Introduction to 802.11be | Wi-Fi 7 Training

Introduction to 802.11be, Wi-Fi 7 Training

Introduction to Wi-Fi 7 Training is a 2-day course that focuses on new Wi-Fi 7 enhancements and how organizations can benefit.

The worldwide Wi-Fi market is rapidly expanding, and with that comes a greater pressure on businesses to offer not only the best, but a continually evolving product for consumers.

One of the most anticipated features of Wi-Fi 7 is the double capacity/double streams characteristic to meet the growing traffic demands generated by the increasing number of Wi-Fi devices.

Wi-Fi 7 increases the number of spatial streams from 8 to 16. The theoretical physical transmission rate is thus doubled compared with Wi-Fi 6. With Wi-Fi 7’s 16 streams, every device has enough bandwidth to run smoothly.

Wi-Fi 7 will operate on the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz radio bands and mitigate network traffic and interference with Multi-Link Operation (MLO) technology. This will improve throughput and reduce latency by enabling devices to simultaneously send and receive data over multiple radio bands as though they were a single, aggregated connection.

Wi-Fi 7 is also expected to offer a Restricted Target Wake Time feature, enabling routers to reserve bandwidth for specified data transmissions. This should help to optimize network resources and conserve client battery life.

Wi-Fi 7 and 5G will work together in edge computing scenarios, cloud architectures, and private wireless networks.

The discussion regarding Wi-Fi 7 replacing wired connections (wired Ethernet) has been somewhat controversial. Many experts in this field believe that’s not possible.

However, some companies like Taiwanese chip firm MediaTek believes the Wi-Fi wireless connection architecture will be a viable alternative to wired networks such as Ethernet even in applications that call for very high throughput, and predicts it will be used as the backbone of home, office and industrial networks.

Analysts report that the whole technological package of Wi-Fi 7 is a quantum leap over its predecessor, Wi-Fi 6, the new Wi-Fi on the block not that long ago.

Wi-Fi 7 is backward compatible with all previous iterations like Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5. That means that you won’t have to throw out all your existing wireless gear if you purchase a new Wi-Fi 7 router.

However, if you want to enjoy all the performance perks of Wi-Fi 7, you will need to connect to the routers with a Wi-Fi 7-based client.

IEEE plans to publish the 802.11be amendment sometime in 2024, with commercial deployment occurring around the same time.

Introduction to 802.11be,  Wi-Fi 7 Training Course by Tonex

Introduction to 802.11be, Wi-Fi 7 Training, is a  2-day technical course covering 802.11be amendment. 802.11be training, designated as Wi-Fi 7 is  the next significant milestone in the Wi-Fi long-term success story providing extremely high throughput and supporting real-time applications.

802.11be: Standard for Information technology–Telecommunications and information exchange between systems Local and metropolitan area networks–Specific requirements – Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications Amendment: Enhancements for Extremely High Throughput (EHT).

IEEE 802.11be Extremely High Throughput (EHT) is the next generation of the 802.11 IEEE standard designated as Wi-Fi 7.  It is built upon 802.11ax, focusing on WLAN indoor and outdoor operation with stationary and pedestrian speeds in the 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz frequency bands.

The main features of 802.11be are:

• 320 MHz bandwidth and more efficient utilization of non-contiguous spectrum,
• Multi-band/multi-channel aggregation and operation,
• 16 spatial streams and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) protocols enhancements,
• Multi-Access Point (AP) Coordination (e.g. coordinated and joint transmission),
• Enhanced link adaptation and retransmission protocol (e.g. Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ)),
• If needed, adaptation to regulatory rules specific to 6 GHz spectrum,
• Integrating Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) extensions for low-latency real-time traffic (IEEE 802.11aa).
• Additional features include 4096-QAM (4K-QAM), Contiguous and non-contiguous 320/160+160 MHz and 240/160+80 MHz bandwidth, Frame formats with improved forward-compatibility, Enhanced resource allocation in OFDMA, Optimized channel sounding that requires less airtime, Implicit channel sounding, More flexible preamble puncturing scheme and Support of direct links, managed by an access point.

Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E have already provided massive increases in speed and great improvements showing speeds two or three times greater than Wi-Fi 5.  Wi-Fi 7 will use the new 6GHz band in addition to 2.4GHz and 5GHz. 6GHz Wi-Fi steps this up even further, creating 14 new 80MHz channels and seven new 160MHz. The introduction of these channels and the existing network capacity should drastically increase data throughput in congested areas.

Uplink technology of Wi-Fi 7 brings better uplink capabilities through an advanced form of MU-MIMO that will be called UL MU-MIMO. CMU-MIMO allows mesh networking between all kinds of antennas to enable widespread MU-MIMO connections. Multi-band data management allows access to three fully separate bands – 2.4, 5, and 6GHz. Wi-Fi 7 improves support for applications that require deterministic latency, high reliability and quality of service (QoS). In addition, Wi-Fi 7 will be optimized for video applications, which will prove valuable in the enterprise space, but also inside homes for use cases like gaming, streaming and other smart-home devices and services.

Wi-Fi 7 will also bring lower latency, maximum data rate – 46 Gbps, although higher data rates may be achieved in some environments and configurations, as well as increased flexibility in using network and spectrum resources.

