Wi-Fi Alliance starts official certification for Wi-Fi 7 devices

The Wi-Fi Alliance has begun its official certification program for wireless devices compatible with its latest Wi-Fi 7 standard, also known as 802.11be, marking an important milestone for potential enterprise users.

The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 program, announced today, means that the lengthy standardization process that the Wi-Fi Alliance goes through for each successive generation of Wi-Fi has reached a fairly stable place. This, in turn, may move the needle somewhat for businesses looking to their next Wi-Fi refresh cycle. The opening of official certification testing means that OEMs can now submit their products to verify that they’re Wi-Fi 7-compliant.

Wi-Fi 7’s key feature is a comparatively simple one – wider channels, expanded from 160Mhz to 320MHz, should enable roughly double the throughput of previous-generation Wi-Fi. It also boasts QAM improvements – from 1024 to 4K, for what the Alliance says will be 20% higher transmission rates, more efficient compression for lower overhead, and multi-link operation, meaning devices can effectively send and receive data over multiple connections at the same time, further boosting performance.

The Wi-Fi Alliance said in an announcement that the certification program would pave the way for broad adoption of the technology.

“Wi-Fi 7 will see rapid adoption across a broad ecosystem with more than 233 million devices expected to enter the market in 2024, growing to 2.1 billion devices by 2028,” the group said.

Wi-Fi 7 is the first unlicensed standard that works natively in the 6GHz band, a comparatively empty chunk of spectrum that wireless experts have long tipped as a key band for allowing much faster connections. (Wi-Fi 6E added 6GHz capability to that standard in 2021.) The ability to have such broad channels are, in part, a function of having plenty of spectrum designated for unlicensed use available.

Gear being advertised as Wi-Fi 7 compliant has already been on the market for some months, but these devices – including consumer wireless routers and endpoint devices – use technology based on a vendor’s interpretation of the eventual specification, not the official one.

Official standardization, therefore, is a key consideration for enterprise users, who generally require the best possible interoperability. Enterprise uptake of new Wi-Fi standards is generally slower than in the consumer sector for this reason, and many businesses tend not to update their infrastructure as soon as the new standard is available in any case – preferring to wait for the next refresh cycle.