On January 8, 2024, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced the launch of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7, marking the official arrival of the WIFI 7 era! This certification introduces a range of powerful new features aimed at enhancing Wi-Fi performance and improving connectivity in various environments. WIFI 7 supports emerging applications such as multi-user AR/VR/XR, immersive 3D training, electronic gaming, hybrid work, industrial IoT, and automotive technologies. It is anticipated that by 2028, Wi-Fi 7 will see the market entry of 2.1 billion devices, with smartphones, PCs, tablets, and access points among the early adopters of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 certification.
Broadcom, CommScope's RUCKUS Networks, Intel, MaxLinear, MediaTek, and Qualcomm, among other companies, have formed the certification testbed and are among the first to receive Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 devices. The introduction of this certification will drive widespread adoption of Wi-Fi 7, offering users a faster, more efficient, and reliable wireless network experience.
WIFI 7 introduces a range of cutting-edge features, such as 320MHz bandwidth, 4096-QAM, Multi-RU multi-link operation, enhanced MU-MIMO, and multi-AP collaboration technologies, aiming to provide higher data transfer rates and lower latency.
Among them, Multi-AP Collaboration is a significant innovation in Wi-Fi 7. Within the 802.11 protocol framework, various access points (APs) primarily engage in collaborative activities such as channel optimization selection, AP transmit power adjustment, load balancing, and spatial reuse for efficient resource utilization. However, in practice, the collaboration between APs is relatively limited. To further enhance the efficiency of radio frequency resource utilization in specific areas, Wi-Fi 7 introduces collaborative scheduling among multiple APs. This includes coordination planning in both time and frequency domains for neighboring cells, interference coordination between neighboring cells, and distributed MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output), effectively reducing interference between APs and significantly improving the utilization of airborne resources.
The Multi-AP Collaboration scheduling in Wi-Fi 7 encompasses the following aspects：
Coordinated Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (Co-OFDMA)：
By coordinating and allocating subcarrier resources among different APs, multiple APs can simultaneously engage in parallel communication on different subcarriers. This allows for the sharing of spectrum resources among multiple APs, thereby improving spectrum utilization efficiency and network capacity.
Coordinated Spatial Reuse (Co-SR)：
Coordinating the transmission and reception time slots of different APs in the spatial domain, allowing different APs to simultaneously transmit data in adjacent areas, reduces interference between different APs, thus improving spatial reuse efficiency, network capacity, and throughput.
Coordinated Beamforming (Co-BF)：
Through Coordinated Beamforming, multiple APs collaborate to concentrate signal energy and alter antenna radiation direction, transmitting the wireless signal in a more directional manner to specific user devices. This enhances signal coverage, improves link quality, and increases transmission efficiency.
Coordinated Joint Transmission (Co-JT)：
Allowing the combination of data from multiple APs into a more powerful signal, simultaneously transmitting coordinated data to the same user device, improving the reception signal quality, transmission rate, and coverage range of the user device.
Coordinated Time Division Multiple Access (Co-TDMA):
Allowing multiple APs to transmit data in different time slots, through coordinated scheduling and allocation of time resources, avoiding conflicts and interference between APs, reducing transmission latency, providing a more stable and reliable connection, and improving network capacity and spectrum utilization efficiency.
Basic Service Set Coloring Mechanism (BSS Coloring):
By identifying and distinguishing different BSSs, it avoids mutual interference between multiple Wi-Fi routers or APs on the same channel, thereby enhancing the performance and reliability of the Wi-Fi network.
Clear Channel Assessment (CCA):
Dynamic Channel Sensing technology used to detect, perceive, and assess channel activities in the surrounding environment. It adjusts based on real-time channel conditions, aiding APs in selecting relatively idle channels to enhance performance and reduce interference with other Aps.
In the wave of technological innovation in Wi-Fi 7, Shenzhen Ofeixin Tech Co., Ltd.'s O7851PM wireless Wi-Fi 7 card has emerged as a standout performer. As a leading product with Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 certification, it is designed with the Qualcomm WCN7851 chip, supporting the M.2 PCIe interface with a transmission rate of up to 5.8Gbps. This card features support for the aforementioned Multi-AP collaboration technology and also boasts ultra-low latency (below 2ms), 4096QAM, 320MHz bandwidth, Multi-RU mechanism, Multi-LINK multi-link mechanism, CMU-MIMO, and other Wi-Fi 7 technologies. With its exceptional performance and innovative design, this Wi-Fi 7 card module is poised to be the pinnacle choice leading the Wi-Fi 7 era, providing users with an outstanding wireless connectivity experience.
This article has introduced the Multi-AP Collaboration technology of WIFI 7. Subsequent content will cover other WIFI 7 technologies. Stay tuned for more updates and the latest information in the wireless industry. Thank you for your attention.
