At the beginning of this year, the Wi-Fi Alliance officially announced the Wi-Fi 7 standard at the CES exhibition, which means that terminal products of Wi-Fi 7 have started to be officially sold.
Wireless network technology has been upgraded from generation to generation, which has also promoted the growth of transmission speed. In recent years, the high-speed transmission requirements of AI and the metaverse, coupled with the huge connection requirements of the Internet of Things, have driven the rapid upgrade of wireless network technology, entering the Wi-Fi 7 era, and also announcing that the wireless network transmission speed is 4.8 times higher than the previous generation.
Since entering 2024, more and more manufacturers have released a variety of Wi-Fi 7 router products.
01
MediaTek Wi-Fi 7 Solution
At present, in the field of Wi-Fi 7, MediaTek's solutions are: Filogic 880 and Filogic 380, suitable for operators, retail, commercial and consumer electronics markets.
MediaTek Filogic 880 is based on a 6nm process, equipped with a powerful application processor including a quad-core Arm Cortex-A73 and an advanced network processing unit, supporting multiple key technologies of Wi-Fi 7 such as 4096-QAM, 320MHz, MRU, and MLO. It mainly provides the industry's advanced router and gateway solutions for operators, retail and commercial markets.MediaTek Filogic 380 is a wireless connection system-on-a-chip that integrates Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3, primarily empowering a wide range of wireless terminal devices including smartphones, tablets, televisions, laptops, set-top boxes, and OTT streaming devices.
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It is understood that MediaTek's Filogic series chips have been widely applied in various routers such as ZTE, TP-Link, Redmi, ASUS, and Banana Pi.
TP-LINK 7DR3610 Wireless Router
The TP-LINK 7DR3610 uses a Dapu AN7563PT processor (integrated with 2.4G) + MediaTek MT7991BV/7976CN 5G chip solution. It boasts a bandwidth of 3600Mbps, has implemented 4K QAM, and features port aggregation, port stacking, Easy Mesh networking, child internet protection, and four game accelerator modules. Both in terms of performance and playability, it is quite excellent.
Ruijie Scorpio BE72Pro Gaming Router
The Ruijie Scorpio BE72Pro uses the Filogic 860 Wi-Fi 7 wireless connection platform. It provides 5 2.5G network ports + 4 gigabit network ports, as well as a USB interface, supports WAN/LAN aggregation, and features the GameFast game acceleration engine 3.0, supporting AI anti-shake, AI flow control, and AI noise reduction.
The five 2.5G network ports are individually occupied, which can be directly connected to NAS, gaming consoles, televisions, and computers to meet the high-quality audio and video needs of gamers, and also supports dual WAN/dual LAN up to 5Gbps aggregation.
02
Broadcom Wi-Fi 7 SolutionBroadcom's Wi-Fi 7 chips include the BCM6765, BCM47722, and BCM4390.
The BCM6765 and BCM47722 are designed for residential and commercial Wi-Fi platforms, respectively, supporting 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz frequency bands, with Dual 2x2 support and a transmission rate of up to 8.64Gbps. The enterprise Wi-Fi platform BCM47722 also integrates Bluetooth and Zigbee/802.15.4 support to meet IoT requirements. Both platforms are equipped with a quad-core ARMv8 CPU and a 10G PHY.
The client solution is the BCM4390, which supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz or 6GHz frequency bands, but the channel width is reduced from 320MHz to 160MHz. The PHY rate is 3.2Gbps. In addition, the BCM4390 integrates Bluetooth Denver, Thread, and Zigbee support. The new BCM4390 also supports Broadcom's proprietary SpeedBooster technology.
ASUS RT-BE88U
As a high-end Wi-Fi 7 router, the RT-BE88U boasts impressive specifications, featuring a Broadcom BCM4916 quad-core processor with a clock speed of up to 2.6GHz, coupled with 2GB of DDR4 RAM, delivering exceptional performance. It also has a 10-port configuration, including dual 10GbE ports and four 2.5GbE ports, offering great flexibility and expandability. However, the price is relatively high, above 2000.
Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7 Solutions
Qualcomm's strategy is essentially to integrate Wi-Fi chips into SoC chips, providing a platform-based solution.
