Wi-Fi 7

Author : Xia Zhou

 Copyright
Author: Xia Zhou
Key Contributors: Yibo Wang, Tingting Dong
Release Date: 2023-10-12
Issue: 01

Copyright © Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. 2023. All rights reserved.

No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written
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 Preface

Author Introduction
Xia Zhou: Serves as a documentation engineer for Huawei's wireless local area
network (WLAN) products. Since joining Huawei in 2010, Ms. Zhou has been
dedicated to documentation development for Huawei data center switches,
WLAN products, and campus network solutions. She has made significant
contributions to developing the book Enterprise Wireless Local Area Network
Architectures and Technologies .

About This Book

This book describes the latest Wi-Fi 7 standard, its performance improvements
over previous standards, and key new technologies introduced in Wi-Fi 7. In this
book, you will also find the typical applications of Wi-Fi 7 and Huawei's next-
generation Wi-Fi 7 AP product.

i
Preface
Intended Audience
This book is intended for information and communications technology (ICT)
practitioners, such as network engineers with a basic knowledge of Wi-Fi
technology and operations experience. It is also worth reading for anyone with
Wi-Fi service requirements or with a general interest in the next-generation Wi-
Fi standard.

Symbol Conventions
Supplements important information in the main text. Note is
used to address information not related to personal injury, equipment damage,
and environment deterioration.

Indicates a low-risk hazard that, if not avoided, could result in

minor or moderate injury.

ii
Preface
 Table of Contents

Chapter 1 What Is Wi-Fi 7? ........................................................................................ 1

1.1 Birth of Wi-Fi 7....................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Wi-Fi 7 vs. Wi-Fi 6, Faster and Beyond ........................................................ 4

Chapter 2 Wi-Fi 7 Application Scenarios .................................................................. 7

2.1 High-Quality 10 Gbps Office Campus Network ....................................... 7

2.2 High-Quality 10 Gbps Production Campus Network ............................. 9

Chapter 3 6 GHz and 320 MHz ................................................................................ 12

3.1 What Is the 6 GHz Frequency Band? .......................................................... 12

3.2 320 MHz Channel Bandwidth ........................................................................ 14

Chapter 4 4096-QAM ................................................................................................ 16

4.1 How Does 4096-QAM Increase Speeds? ................................................... 16

4.2 Is a Higher QAM Order Indicative of Better Performance?............... 18

Chapter 5 MRU........................................................................................................... 19

5.1 OFDMA and RU ................................................................................................... 19

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Table of Contents
 5.2 MRU-based Resource Allocation................................................................... 22

Chapter 6 Multi-Link ................................................................................................. 24

6.1 What Is Multi-Link? ............................................................................................ 24

6.2 What Benefits Does Multi-Link Bring? ....................................................... 25

Chapter 7 Other Wi-Fi 7 Enhancements ................................................................ 27

7.1 PPDU Formats in Wi-Fi 7 ................................................................................. 27

7.2 R-TWT for Power Saving .................................................................................. 29

7.3 802.11ba for Deep Power Saving ................................................................. 31

7.4 802.11az for High-Precision Positioning.................................................... 32

Chapter 8 Huawei Wi-Fi 7 AP .................................................................................. 35

A Acronyms and Abbreviations................................................................................ 37

iv
Table of Contents
 Chapter 1
What Is Wi-Fi 7?

Abstract
This chapter describes the evolution of Wi-Fi standards, the differences
between the standards, and the advantages of Wi-Fi 7.

1.1 Birth of Wi-Fi 7

With the booming development of emerging applications such as mobile
Internet, fully-wireless office, and augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR)
immersive home entertainment, individual's requirements for wireless access
bandwidth gradually increase from 1000 Mbit/s to 10 Gbit/s. As such, the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) launches the latest wireless
local area network (WLAN) standard — 802.11be, also known as Extremely
High Throughput (EHT), which will be officially designated Wi-Fi 7.

