Understanding Wi-Fi 8 Technology and How It Compares to Wi-Fi 7

Wi-Fi 8 is coming soon but do we even need it here is everything you need to know about Wi-Fi 8 technology and we'll even compare it to Wi-Fi 7 and don't worry we're going to keep these Concepts simple so you can easily understand them Wi-Fi 8 also known as 802.11 BN ultra high reliability is the newest wireless standard being developed by mediatech if you're not familiar with mediatech they were on the front lines of developing Wi-Fi 7 so it's not their first rodeo so we all know that the faster your Wi-Fi signal is the better but if you can't connect consistently then the speed doesn't even matter however Wi-Fi 8 is designed to make your connections more reliable so you can enjoy those fast speeds with Wi-Fi 8 the emphasis isn't on pure speed or bandwidth but instead on improving the user experience by making the signal more reliable and consistent to be clear each progression in the evolution of Wi-Fi takes several years to discuss develop ratify and then deploy in Wi-Fi 7 the current standard hasn't even been ratified as of the time of this video upload however Wi-Fi 7 should be ratified sometime in 2025 but that's not stopping the development of Wi-Fi 8 and here's everything you need to know it appears that Wi-Fi 8 will look virtually identical to Wi-Fi 7 in three key areas first the maximum physical layer rate will be the same at 23 gbits per second second it will use the exact same frequency bands the 2.4 the 5 and the 6 GHz bands and third it will have the exact same 496 Q modulation across a maximum Channel bandwidth of 320 MHz and to be clear a Wi-Fi 8 router will not get 23 gbits per second of bandwidth the actual throughput in a clean or laboratory environment is around 80% of the hypothetical Peak throughput and actual real world tests are far less but those speeds do sound amazing and it's great for marketing Wi-Fi 7 and Wi-Fi 8 routers so what exactly will Wi-Fi 8 do differently than Wi-Fi 7 Wi-Fi 8 will change how your client devices interact with multiple access points think of this as an evolution of how your cell phone or laptop interacts with your networking equipment over time Wi-Fi has evolved from communication between one laptop and a router over a single Channel and channel hopping routed different clients to different bands when Wi-Fi 6E was developed a dedicated 6 GHz band was added sometimes as a dedicated back haul between your home's access points or mesh nodes essentially it's the backbone connection between mesh Network nodes using the 6 GHz Spectrum now mesh networks are more common giving your laptop a variety of access points channels and frequencies to choose from so how will Wi-Fi 8 improve Wi-Fi technology well there are four key Concepts to this new wireless technology first coordinated spatial reuse second coordinated beam forming third Dynamic subchannel operation and fourth new data rate now these four Concepts sound complicated but here is a simple rundown first let's talk about coordinated spatial reuse or cosr and this solves a major problem in networking in simple terms this helps access points communicate better with each other and client devices especially over greater distances and current testing shows that cosr could increase the overall system throughput by 15 to 25% and that's a big Improvement now let's talk about coordinated beam forming in simple terms cobf allows access points to talk to one another figure out which devices want the signal and which ones don't and allow the mesh access point to steer the signal away from the device that does not want to be connected I think I would have called it selected beam forming but what ever the throughput offered by cobf showed an increase of 20 to 50% if it's anywhere near 50% then that's a game changer third let's talk about Dynamic subchannel operation or DSO in simple terms this fixes the issue with multiple devices downloading the same file from the same network essentially DSO would allow a newer device like a laptop or cell phone to be on a different subchannel to download the file faster think of it as an HOV lane according to mediatech DSO could push data throughput 80% or higher and once again that is an amazing jump in throughput and lastly let's talk about new data rates you may not be aware of what's called the MCS index the modulation coding scheme for Wi-Fi in simple terms it's basically a table that helps routers determine speed of connected devices the problem is the further you are away from the router the slower your speeds will step down or the rate however mediatech believes by improving MCS divisions we could see an overall Improvement in transmission rates between 5 and 30% and once again that's a solid Improvement again the evolution of Wi-Fi depends on how quickly the standard can move through the regulatory process and Wi-Fi 7 was expected to be approved by September 2024 but we're still waiting and believe it or not Sony's PS5 pro has not been approved for India because the country has yet to approve the 6 GHz channel that the Wi-Fi setting standard depends upon so Wi-Fi 7 and Wi-Fi 8 will not be used in India for the time being Wireless standards take about 6 years to develop and impatient Hardware makers rarely wait for Wi-Fi 8 the first products are expected to be available in early 2028 even as the final approval should be due at the end of that year it is worth noting however the race to Perpetual higher and higher speeds is pausing for now and with Wi-Fi 8 the emphasis now appears to be on improving the overall user experience first and foremost and and to be honest I think focusing on reliable and consistent internet connections makes more sense than trying to increase some theoretical speed that nobody will ever achieve and sometimes we have to pause or take a step back before we can take a step forward and let me know what you think about Wi-Fi 8 and Wi-Fi 7 what are your thoughts and with that I'll see you guys and gals in the next video real soon high five peace