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MediaTek Demos Next-Gen Wi-Fi 7 Standard Boasting Near Thunderbolt 3 Speeds
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
It never ends... but that's OK. Why would we want a technological end? That's what gets you infamous ideas like "640K is all we'll ever need." Imagine if the world had heeded that lofty view at the time and all computing tech was still constrained at 640K RAM.
Bring it on! And bring on wifi 8 after that. And 9 after that. And jump 10 to 11 if at all possible.
And M2 MAX and M3 MAX and M5 MAX and MX-MAX.
And Thunderbolt 5 and 6 and 8 and 14.
And USB 4 and 6 and 15 and 25.
And teleporters and food replicators and warp drive.
Bring it on! And bring on wifi 8 after that. And 9 after that. And jump 10 to 11 if at all possible.
And M2 MAX and M3 MAX and M5 MAX and MX-MAX.
And Thunderbolt 5 and 6 and 8 and 14.
And USB 4 and 6 and 15 and 25.
And teleporters and food replicators and warp drive.
If you don’t even have 10mbps broadband Im sure ya can’t afford this for another 20 years….
Define "cable".
As long as it is designed to transmit electrical signals, there are quite a few limitations you get hit by. 10GBe requires Cat 6E cables to reach 100m, at best. 40GBit Thunderbolt 4 copper cables max out at 2 meters.
Going optical is a completely different story though.
Thank you for providing my laugh for the day.I only use these:
High-End Audiophile Ethernet Cables | Avanti Audio
You can never use too good cables.
Observe, these ethernet cables are directional ? I guess if you want to send data you have to go with 2 ethernet ports.
/s (I use pretty darn expensive cables though, but nowhere near that stupidity)
What's worse is that's only the second most ridiculous audiophile cable scam I've ever seen. I still remember fondly (and I'm quite sure you can still buy somewhere) a review of a several-hundred-dollar AC power cable that claimed to have magically aligned copper atoms or some equally insane mumbo-jumbo to convince you that it was going to do a better job of getting AC power from the wall to your equipment than the lower-end, only-half-as-ridiculously-overpriced AC cord the same company sold.
Audiophiles must be among the most gullible people on the planet, and they have got to take the record for most placebo-driven. I have often fantasized about buying two identical $10 AC cords on Amazon, wrapping them in two different kinds of fancy decorative braiding, writing up a couple pages of techno-babble about how magical my hand-wound copper crystals are, putting together detailed burn-in instructions, then sending them to audiophiles to review as a $300 cable and $600 cable. I am 100% certain that they'd claim each opened up new highlights in their music or something, and that the more expensive one with better techno babble sounded better than the "cheaper" one.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
So don't let this kind of thing bug you. If your wifi feels fast enough for you, you're good. Use it until it either conks or doesn't feel fast enough to you. While we can sometimes feel a great compulsion to by every iterative step, skipping a few when something is good enough will simply yield a next purchase of that thing feeling like a much more tangible hop.
No need to develop this "forced to upgrade" mentality that some do- this rumor is not even close to a shipping product yet.
It's great that technologies advance. Hopefully it never stops. But if what you have covers your needs, you don't have to replace it with "latest & greatest."
theoretical bw available at radio level <<< actual IP throughput
wifi is by design half duplex, so the bandwidth at MAC level must handle transmit and receive. until wifi relies on CSMA/CA MAC access, with the increasing number of clients the available bw drops in a nonlinear fashion
wifi is by design half duplex, so the bandwidth at MAC level must handle transmit and receive. until wifi relies on CSMA/CA MAC access, with the increasing number of clients the available bw drops in a nonlinear fashion
You got me. But you are misleading people about the term "directional". Well not you per se, but the over-the-top marketing BS for these cables. The shield is only terminated on 1 end. This has been best practice for shielding for 50+ years. Not saying these cables are the best or even good. Just sayin the data flows both ways.I only use these:
High-End Audiophile Ethernet Cables | Avanti Audio
You can never use too good cables.
Observe, these ethernet cables are directional ? I guess if you want to send data you have to go with 2 ethernet ports.
/s (I use pretty darn expensive cables though, but nowhere near that stupidity)
Something tells me whoever wrote this has no idea how wireless communications work. 320 MHz-wide channels would essentially occupy the entire spectrum, so unless you're the only household nearby using Wi-Fi, this won't work at all (not without heavy interference at least). You'd have to be indoors, isolated with concrete wall from the outside and with line-of-sight from your device to the access point at a very short distance.