IEEE has defined numerous standards in the communications industry, such as

IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet) and IEEE 802.11 (WLAN). As early as 1990, IEEE set up a
dedicated 802.11 Working Group to study and formulate WLAN standards. Fast-
forward to 1997, and the world's first 802.11 standard (802.11-1997) for WLAN

1
What Is Wi-Fi 7?
was launched. Since then, IEEE has released a new standard every four to five
years, as shown in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1 802.11 standard evolution

 Standard origin: 802.11-1997 defeats other standards to become the first

widely used WLAN standard in the industry.
 Standard enhancement: 802.11b makes the large-scale commercial use of
WLAN possible by delivering speeds of 11 Mbit/s. 802.11a further increases
the WLAN speeds to 54 Mbit/s by applying orthogonal frequency division
multiplexing (OFDM) technology to the 5 GHz frequency band.
 Standard extension and compatibility: 802.11g extends the use of OFDM
technology to the 2.4 GHz frequency band and is backward compatible with
802.11b.
 High Throughput (HT) standard based on multiple-input multiple-output
(MIMO) and OFDM: 802.11n supports single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO) and
OFDM, and delivers speeds of up to 600 Mbit/s.

2
What Is Wi-Fi 7?
 Very High Throughput (VHT) standard: 802.11ac supports downlink multi-
user MIMO (DL MU-MIMO), provides channel bandwidth of up to 160 MHz,
and delivers speeds of up to 6933.33 Mbit/s.
 High Efficiency (HE) standard: 802.11ax introduces technologies such as
orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), uplink MU-MIMO
(UL MU-MIMO), basic service set (BSS) coloring, and target wake time
(TWT), further improving the throughput in high-density scenarios and
increasing the speeds to 9607.8 Mbit/s.
 EHT standard: Based on the 6 GHz spectrum introduced in Wi-Fi 6E,
802.11be supports various technologies such as multiple resource unit (MRU)
and multi-link to further improve the throughput and deliver speeds of up to
23050 Mbit/s.

Table 1-1 compares the capabilities of different 802.11 standards.

Table 1-1 802.11 standards comparison

Standard Frequency PHY Modula Number of Channel Data Rate

Version Band Technology tion Spatial Bandwidth (Mbit/s)
(GHz) Scheme Streams (MHz)

802.11 2.4 IR, FHSS, - - 20 1 and 2

and DSSS

802.11b 2.4 DSSS/CCK - - 20 5.5 and 11

802.11a 5 OFDM 64-QAM - 20 6 to 54

802.11g 2.4 OFDM 64-QAM - 20 1 to 54

DSSS/CCK

802.11n 2.4 and 5 OFDM 64-QAM 4 20 and 40 6 to 600

SU-MIMO

802.11ac 5 OFDM 256- 8 20, 40, 80, 6 to 6933.33

DL MU- QAM 160, and
MIMO 80+80

802.11ax 2.4 and 5 OFDMA 1024- 8 20, 40, 80, 6 to 9607.8

UL/DL MU- QAM 160, and
MIMO 80+80

3
What Is Wi-Fi 7?
 Standard Frequency PHY Modula Number of Channel Data Rate
Version Band Technology tion Spatial Bandwidth (Mbit/s)
(GHz) Scheme Streams (MHz)

802.11be 2.4, 5, and OFDMA 4096- 8 20, 40, 80, 6 to 23050

(Wi-Fi 7) 6 UL/DL MU- QAM 160, 80+80,
MIMO 160+160, and
320

The data rate in the table above refers to the maximum rate of a single radio.

1.2 Wi-Fi 7 vs. Wi-Fi 6, Faster and

Beyond
In addition to the significant speed improvements over Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 7 delivers
much higher user performance. Figure 1-2 shows the comparison of the two Wi-
Fi standards.

4
What Is Wi-Fi 7?
 Figure 1-2 Wi-Fi 7 vs. Wi-Fi 6

Spectrum resources: faster speeds and less interference

Wi-Fi 7 supports the 6 GHz frequency band, which can be used only by 6 GHz-
capable devices and therefore suffers from less interference. Additionally, the
latest anti-interference technologies, such as OFDMA and Coordinated Spatial
Reuse (CoSR), are applied to further reduce interference.

5
What Is Wi-Fi 7?
Maximum bandwidth: faster speeds

The maximum channel bandwidth in Wi-Fi 7 is increased from 160 MHz (Wi-Fi 6)
to 320 MHz, increasing speeds by 100%.

Modulation scheme: faster speeds

The order of the modulation scheme in Wi-Fi 7 is increased from 1024-QAM

(Wi-Fi 6) to 4096-QAM, increasing speeds by 20%.

