By Srikanth Subramanian, Wi-Fi NOW Academy Chief Trainer.
Wi-Fi 7 is nearing completion – but of course the world of Wi-Fi never stops and the work has already begun on defining the targets for IEEE 802.11bn, which will be known as Wi-Fi 8 in a few years time. Here’s a IEEE standards update from our Wi-Fi NOW Academy Chief Trainer, Dr Srikanth Subramanian.
As we near the completion of the 802.11be standardisation (AKA Wi-Fi 7), the IEEE has started embarking on the next generation of WLAN standardisation. The new standard which will be referred to as Ultra High Reliability (UHR) WLAN will be officially known as 802.11bn and most likely Wi-Fi 8. After a study group phase, the IEEE standards will be moving on to concrete steps in the 802.11bn WG. The main targets of the UHR WLAN can be summarised as follows:
- At least one mode of operation capable of increasing throughput by 25% as measured at the MAC data service access point in at least one Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR) level (rate vs. range), compared to the Extremely High Throughput MAC/PHY operation
- At least one mode of operation capable of reducing latency by 25% for the 95th percentile of latency distribution compared to the Extremely High Throughput MAC/PHY operation
- At least one mode of operation capable of reducing MAC Protocol Data Unit (MPDU) loss by 25% compared to the Extremely High Throughput MAC/PHY operation for a given scenario, especially for transition between BSSs.¨
- Mechanisms to reduce power consumption for Access Points will be specified
We expect that Wi-Fi 8 based on 802.11bn will usher in an era of WLANs which can be suitable for low-latency applications like AR/VR/XR which is expected to be important in the near future. In addition, continued focus on throughput to meet various application demands will also be addressed. Finally, wherever applicable like in industrial applications high reliability can also be achieved by tuning parameters of the next generation standard.
/Dr Srikanth.
