The most recent advancement in wireless technology standards is called Wi-Fi 7. By offering significant advancements in speed, capacity, and efficiency, Wi-Fi 7 addresses several challenges that limited the effectiveness of previous versions of Wi-Fi.
Unfortunately, reaping all the benefits of Wi-Fi 7 is not as simple as plugging in new devices. Organizations must be aware that new technology can also introduce new risks. Therefore, they must prioritize using Wi-Fi 7–enabled devices with comprehensive security and AI-powered IT operations tools.
Wi-Fi 7 benefits
One of the primary challenges Wi-Fi 7 solves is the increasing demand for higher data rates. With the proliferation of bandwidth-hogging applications, such as 4K video streaming and multi-user collaboration tools, Wi-Fi 7 provides lightning-fast data transfer speeds, reaching up to multiple gigabits per second. This ensures quicker downloads, flawless streaming, low-latency connections, and a positive user experience, even in environments with many connected devices.
Wi-Fi 7 relieves network congestion and improves overall network performance via better channel and spectrum utilization. New multi-link technology allows concurrent connections and data to use multiple channels across single or multiple frequency bands, aggregating bandwidth for greater performance. This allows videoconferencing systems to keep low power association on 2.4 GHz while potentially using other bands for high data throughput. It is also crucial in helping to address some of the challenges of OT and IoT convergence in the modern campus.
Wi-Fi 7’s “puncturing” feature was developed to improve transmission channel usage. Puncturing allows a Wi-Fi 7 access point to transmit portions of a channel that aren’t in use, even if the channel is being used by others. This also allows for more efficient use of the spectrum in environments experiencing interference from other devices. By pairing this with multiple resource unit (MRU) capabilities, the same client device can still leverage this “split” channel. This becomes even more important as Wi-Fi 7 can support a 320 MHz channel, double the width of Wi-Fi 6.
Wi-Fi 7 alone isn’t enough
While these Wi-Fi 7 advantages are vital for organizations that rely on connected devices and bandwidth-hungry applications, stakeholders must remember that few technological advances can be deployed without impacting other legacy systems. So, while considering Wi-Fi 7 benefits, you must not ignore the need to upgrade organizational networks to support Wi-Fi 7.
The exponential growth in data usage and the expansion of bandwidth-intensive applications means having a network that can handle higher data transfer speeds is a must. With its ability to deliver multi-gigabit speeds, Wi-Fi 7 needs an underlying network that can keep up with the escalating demands of data-intensive tasks. This is particularly vital for healthcare, financial services, and educational industries, where large datasets and real-time applications are integral to operations.
At the same time, the increased device density in modern workplaces—primarily driven by the adoption of IoT devices and the prevalence of mobile devices—calls for networks with enhanced capacity. While Wi-Fi 7 provides more efficient handling and higher bandwidth of numerous concurrently connected devices, the rest of the network must also be able to deal with that additional load. This is especially necessary for organizations where network reliability directly affects productivity and operational efficiency.
Reduced latency and enhanced channel utilization result in speedier response times, benefiting applications for videoconferencing, cloud-based collaboration tools, and other latency-sensitive processes. However, these advantages may not be as effective as they could be if the rest of the network can’t keep pace.
You need robust network security
Decrypting and inspecting encrypted traffic are weaknesses in most security devices. Increased traffic speed and volume will only make matters worse. As cyberthreat technology becomes more sophisticated, new challenges like monitoring and inspecting rich media and streaming video looking for deep fakes or embedded malware are beyond the capacity of nearly all cybersecurity appliances that haven’t been augmented with custom processors.
Staying ahead of today’s threat actors requires robust security measures on devices designed to meet new performance and throughput demands. High-performance network security devices—like advanced hybrid mesh firewall offerings—are crucial to protecting sensitive data, ensuring optimal user experience, and keeping the trust of clients and partners.
Avoiding bottlenecks, reaping benefits
Networking infrastructure needs to keep up with the advantages of Wi-Fi 7 and the increased demands of legacy and new applications. This is why you must also look at your switches and related technologies to ensure that they don’t become the sources of bottlenecks once Wi-Fi 7 is deployed.
In a digitally driven world, upgrading to Wi-Fi 7 is necessary for organizations wanting to stay competitive and resilient. The benefits of higher speeds, increased capacity, network efficiency, and enhanced security collectively ensure that Wi-Fi 7 will be a transformative technology. However, organizations must keep their networks up to speed to reap these benefits, especially security solutions.
Learn more about how Fortinet can help your organization get started with Wi-Fi 7 here.