The Qualcomm IPQ53xx series consists of five models: IPQ5332, IPQ5322, IPQ5312, IPQ5302, and IPQ5300. Currently, many routers on the market use Qualcomm's IPQ5322 Wi-Fi 7 home networking solution.The IPQ5322 is a highly integrated Wi-Fi 7 System on Chip (SoC) designed for high-performance, energy-efficient, and cost-effective wireless networking applications, suitable for home routers, mesh nodes, carrier gateways, and enterprise access points. It includes a Wi-Fi subsystem that supports 2.4G 2x2/40 IEEE802.11be and can be configured with different Wi-Fi 7 wireless transceiver chips via a PCIe interface. The networking subsystem supports multiple interfaces, including two USXGMII, SGMII+, SGMII interfaces, and two SerDes supporting external 10/5/2.5/1 GbE PHYs.
H3C Wi-Fi 7 NE36 Pro Router
In terms of chips, it uses Qualcomm's IPQ5312 chip solution. In terms of wireless speed, the upright Wi-Fi 7 NE36Pro router achieves a dual-band concurrent speed of 3570Mbps, which is 1.2 times that of the entry-level Wi-Fi 6 3000M router, reaching a wireless speed of 3600M.
In terms of MLO dual-band aggregation, it allows a single device to connect to two frequency bands at the same time, achieving bandwidth aggregation, with a 50% increase in speed compared to the previous generation of Wi-Fi 6.
In terms of stability, the Preamble Puncture technology is used to puncture and shield some of the interfered channels, reducing bandwidth waste and improving spectrum utilization.
TPLINK BE6500
The CPU is Qualcomm's IPQ5322, with a quad-core 1.5GHz and 1G of large memory. The maximum wireless speed is 6500Mbps, coupled with 4*4 MIMO and 160MHz bandwidth, the signal coverage is also very good. All four ports are 2.5G ports, supporting blind insertion, port aggregation, APP control, Mesh networking, etc.
Xiaomi BE3600 2.5G
This wireless router uses Qualcomm's quad-core IPQ5312 solution, with the CPU integrating a 2.4GHz RF module, and the 5GHz band is Qualcomm QCN6402. The maximum wireless speed is 3600M, with four external antennas, and the port is a 2.5G port + Gigabit port. It supports Mesh and APP control.
Xiaomi BE6500 PROThe CPU is Qualcomm's IPQ5322, a quad-core 1.5GHz processor. It uses the same chip as TP's BE6500. With 512M of flash memory and 1G of super large memory, it supports a maximum wireless rate of 6500Mbps.
In terms of signal, it has 6 high-gain built-in WiFi antennas, 5G supports 4*4MIMO and 160MHz bandwidth, but 2.4G is still 2x2. In terms of ports, it has 4 full 2.5G ports, WAN and LAN ports, both support aggregation, and support IPTV.
Xiaomi BE7000
The CPU is Qualcomm's IPQ9554, a quad-core 1.5GHz processor with A73 architecture. The NPU is also a dual-core 1.5GHz processor. Like the BE6500 Pro, it also has 1G of super large memory.
In terms of signal, it has 7 external high-power gain antennas and one built-in WiFi antenna. Both 2.4G and 5G support 4x4MIMO and 160MHz bandwidth. However, only the 5G band supports WiFi 7, and 2.4G does not.
04
"Low-cost" Wi-Fi 7
The update and replacement of Wi-Fi is much faster than we think.
After five years of legend, Wi-Fi 5 was replaced by Wi-Fi 6 in 2019, but was immediately overturned by Wi-Fi 6E a year later. Now, we are in the first year of commercialization of Wi-Fi 7.
When many people think that Wi-Fi 7 routers are still some distance from the public, Xiaomi routers such as BE3600 2.5G and TP-LINK BE5100, which are positioned in the entry-level consumer market, have directly reduced the price to less than 300 yuan. Even products like Xiaomi BE6500 Pro and Zhongxing Wentai BE7200Pro+, which are positioned in the mainstream market with the "Pro" suffix, are priced around 600 yuan.Such mainstream pricing makes it easy to assume that the "30Gbps, faster than 5G Wi-Fi 7" network has now been fully deployed. However, "low-priced Wi-Fi 7" may not be the real Wi-Fi 7. When it comes to this point, it is necessary to further explore the differences between "real Wi-Fi 7" and "fake Wi-Fi 7".
Comparing the differences of the recent generations of Wi-Fi standards, it can be seen that Wi-Fi has introduced new tricks on the territory of Wi-Fi 6.
Firstly, the channel bandwidth has doubled, from 160MHz to 320MHz. Just like the original two-lane road, which would occasionally get congested during peak hours, the expansion of frequency width, from two lanes to four lanes, allows more vehicles to run, no longer congested, and the rate gradually increases. Wi-Fi 7's maximum transmission rate can reach 46Gbps, which is three times that of Wi-Fi 6.