MRU: lower latency

Wi-Fi 7 supports MRU for dynamic resource scheduling, reducing service latency
by 25%.

Multi-link: higher reliability and lower latency

Multi-link technology introduced in Wi-Fi 7 supports multiple links for terminals,

implementing multi-fed and selective receiving and improving reliability.

6
What Is Wi-Fi 7?
 Chapter 2
Wi-Fi 7 Application
Scenarios

Abstract
Wi-Fi 7 is ideal for many kinds of emerging applications, such as
AR/VR, 4K and 8K video streams, cloud computing, video calling, video
conferencing, and remote office. This means that in addition to the
traditional application scenarios of enterprises, Wi-Fi 7 will be more
beneficial to emerging application scenarios.

2.1 High-Quality 10 Gbps Office

Campus Network
In enterprise office environments, wireless is becoming the dominant network
access mode. Nowadays, every office area needs to have Wi-Fi coverage, with
some office areas having no wired network ports whatsoever, making the office
environment more open and intelligent. In the future, even high-bandwidth
services, including enterprise cloud desktop office, telepresence conferences, and

7
Wi-Fi 7 Application Scenarios
4K videos, will be migrated from wired to wireless networks. Meanwhile, new
technologies such as VR/AR and virtual assistant will be directly deployed on
wireless networks. These new application scenarios pose higher requirements on
enterprise WLAN.

One result of this trend is the sharp increase in the number of terminals. The
number of access terminals of a single user has increased from one in the past
to three to five at present, which means that the number of access terminals
connected to a single AP will multiply. The second change is reflected on
applications. For example, the number of enterprise office video conferences has
increased sharply, the proportion of voice/video traffic to user traffic has
increased continuously, and the user bandwidth has increased from 10 Mbit/s to
50 Mbit/s. In addition, with the rise of smart buildings, a large number of IoT
terminals will access the network. This makes the convergence of Wi-Fi and IoT
networks become a trend.

Figure 2-1 High-Quality 10 Gbps Office Campus Network

The next-generation Wi-Fi standard — Wi-Fi 7 — represents another major

milestone in the development of Wi-Fi. On the one hand, Wi-Fi has obtained a
new unlicensed spectrum: 6 GHz. This significantly improves the capacity of Wi-
Fi networks, ushering in the era of 10 Gbps indoor wireless communication. At
the same time, Wi-Fi 7 improves the multi-user concurrent performance,
enabling the network to maintain excellent service capabilities in the case of
high-density access and heavy service load.

8
Wi-Fi 7 Application Scenarios
With the further development of information technologies and enterprise
digitalization, more efficient and intelligent collaboration and office modes
(virtual humans, AR-assisted office, online AI computing, etc.) may emerge in
future enterprise office scenarios. Wi-Fi 7 is fully prepared for this trend, helping
to build ultra-broadband 10 Gbps office networks.

2.2 High-Quality 10 Gbps Production

Campus Network
A key part of smart manufacturing is making production lines fully wireless to
achieve flexible production. For example, a mobile phone manufacturing
enterprise has 300 production lines, and changes the production lines at least
once every quarter to produce mobile phones of different models. When wired
networks are used, a single production line change leads to at least three days of
downtime. After wireless networks are used, the downtime is reduced to less
than half a day for each change. This shows that wireless reconstruction of
production lines is critical.

Figure 2-2 High-Quality 10 Gbps Production Campus Network

9
Wi-Fi 7 Application Scenarios
On industrial production networks, services related to wireless communication
are control and collection services as well as high-bandwidth transmission
services.

Control and collection services

 Remote control: has certain requirements on network latency and bandwidth.

For example, remote video control services require network latency to be no
more than 20 ms. In addition, network bandwidth assurance must be
provided based on the definition of remote control videos.
 Onsite control: includes production line PLC, production line I/O, and device
motion control. The network traffic is typically sporadic. For different control
objects, differentiated requirements are posed on key indicators such as
network latency and packet loss rate, which are typically at the millisecond
level.
 AGV control: Typically, network latency of about 50 ms is required by
services such as wireless-based automated guided vehicle (AGV) navigation
as well as remote diagnosis and maintenance guidance. Network
interruptions lasting for over one second is not allowed.
 Sensor-based collection services: include sensor information collection as
well as video detection and collection. Typical applications include
environment sensing and data collection. The packet sending period is about
100 ms to 10s, and the rate is 100 kbit/s.

