Wi-Fi 8 would be better than Wi-Fi 7. However, Wi-Fi 8 will prioritize reliability over higher speeds, suggests a paper submitted by MediaTek.
How fast is Wi-Fi 8?
Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6e are still relatively new. Wi-Fi 7 is marginally better than Wi-Fi 6 but it isn’t ratified yet, which means routers with Wi-Fi 7 aren’t yet mainstream. Still, the development of the Wi-Fi 8 standard is being developed by multiple companies.
Currently, Wi-Fi 8 is known as IEEE 802.11bn. Each iteration of the Wi-Fi standard takes several years to develop, approve, and then deploy. Wi-Fi 7 isn’t a common Wi-Fi standard but that hasn’t stopped companies like MediaTek racing ahead.
MediaTek’s Filogic wireless division has been at the forefront of Wi-Fi 8 development. However, consumers and general internet users shouldn’t expect routers with Wi-Fi 8 to enter the market before the second half of 2028.
The Wi-Fi 8 standard could support networks with minimum aggregated throughput reaching 100Gbps. In simple words, a single Wi-Fi 8 router should be able to reliably handle multiple gigabit-speed connections. However, according to MediaTek, Wi-Fi 8 is being developed with reliability as a top priority.
How will Wi-Fi 8 improve reliability?
It appears American companies aren’t leading the race in developing Wi-Fi 8. According to PCWorld, several Chinese companies are collectively the driving force behind the wireless evolution.
Wi-Fi 8 is unofficially known as IEEE 802.11bn Ultra High Reliability. As the name indicates, leading companies are prioritizing reliability over speed for this iteration of the wireless networking standard.
MediaTek has presented a paper that suggests Wi-Fi 8 or 802.11bn will be almost identical to Wi-Fi 7 or 802.11be. The Chinese company specializing in making chipsets has indicated the Wi-Fi 8 working group is focused on improving reliability.
The working group is relying on technologies such as Coordinated Spatial Reuse (Co-SR), Coordinated Beamforming (Co-BF), and Dynamic Subchannel Operation to improve reliability.
Coordinated Spatial Reuse enables Access Points to harmonize their power outputs. An extension of the prevalent beamforming techniques, Coordinated Beamforming can route signals more accurately between devices in a crowded network. Meanwhile, Dynamic Subchannel Operation reportedly assigns data subchannels to devices based on their capabilities and needs.
Considering the path of development, it seems Wi-Fi 8 might not be faster than Wi-Fi 7. However, routers supporting Wi-Fi 8 would be able to decide how and where to beam Wi-Fi signals, over multiple channels, to ensure a robust and reliable connection. If Wi-Fi 8 can boost reliability, it would not only help improve connections but also lower noise and congestion.
