Now the Wi-Fi 8 standard is in developmentand it’s funny because the Wi-Fi 7 standard is still starting to take off. Basically, it’s quite normal, these work cycles are common in the technology industry because they allow for a greater pace of innovation and accelerate the achievement of very important advances.

MediaTek was the first to comment on some of the most important advances that the Wi-Fi 8 standard will bring, and the truth is that we were surprised that It will not mean any progress in terms of performance compared to the current Wi-Fi 7, as both will have a maximum speed of 23 Gbps (gigabits per second).

However, this does not mean that this standard will not bring important improvements on other fronts. When comparing the two standards directly, we see that Wi-Fi 8 will have a coordinated controlled waiting time Instead of limitations, it will retain support for OFDMA and multilink operations and introduce the following new features:

• Multi-AP coordination.
• Coordinated spatial reuse.
• Coordinated beamforming.
• Dynamic subchannel operation.

One of the most important differences between the two standards will be the greater output efficiency of Wi-Fi 8. This will allow for much more stable download speeds, avoid large oscillations that we can find by current standards. This is important because it will enable this type of wireless connection stronger and much more reliable.

Coordinated spatial reuse will play a very important role in this regard, as it allows the creation of access points to harmonize performance. In this way, the connection of the nearest devices can be optimized without affecting the connection of the farthest ones, improving output capacity by 25%.

As for coordinated beamforming, it is an extension of the classic techniques known in English as “beamforming” that we have already seen in previous standards. This new version can more accurate routing of signals between deviceswhich significantly improves performance on busy networks.

With dynamic subchannel operation, data subchannels are assigned to devices based on their needs and capabilities. So, for example, if we are downloading the same file with several machines, this technology automatically assigns a subchannel to the most advanced ones to make the download faster. This technology already exists in Wi-Fi 7, but must be managed manually.

Overall, this new standard aims to improve the user experience in networks and focuses on solving some of the problems that are common in busy networks, which tend to be the most problematic. Wi-Fi 8 is identified with the nomenclature 11bn, while Wi-Fi 7 is identified as 11be and is expected to arrive between 2028 and 2029.

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