Wi-Fi 7 networks can provide a round-trip time (RTT) of 10 ms, and can
therefore carry remote control, AGV control, and sensor-based collection services.
Onsite control services can be carried over wireless networks based on
customers' requirements.

High-bandwidth transmission services

 AOI: The automated optical inspection (AOI) technology is used to inspect

the quality of electronic components and printed circuit boards (PCBs) in
industrial production. The principle is to take photos of objects to be
detected by using a high-resolution optical imaging system, and then
analyze the images through image processing algorithms to detect defects
and defective products. AOI requires a high-speed and stable wireless
network to transmit image data, so as to ensure detection accuracy and
timeliness.

10
Wi-Fi 7 Application Scenarios
 Device program download: Commercial software of automobiles and
electronic devices will be upgraded at the last phase on the production line.
This leads to relatively high bandwidth consumption and requires high-
bandwidth wireless connections.

The Wi-Fi 7 network provides 10 Gbps wireless connection capabilities for the
production network. Therefore, the preceding services can be carried over the
Wi-Fi 7 network.

11
Wi-Fi 7 Application Scenarios
 Chapter 3
6 GHz and 320 MHz

Abstract
This chapter describes the 6 GHz frequency band supported by Wi-Fi 7
and the 320 MHz channel bandwidth.

3.1 What Is the 6 GHz Frequency Band?

The 6 GHz frequency band provides contiguous spectrum blocks that are globally
unified, operating in the range of 5925 MHz to 7125 MHz, as shown in Figure 3-
1. The additional spectrum range of 1200 MHz offers up to seven 160 MHz
channels, fourteen 80 MHz channels, twenty-nine 40 MHz channels, or fifty-nine
20 MHz channels.

12
6 GHz and 320 MHz
 Figure 3-1 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz frequency bands

The 6 GHz frequency band provides more spectrum resources than the 2.4 GHz
and 5 GHz frequency bands can provide together.

Wi-Fi 6 supports only 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands. Wi-Fi 6E starts to
introduce the 6 GHz frequency band, and Wi-Fi 7 inherits this. If we think of
channel resources as road lanes, then we can say the 6 GHz frequency band
widens the lanes, as shown in Figure 3-2. Therefore, the 6 GHz frequency band
can bring higher concurrency, higher bandwidth, and lower latency.

Figure 3-2 Channel resource comparison between Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7

13
6 GHz and 320 MHz
By 2022, the 6 GHz frequency band has been made available for Wi-Fi 6E in
some countries, including Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras,
Peru, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates, while other
countries are also actively formulating corresponding laws and regulations.

Advantages of 6 GHz
Higher single-user data rate

The new 6 GHz frequency band provides more 80 MHz and 160 MHz channels,
making 80 MHz, 160 MHz, and even 320 MHz networking possible in practice.
This easily increases the single-user data rate to more than 1 Gbit/s. In particular,
the 5 GHz + 6 GHz continuous networking increases the network capacity by
two- to three-fold, fully meeting the needs of large-capacity scenarios such as
high-density enterprise workplaces, AR/VR, and industrial automatic optic
inspection (AOI).

Lower latency

Conventional Wi-Fi devices support only the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands,
and as such cannot operate on 6 GHz channels. In contrast, Wi-Fi 7 devices
support the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz frequency bands. This means that only 6
GHz-capable devices operate on the 6 GHz frequency band, which therefore
makes the most of the latest anti-interference technologies such as OFDMA and
CoSR. It is estimated that the average round-trip time (RTT) is 5 ms to 10 ms for
the 6 GHz network. This ultra-low latency paves the way for various latency-
sensitive scenarios, for example, real-time gaming, telepresence conferencing,
and industrial automated guided vehicle (AGV)/programmable logic controller
(PLC) control.

3.2 320 MHz Channel Bandwidth

As mentioned above, thanks to richer spectrum resources on the 6 GHz
frequency band, Wi-Fi 7 introduces the 320 MHz channel bandwidth. Table 3-1
lists the channel bandwidth values supported in different 802.11 standards.

