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Huawei has achieved a record-setting Wi-Fi 7 speed in a lab test of its Wi-Fi 7 Access Point (AP). Conducted at Tolly Lab in the US, the first-ever industry test of the AP delivered a peak total throughput of 13.25Gbps and individual speeds of up to 4.33Gbps. The Chinese firm set new speed records for the next-gen wireless standard in the process.
Huawei breaks Wi-Fi 7 speed record in lab test
This lab test was the first successful performance testing of Huawei’s AirEngine 8771-X1T Wi-Fi 7 AP. The solution takes full advantage of the next-gen wireless standard with support for the 6GHz frequency band, up to 320MHz channel bandwidth, and 4096-QAM modulation. It boasts a dynamic zoom antenna array and supports 12 spatial streams.
For the uninitiated, spatial streams are a way of transmitting data over Wi-Fi using multiple antennas. The data you’re sending and receiving is split into multiple streams for simultaneous transmission of more data at high speed, making Wi-Fi networks more efficient. Wi-Fi 6/6E supports up to 8 spatial streams, while Wi-Fi 7 doubles that to 16.
Huawei’s new Wi-Fi 7 AP may not go to the full extent to support 16 spatial streams but it is still capable of delivering a throughput of up to 18.67Gbps. Tolly Lab managed to achieve a record-high speed of over 13Gbps in a controlled testing environment. According to Tolly, the single-device speed of 4.33Gbps is the fastest real-world Wi-Fi throughput tested to date (via Gizmoweek).
The firms could also reduce latency by 50 percent compared to Wi-Fi 6, dropping latency to just two milliseconds. This almost real-time responsiveness, coupled with advancements in speed, highlights the potential to unlock new capabilities for wireless networks. Huawei has given us an early glimpse of what the future holds for wireless connectivity.
Wi-Fi 7 can reach a theoretical top speed of over 40Gbps
The final Wi-Fi 7 standard is not official yet but is expected next year. At its full capacity (maximum channel bandwidth and spatial streams), the next-gen wireless standard can deliver a peak speed well over 40Gbps. However, the real-world speed is far less than the theoretical speed.
This is because of the way commercial solutions implement Wi-Fi specs, factoring in power consumption and other parameters. With a quad-stream (4×4) 320MHz client device, Wi-Fi 7 can reach a practical speed of about 11.5Gbps. That’s still more than four times faster than the peak real-world speed of 2.4Gbps delivered by Wi-Fi 6/6E. A generational leap in Wi-Fi speeds is now just around the corner.