Wi-Fi 6 will be widely popular this year, and Wi-Fi 7 will be released next year: the speed can reach 40Gbps

Wi-Fi wireless network has become an indispensable part of home and travel. After one or two years of hard work, Wi-Fi 6 has penetrated into devices such as mobile phones, routers and laptops. This year, the shipment volume of Wi-Fi 6 can reach 2.3 billion, and the penetration rate on PC computers has exceeded 50%. Next year, we will see the release of Wi-Fi 7.

The theoretical speed of Wi-Fi 6 can reach 10Gbps. Currently, many mobile phones and routers can achieve an actual speed of 2Gbps. It is no problem for the network speed to exceed the wired bandwidth, and the latency is also very low. Therefore, more and more mobile phones, routers and computers already support Wi-Fi 6, and the industry chain is expanding rapidly.

According to data from the Wi-Fi Alliance, shipments of Wi-Fi 6 devices are expected to reach 2.3 billion in 2022, and there will be 350 million enhanced Wi-Fi 6E devices. The penetration rate on the PC side will exceed 50%, and on the router side will exceed 40%. This year will be the year of great popularization of Wi-Fi 6.

After Wi-Fi 6/6E matured, manufacturers such as MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Realtek are also actively preparing for the next-generation Wi-Fi 7 technology. The Wi-Fi 7 chips of the three manufacturers have been successfully developed. Among them, Qualcomm and MediaTek have made faster progress and will be able to mass-produce this year, while Realtek's Wi-Fi 7 chips will not be available until the second half of 2023.

It is reported that Wi-Fi 7 will support three major frequency bands: 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz. Through 320MHz channels and 4K QAM quadrature amplitude modulation technology, the transmission speed will be up to 2.4 times faster than Wi-Fi 6 under the condition of using the same number of antennas. The theoretical peak network speed can reach 46Gbps. However, considering transmission, interference and other situations, the final actual peak speed after commercial use is expected to be around 40Gbps.

However, Wi-Fi 7 devices will not be available on the market until at least 2023, and complete specifications and mature products will not be available until 2024.