14
6 GHz and 320 MHz
 Table 3-1 Bandwidth values supported in different 802.11 standards

Standard Version Supported Channel Bandwidth (MHz)

802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) 20 and 40

802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) 20, 40, 80, 160, and 80+80

802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) 20, 40, 80, 160, and 80+80

802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) 20, 40, 80, 160, 80+80, 160+160, and 320

Bandwidth is positively proportional to the number of valid subcarriers. That is,

higher bandwidth can increase the number of valid subcarriers.

The 320 MHz bandwidth supported in Wi-Fi 7 is twice that in Wi-Fi 6. Based on
this formula, the Wi-Fi speed doubles when the number of spatial streams,
modulation mode, and coding rate are the same.

15
6 GHz and 320 MHz
 Chapter 4
4096-QAM

Abstract
This chapter describes how 4096-QAM introduced in Wi-Fi 7 improves
data transmission speeds.

4.1 How Does 4096-QAM Increase

Speeds?
Generations of Wi-Fi standards have been dedicated to improving data
transmission speeds. One of the ideas is to improve the capability of carrying
data per symbol. As shown in Figure 4-1, if we compare the symbol as a truck, a
higher-order QAM mode allows us to carry even more information on each truck,
which translates to faster data transmission.

16
4096-QAM
 Figure 4-1 Data carried per symbol in different Wi-Fi standards

In Wi-Fi standards, a higher QAM order can improve the capability of carrying
data per symbol. As shown in Figure 4-2, Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6 use 256-QAM and
1024-QAM, respectively, with each symbol carrying 8-bit and 10-bit data. In Wi-
Fi 7 that adopts the higher-order 4096-QAM, this capability is expected to
increase to 12 bits.

With such improvements in each generation of Wi-Fi standards, Wi-Fi 6 increases

the data throughput of a single spatial stream by 25% compared to Wi-Fi 5, and
Wi-Fi 7 further increases this value by 20% compared to Wi-Fi 6.

Figure 4-2 QAM modes adopted in Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6, and Wi-Fi 7

17
4096-QAM
4.2 Is a Higher QAM Order Indicative
of Better Performance?
The QAM order is not simply a "more is better" scenario. As the carrier
bandwidth used for sending a symbol and the transmission duration are both
fixed, a higher order leads to a smaller difference between two symbols. This
places high requirements on the environment and the components of the
receiver and transmitter.

If the environment is noisy with a small signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), symbols are
difficult to demodulate, making the demodulation process prone to errors. This
means that a lower-order QAM mode is the only option in these "noisy"
environments.

Put differently, if we speak too fast in a noisy environment, individual words may
be drowned out.

18
4096-QAM
 Chapter 5
MRU

Abstract
This chapter describes the reason why MRUs are introduced in Wi-Fi 7
and MRU-based resource allocation.

5.1 OFDMA and RU

Before delving into MRU, we need to understand the concepts of orthogonal
frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and resource unit (RU).

OFDMA
One of the key differences between Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5 is that the former
introduces the multi-user technology — OFDMA, which makes it possible to
improve spectrum utilization by allowing users to share channel resources. In
OFDM, an AP communicates with each user in point-to-point mode in each
period. If the AP needs to communicate with three users, it takes three
transmission periods. This means that each time data is sent, one user occupies
the entire channel regardless of the user data amount. Let's imagine Wi-Fi

19
MRU
communication as an express delivery service, where information represents the
goods to be transported to the receiver. In OFDM, a truck delivers one package
per trip, regardless of its size. As a consequence, some of the space in the truck is
usually wasted, as shown in Figure 5-1.

Figure 5-1 Multi-user transmission in OFDM

To make better use of the truck's space, Wi-Fi 6 introduces OFDMA. It divides
channel resources into multiple RUs. Different users are allocated these RUs,
which carry their respective data. In this way, the data of multiple users can be
sent on one channel simultaneously, as shown in Figure 5-2.

Figure 5-2 Multi-user transmission in OFDMA

OFDMA achieves point-to-multipoint communication between an AP and

multiples users, greatly improving communication efficiency.

RU and Tone
RUs are the minimum transmission units in OFDMA. To simplify OFDMA-based
scheduling, Wi-Fi 6 defines seven types of RUs: 26-tone RU, 52-tone RU, 106-
tone RU, 242-tone RU, 484-tone RU, 996-tone RUs, and 2x996-tone RUs. Based

20
MRU
on these, Wi-Fi 7 supports one more RU type thanks to the new 320 MHz
channel. Table 5-1 lists the number of XX-tone RUs supported at different
channel bandwidth values. Assuming that a 320 MHz channel is only divided into
26-tone RUs, then theoretically, it allows an AP to communicate with a
maximum of 148 terminals simultaneously.