Topics Covered

Overview of Wi-Fi Evolution

• Legacy: 11 (1997), Wi-Fi 3: 11g (2003), Wi-Fi 2: 11a (1999), Wi-Fi 1: 11b (1999), and Wi-Fi 4: 11n (2009)
• Wi-Fi 5: 11ac (2013)
• Wi-Fi 6: 11ax (2019)
• Wi-Fi 6E: 11ax-2021 (2021)
• WiFi 7: 802.11be
• 6GHz Wi-Fi
• Overview of Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC)

Overview of Wi-Fi 7  

• EEE 802.11be standard, Wi-Fi 7
• Wi-Fi 7 focuses on physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) improvements
• Support reduced latency and jitter for time sensitive networking applications
• AR/VR, 4K and 8K video streaming, automotive, cloud computing, gaming and video applications
• Mission critical and industrial applications
• Wi-Fi 7 backward compatibility and coexistence with legacy devices in the 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz spectrum bands
• 802.11be vs. 802.11ax
• WiFi 6E vs. WiFi 7
• 802.11be: extremely high throughput, 4096 QAM, 320 MHz, MU-MIMO, time-sensitive
• networking, multi-link operation, implicit sounding, and distributed MU-MIMO, EHT PHY
• 320 MHz bandwidth
• Impact of 4K-QAM
• EDCA With 802 TSN features
• Enhanced OFDMA
• Preamble Puncturing
• Multi-Link Operation
• Multi-Link Channel Access
• Multi-RU
• OFDMA With Direct Link
• OFDMA for RTA
• Multi-Link Operation
• High orders of MU-MIMO and OFDMA
• Advanced PHY Techniques Improving Spectrum Efficiency
• Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ), FD operation, and Non-orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA)
• Multi-AP Cooperation
• MU-MIMO
• EDCA With 802 TSN Features
• Latency Analysis for EHT
• EDCA Improvements
• Overview of TSN
• Multi-Link Power Save
• Multi-Link Operation for RTA
• Channel Sounding Optimization

Advanced PHY Techniques Improving Spectrum Efficiency

• Full-Duplex
• Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA)
• Multi-AP Cooperation
• Coordinated Spatial Reuse (CSR)
• 11ax SR vs. CSR
• Coordinated OFDMA (Co-OFDMA)
• Null Steering
• Joint Transmission and Reception
• Channel Sounding Optimization
• Channel Sounding Induced Overhead
• Sounding Enhancements
• Explicit Feedback Overhead Reduction
• Implicit Sounding
• Trigger-Based UL Sounding Sequence
• Example of multi-AP sounding protocol
• Collecting Acknowledgments
• Example of OFDMA+MIMO transmission in 802.11be.
• Asynchronous (top) vs. synchronous (bottom) multi-link operation
• Duplicate Mode and Joint Mode

New Features in Wi-Fi 7

• Wi-Fi 7 Application Scenarios
• Throughput to 30 Gbps +
• Low-latency access
• Up to 320 MHz Bandwidth
• Multi-RU
• Higher-Order 4096-QAM
• Multi-Link Operation (MLO)
• More Data Streams and Enhanced MIMO
• Multi-AP Coordination320 MHz bandwidth and more efficient utilization of non-contiguous spectrum
• Multi-band/multi-channel aggregation and operation
• 16 spatial streams and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) protocols enhancements
• Multi-Access Point (AP) Coordination (e.g. coordinated and joint transmission)
• Enhanced link adaptation and retransmission protocol (e.g. Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ))

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™

• A-MPDU with A-MSDU
• Basic Trigger frame in HE MU PPDU
• BSRP Trigger frame
• Compressed BlockACK Rx
• Compressed BlockACK Tx
• DL MU-MIMO
• DL OFDMA
• LDPC Rx
• LDPC Tx
• MCS 8-9 Rx
• MCS 8-9 Tx
• MCS 10-11 Rx
• MCS 10-11 Tx
• MU EDCA Parameter Set element
• MU-BAR Trigger frame
• MU-RTS Trigger frame
• Multi-BSSID
• Operating Mode
• SU beamformer
• TXOP RTS Threshold
• UL OFDMA
• TWT

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6E

• Wi-Fi 6E and 6 GHz operations
• What Is 6GHz Wi-Fi?
• Wi-Fi 6E: Expanding Wi-Fi into 6 GHz spectrum
• Global harmonization of 6 GHz spectrum
• Wi-Fi 6E Highlights
• Key capabilities
• Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)
• Multi-user multiple input, multiple output (multi-user MIMO)
• 160 MHz channel utilization capability
• Target wake time (TWT)
• 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation mode (1024-QAM)

Overview of a WiFi 6E Certified Product Example (Wi-Fi Alliance)

• 4 GHz Spectrum Capabilities
• 5 GHz Spectrum Capabilities
• 6 GHz Spectrum Capabilities
• Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6E™
• Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™
• Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ a
• Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ ac
• Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ b
• Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ g
• Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ n
• Wi-Fi Enhanced Open™ 2021-01

WiFi 6E Security

• Protected Management Frames
• WPA2™-Enterprise 2018-04
• WPA2™-Personal 2021-01
• WPA3™-Enterprise 2020-02
• WPA3™-Personal 2019-08
• WPA™-Enterprise
• WPA™-Personal

Introduction to 802.11be, WiFi 7 Training