MediaTek has conducted the world's first live demo of Wi-Fi 7 for "key customers and industry collaborators," paving the way for the wireless network technology to enter mainstream consumer hardware as early as next year, according to the company.
Taiwan-based MediaTek said the demos demonstrated the ability of Wi-Fi 7 to achieve the maximum speed defined by IEEE 802.11be, the official name for the Wi-Fi 7 standard. The company said it also highlighted its multi-link operation (MLO) technology. MLO aggregates multiple channels on different frequency bands at the same time to allow network traffic to still flow seamlessly even if there is interference or congestion on the bands. "Filogic" simply refers to MediaTek's Wi-Fi 7 connectivity portfolio.
Wi-Fi 7 is said to deliver 2.4x faster speeds than Wi-Fi 6, even with the same number of antennas, since Wi-Fi 7 can utilize 320Mhz channels and supports 4K quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) technology.
The Wi-FI Alliance says Wi-Fi 7 could provide speeds of "at least 30" gigabits per second (Gbps) and should exceed that to reach 40Gbps, which is the same speed as Thunderbolt 3. As noted by ArsTechnica, Wi-Fi 6 supports speeds up to 9.6Gbps, while its predecessor, WiFi 5, has a max output of 3.5Gbps. Wi-Fi 6 is the marketing name given to 802.11ax technology, which is supported by all iPhone 11 and later models, the newest iPad mini, iPad Air, iPad Pro, and all Macs powered by Apple silicon.
The next step up from Wi-Fi 6 is Wi-Fi 6E. Devices supporting Wi-Fi 6E use a dedicated 6E spectrum with up to seven additional 160MHz channels, while Wi-Fi 6 devices share the same spectrum as other Wi-Fi 4, 5, and 6 devices, and they only operate on two 160MHz channels. Some reports suggested Apple's iPhone 13 series would include Wi-Fi 6E, but the rumors never panned out. Looking ahead, this year's iPhone 14 is expected to adopt Wi-Fi 6E and Apple's forthcoming AR/VR headset is also expected to support it to meet the needs of the high-end, immersive experience it will deliver, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
MediaTek has been involved in the development of the Wi-Fi 7 standard since its inception and is eager to drum up excitement for its Wi-Fi 7 Filogic connectivity portfolio, but the protocol hasn't been finalized by the Wi-FI Alliance yet, so it's difficult to say when consumer devices will actually support it. MediaTek says products with Wi-Fi 7 are expected to hit the market starting in 2023. Regardless, given that Apple has yet to adopt Wi-Fi 6E in any of its devices, support for Wi-Fi 7 is likely to be some way away.
Article Link: MediaTek Demos Next-Gen Wi-Fi 7 Standard Boasting Near Thunderbolt 3 Speeds
Thunderbolt speeds? Come on... Wi-Fi is half-duplex so in the extremely unlikely event of perfect conditions you'd get half that throughput.
Maybe at the point where you need a lead shield around your bed to slow down cellular destruction from your high speed (x-ray frequency) modem.
Is it really so bad to just run a wire? Installed correctly a wire has better latency, lower error counts, higher speed, lasts longer, is harder to break into, does not require security upgrades, is not accessible from your neighbors space, etc.
But I guess a wire is just so 80s. Can't have that, new kids need new toys.
My 6+ year old Linksys WRT routers running OpenWrt in AP mode were getting long in the tooth and will likely never support WPA3.
I waited until WiFi 6 AP prices to return to reasonable levels before taking the plunge. Also it doesn’t pay to be an early adopter since you will pay a premium and likely there will be a couple of HW and FW revisions.
I ended up with 2 Engenius EWS377APv3 for $200 each. They also make a EWS357APv3 which is $100, which I set up at my parents place.
www.engeniustech.com
There are a number of OEMs selling the exact same HW at significantly higher prices. Netgear, DrayTek, FS, Fortinet, Peplink, Linksys, Plasma Cloud, etc. From the FCC filings all are manufactured by Engenius.
I don’t have any 6E clients and don’t plan to buy any for at least 5+ years. I’ll wait for the dust to settle on 7 and when prices are reasonable before upgrading again.
I waited until WiFi 6 AP prices to return to reasonable levels before taking the plunge. Also it doesn’t pay to be an early adopter since you will pay a premium and likely there will be a couple of HW and FW revisions.