Table 5-1 Number of RUs at different channel bandwidth values

RU Type 20 40 80 160 or 80+80 320 or 160+160

MHz MHz MHz MHz MHz

26-tone RU 9 18 37 74 148

52-tone RU 4 8 16 32 74

106-tone RU 2 4 8 16 32

242-tone RU 1 2 4 8 16

484-tone RU - 1 2 4 8

996-tone RU - - 1 2 4

2x996-tone RU - - - 1 2

4x996-tone RU - - - - 1

(New in Wi-Fi 7)

In terms of XX-tone RU, XX represents the number of tones included in an RU.

For example, a 26-tone RU indicates that the RU includes 26 tones.

The tone concept mentioned here is also known as subcarrier. Wireless signals
are transmitted on fixed frequencies, which are also called carriers, and the
802.11 standard further divides these frequencies into subcarriers, that is, tones.
For example, a 20 MHz channel in Wi-Fi 6 is divided into 256 tones, with 78.125
kHz spacing, which represents only one quarter compared to Wi-Fi 5 (312.5 kHz),
as shown in Figure 5-3. Among these tones, 234 data tones are used for
transmission, which is the number of valid subcarriers mentioned above. As for
the 320 MHz channel bandwidth introduced in Wi-Fi 7, the total number of
tones is 4096, in which there are 4x980 data tones.

21
MRU
 Figure 5-3 RU division for a 20 MHz channel

5.2 MRU-based Resource Allocation

In practice, Wi-Fi 6 allocates different types of RUs to different users. For
example, a 20 MHz channel is allocated to users 1 to 6, as shown in Figure 5-4.
A 106-tone RU is allocated to user 1, and 26-tone RUs are allocated to the other
users.

Figure 5-4 Multi-user RU allocation

However, according to RU allocation in Wi-Fi 6, each user can be allocated only

one RU in a period. As a result, some RUs become idle, leading to resource waste
and lack of flexibility. To break through this limitation, Wi-Fi 7 introduces MRU
technology, which allows a single user to occupy multiple RUs simultaneously.
An MRU consists of selected combinations of multiple RUs of different sizes.
Figure 5-5 shows the detailed channel occupation in different Wi-Fi standards.

22
MRU
 Figure 5-5 Channel occupation comparison between Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6, and Wi-Fi 7

In MRU, RU combinations are subject to some constraints in order to achieve a

balance between implementation complexity and spectrum resource utilization.
For example, small size RUs (< 20 MHz) can only be combined with small size
RUs to form small size MRUs, and large size RUs (≥ 20 MHz) can only be
combined with large size RUs to form large size MRUs, as detailed in Table 5-2.

Table 5-2 MRU types

RU Type RU Combination Bandwidth (MHz)

Small size MRU 26+106-tone 20, 40, 80, 160, or 320

26+52-tone 20, 40, 80, 160, or 320

Large size MRU 242+484-tone 80, 160, or 320

484+996-tone 160 or 320

2x996-tone 160 or 320

242+484+996-tone 160, only for non-OFDMA transmission

484+2x996-tone 320

3x996-tone 320

484+3x996-tone 320

4x996-tone 320

23
MRU
 Chapter 6
Multi-Link

Abstract
This chapter describes the multi-link technology introduced in Wi-Fi 7
and the benefits from this technology.

6.1 What Is Multi-Link?

In Wi-Fi 6 and earlier standards, an AP and a STA can establish a link only using
one radio at a time even though they both support multiple radios.

To further improve throughput and reduce latency, the Wi-Fi 7 standard

introduces multi-link operation (MLO) technology, which allows an AP and a
STA to establish multiple links between each other simultaneously for data
communication. Figure 6-1 compares link establishment between the AP and
STA.

In the Wi-Fi 7 standard, an MLO-capable device is defined as a multi-link device

(MLD). The MLD has a plurality of independent PHYs. Wi-Fi 7 introduces a MAC
that can coordinately manage each independent PHY. This MAC capability
resolves issues in multi-link aggregation, channel access, data transmission, etc.