Secondly, the implementation of Multi-Link Operation (MLO) allows multiple frequency bands or multiple channels within the same frequency band to transmit data simultaneously. Even if a frequency band or channel encounters interference, the data transmission will not be interrupted, but automatically switch to other available channels to ensure the continuity and reliability of data transmission.
The most important item is the increase in frequency bands. Wi-Fi 7 will support more frequency bands, including 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz. Before this, Wi-Fi 6 supported two frequency bands, 2.4GHz and 5GHz, and Wi-Fi 6E only supported the 6GHz frequency band (Wi-Fi devices are backward compatible).
However, due to the allocation of frequency bands in different regions, the 6GHz frequency band supported by Wi-Fi 7 will vary domestically and internationally. For example, the United States, Canada, South Korea, and others have allocated the entire 6GHz frequency band (5.925 - 7.125GHz) to Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7.
Some countries, on the other hand, have allocated the low-frequency band of 6GHz (5.925 - 6.425GHz) to Wi-Fi, and the remaining frequency band (6.425 - 7.125GHz) has been allocated to IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications, including 5G/6G systems), such as the European Union, Japan, Australia, and other countries.
However, domestically, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has taken the lead in 2023 to allocate 6GHz (6425-7125MHz) for 5G/6G systems. In the short term, our country may not be able to use the 320MHz frequency width of the 6GHz frequency band, and there will be some castration in performance.
The ideal specification should be a combination of 10G WAN + full 2.5G LAN dedicated bandwidth. However, looking at the products currently on the market, 99% of Wi-Fi 7 routers only use a 2.5G WAN port, and the specifications of the wired LAN are even equipped with gigabit interfaces, and the data transmission bottleneck is self-evident. In addition, in the wireless part, most of the current Wi-Fi 7 routers are only dual-band products (2.4GHz+5GHz). Therefore, the "low-priced Wi-Fi 7 routers" released by some domestic manufacturers have no essential difference from Wi-Fi 6 routers.From an industry perspective, the adoption rate of the Wi-Fi 7 market is slowing down. The emergence of Wi-Fi 7 is ahead of market demand, and for most consumers, there is no need to use routers with thousands of megabytes of throughput; Wi-Fi 6 is already sufficient. This is also why the "low-cost Wi-Fi 7" on the market is so popular, and many recommenders say: "The necessity and urgency of upgrading to Wi-Fi 7 routers are almost zero."
Wi-Fi 7 Development Year
No matter what, 2024 will be the year of the development of Wi-Fi 7 in China.
Specifically, in terms of shipments, IDC predicts that the shipment of Wi-Fi 7 APs in the Chinese market in 2024 will exceed 20%, and the compound annual growth rate over the next three years will reach 50%, showing an extremely rapid growth trend.
Qorvo's Senior Marketing Manager for the Wireless Connectivity Business Division in the Asia-Pacific region, Lin Jianfu, also believes that compared to the foreign market, which is still mainly focused on Wi-Fi 6 products, the Chinese consumer-level Wi-Fi 7 router terminal market has shown an extremely fierce competitive situation.
Like any other new generation of communication technology, the launch of Wi-Fi 7 will also have priority landing industry scenarios. From the industry's perspective, education, manufacturing, and medical industries will be the first to upgrade to Wi-Fi 7 networks. From the perspective of scenarios, office and business-related production scenarios will be the first to migrate to Wi-Fi 7.
Taking the education industry as an example, Huawei has conducted an innovative pilot of Wi-Fi 7 with Southwest Jiaotong University, which has a campus area of 5,000 acres and more than 50,000 teachers and students. Wi-Fi 7 networks are provided in classrooms, libraries, and other areas to ensure that teachers and students can learn online courses with high concurrency without any lag; in the lecture hall, it has met the high concurrency demand of nearly 300 people's network access, ensuring the smooth convening of key meetings; at the freshman welcome site, the maximum speed of Wi-Fi 7 measured on-site exceeded 4000Mbps, which is nearly four times higher.
From a technical and market perspective, the application prospect of Wi-Fi 7 is undoubtedly huge. At present, Xiaomi, TP-LINK, Huawei, ZTE, and H3C have all launched Wi-Fi 7 router products, and have initially covered various price segments, providing users with different budgets with the space to choose.
At the same time, mobile phones supporting Wi-Fi 7 are also being launched one after another. In the future, more devices will support Wi-Fi 7 (including PCs, tablets, TVs, etc.), accelerating the maturity of the Wi-Fi 7 industry chain.
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