Although the current 5G network has become very popular, wireless LANs such as WiFi are still the main way for people to connect wirelessly at home and office. Statistics show that the global shipment of WiFi devices is 3.8 billion units per year, and the stock of WiFi devices reaches 19.5 billion units.
In recent years, with the development of VR/AR, 8K video, cloud computing, remote office and other applications, WiFi 6 has gradually been unable to fully meet people's needs for higher throughput and lower latency. It is reported that in 2024, WiFi 7 will be introduced into mainstream laptops and flagship smartphones. 2024 is expected to be the first year of the WiFi 7 market.
According to Le Xiang, R&D Director of Keysight's Wireless Solutions Division in Greater China, WiFi has changed its standards and versions, unlike 5G, which has extremely rigorous procedures, and WiFi is more of a process of rapid progress. The industry generally does not wait for the standard freeze to start large-scale development, and often provides a solution from the beginning of the standard discussion.
This makes the certification of the standard very important. In 2019, the WiFi Alliance proposed the concept of WiFi certification, which has been accepted by the majority of users. Therefore, whether it is the current WiFi 6 or WiFi 7, it represents the continuous evolution of technical standards.
WiFi 7 can be traced back to IEEE 802.11ax, and from the time of the release of 802.11ax Draft 1.0, major companies in the industry have been developing chips, and the evolution has been to Draft 8.0, and the entire industry has been following suit. All the way up to the current 802.11be, there are already enough devices and chips on the market. With the freezing of standards, the testing requirements of related chips and devices continue to increase.
New technologies drive new demands for testing
So, how has WiFi 7 improved over its predecessor, WiFi 6? In short, it boils down to three points: higher data throughput, lower latency, and more flexible access control.
The theoretical peak data throughput rate of WiFi 6 can reach 9.6 Gbps, and in the era of WiFi 7, the peak throughput can reach 46 Gbps. Of course, this requires the use of all of the new technologies involved in the WiFi 7 specification. For example, use the maximum bandwidth allowed at 320MHz, use the highest-order modulation allowed by WiFi 7, and use the multilink simultaneous operation and multilink aggregation allowed by WiFi 7.
WiFi 7 also supports flexible allocation on the spectrum. Prior to WiFi 6, a spectrum could only be allocated to one user. WiFi 6 introduces OFDMA orthogonal frequency division multiple access technology, which simply means that a spectrum can be used by multiple users at the same time, which greatly improves efficiency. In the WiFi 7 era, the technology has been further enhanced, allowing a portion or multiple parts of the spectrum to be allocated to a single user. All of these greatly improve the efficiency of data transmission.
In terms of applications, new applications for WiFi7 are also emerging, such as mixed reality devices, which are very popular now. On the other hand, now whether it is a business or a home, there are more and more devices connected to WiFi. This puts forward higher requirements for the flexible access of WiFi 7 and the flexible allocation of spectrum. The emergence of all these new technologies and applications will drive new requirements for WiFi 7 testing.
The demand for test equipment has reached a new peak
As the standard protocol of WiFi 7 becomes more complex and the related applications become more diverse, there is a need for higher quality test equipment. A few days ago, Detech launched a new generation of E7515W wireless connection test platform. The product is a further development of Keysight's comprehensive 5G test platform, the E7515B, which provides Wi-Fi 7-related RF testing and performance testing capabilities.
First, the device simplifies WiFi 7 testing and provides a one-stop solution for emulating WiFi devices and network traffic to cover all new use cases in the IEEE 802.11be standard. Second, the E7515W has the ability to test multiple loads and high volumes, emulating hundreds of end devices at once, which is three times the number of existing solutions on the market today, and emulating network traffic without the need for additional equipment. The third is the ability to support WiFi 7 networks using 4x4 MIMO and 320 MHz channel bandwidth, WiFi 7 signaling and throughput testing of end devices and access points, and the ability to cover the latest 802.11 standard.
Particularly simple, the E7515W can support both 5G and WiFi connectivity on a single platform, supporting the testing of both user-side (STA) devices and WiFi routers, as well as WiFi7's very comprehensive RF and performance measurement and analysis. Allows customers to see the results of all major test items on one screen. In addition, in terms of testing fixed wireless access equipment that has a large market abroad, that is, converting 5G into WiFi signals, it can also be supported on the hardware platform.
With the continuous implementation of WiFi 7 technology, the testing and certification of chip and module manufacturers in the WiFi industry chain will become a new industry hotspot. There will also be a new peak in demand for related test equipment.
Source | Set micronet
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