24
Multi-Link
 Figure 6-1 Wi-Fi 6 vs. Wi-Fi 7

6.2 What Benefits Does Multi-Link

Bring?
MLO enables data flows to be sent to MLDs over different radios. The following
MLO modes are supported:

 Mode 1: Higher performance

Figure 6-2 High performance

Multiple links are used for load balancing, improving the peak single-user
throughput.

25
Multi-Link
 Mode 2: Higher reliability

Figure 6-3 Higher reliability

Multiple links are used for multi-fed and selective receiving, improving link
reliability.

26
Multi-Link
 Chapter 7
Other Wi-Fi 7 Enhancements

Abstract
This chapter describes several other key technologies leveraged by Wi-
Fi 7: physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) format optimization,
restricted target wake time (R-TWT) for power saving, 802.11ba deep
power saving, and 802.11az high-precision positioning.

7.1 PPDU Formats in Wi-Fi 7

In Wi-Fi 6, PPDUs are reconstructed to support the OFDMA function. Wi-Fi 6
defines four new PPDU formats:

 HE SU PPDU: applies to single-user packet transmission.

 HE MU PPDU: applies to simultaneous multi-user transmission.
 HE Trigger-based PPDU (HE TB PPDU): applies to UL OFDMA and UL/DL
MU-MIMO scenarios. The Trigger frame in the HE TB PPDU format a
terminal receives from an AP contains resource allocation information used
for simultaneous multi-user uplink transmission.

27
Other Wi-Fi 7 Enhancements
 HE extended range SU PPDU (HE ER SU PPDU): applies to outdoor long-
range scenarios.

Figure 7-1 Four new PPDU formats introduced in Wi-Fi 6

Wi-Fi 7 evolves based on the Wi-Fi 6 PPDUs. Specifically, Wi-Fi 6 defines the HE
SU and HE MU PPDUs as two independent PPDU types, while Wi-Fi 7 integrates
the two types of PPDUs into an EHT MU PPDU. This new PPDU can be used for
both SU and MU transmission. Just like the HE TB PPDU in Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 7 also
defines the EHT TB PPDU. Figure 7-2 shows the formats of PPDUs specific to Wi-
Fi 7.

28
Other Wi-Fi 7 Enhancements
 Figure 7-2 Wi-Fi 7 PPDU formats

The universal signal (U-SIG) field is introduced in Wi-Fi 7. Different from the SIG
design in Wi-Fi 6 and earlier versions, the U-SIG field in Wi-Fi 7 contains PHY
version information and is forward compatible with various possible PPDU
formats in the future, simplifying the PPDU format identification process on the
receiver.

7.2 R-TWT for Power Saving

To save power, Wi-Fi 6 introduces the target wake time (TWT) mechanism,
which was originally designed in 802.11ah for devices with low traffic volumes
(especially IoT devices). The TWT mechanism enables an AP and a STA to
establish a TWT agreement and negotiate TWT service periods (SPs). This
ensures that the STA is awake only within the SPs. Figure 7-3 shows the TWT
mechanism.

Figure 7-3 TWT mechanism

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Other Wi-Fi 7 Enhancements
This mechanism is similar to a home delivery service. The recipient does not need
to wait at home to receive the goods but can discuss with the courier to receive
the goods at a fixed time.

There are two TWT modes: individual TWT and broadcast TWT, as shown in
Figure 7-4.

Figure 7-4 Individual TWT and broadcast TWT

Individual TWT requires a corresponding agreement between an AP and a STA,

where the STA only recognizes the TWT it obtained through negotiation with the
AP.

However, it takes a long time for the AP to negotiate with each STA one by one.
To simplify negotiation, Wi-Fi 6 defines broadcast TWT, which does not require
an individual TWT agreement. Broadcast TWT is managed by the AP. In this
mechanism, the TWT SPs are announced by the AP, and STAs send requests to
the AP to join the broadcast TWT operation. After joining the broadcast TWT, the
STAs can obtain the AP's broadcast TWT SPs.

According to Wi-Fi 6, individual TWT is mandatory for APs but not for STAs, and
broadcast TWT is not mandatory for APs. Wi-Fi 7 defines a multi-link TWT
mechanism based on MLO technology, and defines restricted TWT (R-TWT) for

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Other Wi-Fi 7 Enhancements
latency-sensitive traffic. R-TWT allows APs to use enhanced channel access and
resource reservation mechanisms to provide more predictable latency, lower
worst-case latency, and/or lower jitter, as well as provide higher reliability for
transmission of latency-sensitive traffic. R-TWT inherits the negotiation
mechanism of broadcast TWT, and carries required information in the TWT
Setup frame.

