Wi-Fi 8 is the first wireless upgrade in years that isn't chasing speed, and home networks need it
Wi-Fi 8, officially dubbed 'Ultra High Reliability' by the IEEE, marks a shift from the relentless pursuit of speed to improving real-world network reliability. With Wi-Fi 7 already offering theoretical speeds up to 23Gbit per band, Wi-Fi 8 aims to boost effective throughput by 25%, cut latency by 25% in the worst-case scenarios, and reduce data loss by 25%. New technologies like distributed-tone resource units and interference mitigation pilots will help in crowded environments, making it a crucial upgrade for homes and workplaces packed with smart devices.
It may not be the most exciting upgrade on paper, but it could be the one you'll feel the most.
- avhception
We need reliable, real-world ~20mbit/s for our warehouse scanners, not 382722 theoretical Gbit/s 5cm from the access point. And roaming that works instead of stupid clients clinging to somewhere or being thrown into a reconnect loop when the AP tries to get them to roam.
I know this is theoretically possible today. But in the real world, I have inherited the setup, so AP locations are fixed for now, clients are some random old handhold motorola android devices and interference is high.
In comparison, DECT has been flawless in the same space. Set and forget, just works. I always wondered if we could have a kind of DECT proxy on the LAN, and have the ERP application talk to that proxy using DECT... I mean, it's a few EANs and stuff, DECT could handle this easily.
- CrzyLngPwd
I'd just like something that can manage 250m and a few large oak trees in between.
- riobard
> with Wi-Fi 7 reaching a maximum theoretical throughput of 23Gbit per band
Note to tech reports: do not EVER quote this metric as it is the most useless piece of information.
- bjackman
I recently upgraded from a WiFi 5 router to a WiFi 7 one, and my bandwidth increase was a grand 0% (that's ok though I was actually just sick of my old router's shitty UI!)
There is about 10m and a brick wall between my AP and my desk so yeah, a fancy new MCS that can theoretically deliver 25Gbps was just never gonna be useful to me.
Also I've worked on (other non-WiFi) 802.11 products where our competitive edge was all about interference motivation. Our competitors at trade shows would see the demos and say "that's fake, you guys are cheating". So I have the feeling that in general there might be alpha in more resilient wireless links.
- blfr
It's the first because we finally caught up on speed. We have it better than I imagined possible.
Last year, I saw 1600 Mbit/s from the Internet at a normie's place with an ISP-provided router. Still have a cat 6 cable around the living room but haven't used it in the last 2 years. Not exactly wifi but I routinely get 600-800 Mbit on 5g networks in crowded areas.
- ksec
In typical WiFi fashion, for all the WIFi 8 features to working perfectly and debugged we have to wait for WiFi 9 [1]. This was true with WiFi 5, WiFi 6 and WiFI 7.
Unfortunately IMO WiFi router brand selection is getting increasingly small. I have no issue or problem with using UniFI myself. But it is not something I could recommend to family and friends as they don't know how to set it up. Eero is not available to much of the world outside US. I just wish Apple revive its AirPort Express business.
[1] https://www.nokia.com/blog/advancing-connectivity-with-wi-fi...
- amelius
> Wi-Fi 8 is the first wireless upgrade in years that isn’t chasing speed, and home networks need it
What is "it" referring to? The speed? Or the upgrade?
- Reason077
Oh no. I haven't even upgraded to WiFi 7 yet!