MediaTek had a lot to talk about towards the end of last year. The company announced its Dimensity 7000 chipset, a chipset for TVs, and plans for MediaTek chipset-powered laptops. And the company is starting the year 2022 on a high note as well. MediaTek showcased the world's first live demo of Wi-Fi 7 technology. The company says that it has showcased Wi-Fi 7 to two of its key customers and has demonstrated that the technology offers super-fast speeds and low latency transmission.
Wi-Fi 7, or IEEE 802.11be, is an upgrade to the current Wi-Fi 6 standard. Wi-Fi 6, also known as IEEE 802.11ax, is the fastest wireless technology available right now, but it is still rare to find. Wi-Fi 7 plans to add 320Mhz channels, 4K quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) technology, multi-user resource unit (MRU) features, and more all while using the currently available 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz band.
Previous reports have suggested that Wi-Fi 7 will bring 2.4x wireless speeds as compared to Wi-Fi 6. It will reportedly feature lower latency as well. MediaTek says that the Wi-Fi 7 technology can be a true replacement of wireline/Ethernet for super high-bandwidth applications like 8K streaming and 4K video calls.
MediaTek’s Wi-Fi 7 technology will be the backbone of home, office, and industrial networks and provide seamless connectivity for everything from multi-player AR/VR applications to cloud gaming and 4K calls to 8K streaming and beyond. — Alan Hsu, corporate vice president and general manager, Intelligent Connectivity Business, MediaTek
MediaTek says its Wi-Fi 7 technology can achieve speeds defined by IEEE 802.11be standard (which is 40Gbps, but hard to believe). It makes use of multi-link operation (MLO) technology which aggregates multiple channels on different frequencies bands, but at the same time, highlights how network traffic can still flow seamlessly even if there is interference or congestion on the bands. MediaTek says MLO technology will be critical for delivering faster and more reliable video streaming, gaming, and anything else that requires constant, sustained, and real-time throughput, like 4K video calls.
Faster broadband Internet access and more demanding applications such as higher resolution video streaming and VR gaming are driving demand for Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, and soon Wi-Fi 7. Wi-Fi 7’s advances in channel width, QAM, and new features such as multi-link operation (MLO) will make Wi-Fi 7 very attractive for [all modern-day] devices. — Mario Morales, group vice president, Semiconductors at IDC
MediaTek’s Wi-Fi 7 technology can fulfill the current need for all the applications consumers enjoy today and also open the door for future AR/VR applications which we can’t even imagine today. Moon Ho Lee, President, Korea Mercury
MediaTek says it has been involved in the development of the Wi-Fi 7 standard since its inception and will be one of the first adopters of the Wi-Fi 7 technology. The company adds that the first products with Wi-Fi 7 are expected to hit the market starting in 2023.
Source: MediaTek