Avoid Challenges When Planning for Wi-Fi 7Avoid Challenges When Planning for Wi-Fi 7

Former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker once said, "Proper preparation prevents poor performance."

When considering upgrades to Wi-Fi 7, or 802.11be, enterprises need to keep Baker's words in mind and look at more than commonly touted features to ensure a smooth deployment.

Wi-Fi 7 products offer improved performance and efficiency over , especially in high-density environments common among enterprises. Wi-Fi 7 can better manage simultaneous traffic from multiple users and sometimes reduce the number of access points (APs) needed, simplifying network management and maintenance.

The IEEE standard 802.11be works with several radio frequency bands, including 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and, most recently, 6 GHz. It can deliver theoretical link speeds of up to 40,000 Mbps, depending on the configuration and environment. Wi-Fi 7 vastly improves the quality and resolution of video streaming, thanks to 16 spatial streams and multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) technology. Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) enables multiple link adaptation and error correction to improve data reliability. Wi-Fi 7 devices are also compatible with their most recent predecessor, Wi-Fi 6E.

Do APs Support the 6 GHz Band?

For enterprises upgrading to Wi-Fi 7, it's important to determine whether the AP considered supports the new 6 GHz band. Support of the 6 GHz band is implied with a Wi-Fi 6E label; however, it is not a requirement with Wi-Fi 7.

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