I ended up with 2 Engenius EWS377APv3 for $200 each. They also make a EWS357APv3 which is $100, which I set up at my parents place.
Wi-Fi 6 4x4 Managed Indoor Wireless Access Point
EnGenius EWS377AP WiFi 6 Access Point: 4x4 Managed Indoor Wireless features 802.11ax technology, which deepens and extends the capabilities of Wi-Fi.
www.engeniustech.com
There are a number of OEMs selling the exact same HW at significantly higher prices. Netgear, DrayTek, FS, Fortinet, Peplink, Linksys, Plasma Cloud, etc. From the FCC filings all are manufactured by Engenius.
I don’t have any 6E clients and don’t plan to buy any for at least 5+ years. I’ll wait for the dust to settle on 7 and when prices are reasonable before upgrading again.
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Most everything in my house is connected to cat5e running to a central hub system (dual runs of cat5e, optical and RG-6 to every jack). I built this house and anticipated such needs best I could, going with the best of what was available at the time.
But not everyone has the wired option without ripping open walls, etc to get new cables where they can use them. And some situations/needs cannot be anticipated. And some situations/needs benefit from having a faster wireless option.
And faster wifi doesn't automatically mean more radiation. Killing buyers won't reward those wanting to sell wifi 12 or 16G cellular service. If buyers die from tech advances, there's no profit in that. So that will drive advancement in ways to still have something faster, more efficient, etc to sell without having to literally slay the market... or dress it in lead shielding uniforms. I'm confident that tech innovators can find ways to feed tech growth without having to only kill tech buyers.
Me, I prefer AudioQuest cables
Frankly, for my desktop I'm about ready to drop an Ethernet cable for my desktop and be rid of Wifi upgrades as my hardware can't keep up with all of the Wifi progress.The real benefit of 802.11be (WiFi 7) is band aggregation, AP aggregation. I.e. connecting to multiple AP's, multiple frequencies at once. Which should allow much smoother roaming between AP's and more stable connections rather than choosing between a fast and a long range band you can have both.
4G and 5G phones have been doing this more and more.
WiFi was plenty fast enough with 802.11ac. 802.11ax brought us the necessary improvements in client density, 802.11be will bring us better roaming between AP's and more stable connections.
These quoted speeds for 802.11be are stupid. Sure 320MHz might actually be feasible on the huge 6GHz band now but you're not going to get 40Gb/s let alone 10Gb/s.
Once again, the improvements are actually great, but the speed 'increases' are mostly BS.
4G and 5G phones have been doing this more and more.
WiFi was plenty fast enough with 802.11ac. 802.11ax brought us the necessary improvements in client density, 802.11be will bring us better roaming between AP's and more stable connections.
These quoted speeds for 802.11be are stupid. Sure 320MHz might actually be feasible on the huge 6GHz band now but you're not going to get 40Gb/s let alone 10Gb/s.
Once again, the improvements are actually great, but the speed 'increases' are mostly BS.
If anyone knows better, let me know .. but the last time I looked into this, I found that the "power" is regulated which is why most access points will have the broadly the same range. They're not allowed to have higher signal power.
The progress we've seen has been on innovations with the signal - eg interleaving, beam forming, finer grained switching between clients, MIMO antennae ... which all improve bandwidth and latency, but don't push the signal through more walls.
Tell me I' outdated, I would love my AP to have a better signal in the shed.
I'm assuming this is sarcasm but if not.
WiFi and cell signals are radio waves and are at the opposite end of the spectrum to X-rays. Visible light has higher energy photons than WiFi radio waves. WiFi is non-ionizing and completely safe. The human race has been bombarded by radio waves for the entirety of its existence. Also WiFi AP's are point sources of radiation, which means their power drops inversely to the square of the distance.
I hard wire everything that can be hard wired. But how exactly should I use my phone, or Apple Watch, or MacBook while moving around my house? WiFi is fantastic and works very well. Is wired better? Yes. But saying WiFi is somehow bad is wrong and the latency added in most situations (low interference) is actually pretty small these days. The two complement each other and both will be around for probably as long as I live.
The same as WiFi 6E. I.e. limited to certain power levels ~<200mW for 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz, and 6Ghz depending on how you are including antenna gain.
Beam forming actually does a lot to improve range. Why not just run a cable and put a cheap AP in your shed? You could even pick up one second hand.