7.3 802.11ba for Deep Power Saving

The TWT mechanism has been introduced to Wi-Fi to save power by enabling
devices to periodically sleep and wake up. In spite of this, there are still some
issues, for example, devices still need to wake up periodically to check whether
channels are idle. To prevent these issues, Wi-Fi 7 introduces 802.11ba for deep
power saving. 802.11ba refers to Wake-up Radio (WuR), which has been widely
used in the IoT field. WuR performs well in low-power, delay-tolerant, and on-
demand data collection scenarios, such as smart homes, wildlife tracking, and
storage monitoring.

WuR can achieve deep power saving because:

 The device sets the communications module to the deep sleep mode, and
enables only one wake-up receiver with ultra-low power consumption. After
receiving a wake-up frame, the wake-up receiver wakes up the
communications module to receive and send data and signaling.
 The wake-up frame is modulated simply using on-off keying (OOK) and
transmitted over 4 MHz channels, greatly reducing the power consumption
and costs of the wake-up receiver.

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Other Wi-Fi 7 Enhancements
 Figure 7-5 WuR working diagram

7.4 802.11az for High-Precision

Positioning
802.11az, referred to as Next Generation Positioning (NGP), aims to replace
widely used signal strength-based positioning technologies. 802.11az uses Fine
Timing Measurement (FTM).

The two ends of a link function as the initiating STA (ISTA) and responding STA
(RSTA), respectively. The ISTA and RSTA exchange FTM and ACK frames, so that
the RTT can be calculated to measure the distance between them. Figure 7-6
shows the frame exchange process between the ISTA and RSTA. The ISTA records
the FTM frame sending timestamp as t1 and the ACK frame receiving timestamp
as t4. The RSTA records the FTM frame receiving timestamp as t2 and the ACK
frame sending timestamp as t3. In the next FTM-ACK frame exchange process,
the ISTA sends t1 and t4 to the RSTA. Based on these timestamps, the RSTA can
calculate the RTT as follows: RTT = t4 – t1 (t3 – t2). Based on this formula,
the frame processing delay Δt can be calculated by deducting t3 from t2.

The RTT is calculated as follows: RTT = ( t2 – t1) + (t4 – t3). Then, the
distance between the ISTA and RSTA can be estimated based on the speed of
light and RTT/2.

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Other Wi-Fi 7 Enhancements
 Figure 7-6 FTM implementation

Due to the synchronization precision, the recorded timestamps t2 and t4 may

deviate. The first-path delay or phase offset is typically used on the ISTA and
RSTA to compensate for the deviation, thereby improving the ranging precision.
Additionally, in Wi-Fi 7, the channel bandwidth has been extended to 320 MHz,
which can further improve the ranging precision.

Figure 7-7 802.11az networking diagram

As shown in the preceding figure, an 802.11az network consists of one STA and
multiple APs. To estimate the STA's position, FTM and the trilateration
positioning method are used, with the latter requiring at least three APs. In this

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Other Wi-Fi 7 Enhancements
example, the STA is the ISTA and the three APs are RSTAs. The ISTA sets up FTM
sessions with the three RSTAs that are not positioned in a straight line to obtain
its relative distances from the RSTAs. Then, a circle is drawn with each distance
as the radius. The ISTA is positioned at the intersection point of the three circles,
as shown in Figure 7-8.

Figure 7-8 Trilateration positioning method

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Other Wi-Fi 7 Enhancements
 Chapter 8
Huawei Wi-Fi 7 AP

Abstract
This chapter describes Huawei's enterprise Wi-Fi 7 AP.

AirEngine 8771-X1T is Huawei's next-generation Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) access point

(AP). It has built-in dynamic-zoom smart antennas and supports a total of 12
spatial streams on the 2.4 GHz (4x4 MIMO), 5 GHz (4x4 MIMO), and 6 GHz (4x4
MIMO) frequency bands, delivering speeds of up to 18.67 Gbit/s. This AP offers a
fiber-like wireless experience to users, and therefore is applicable to a wide
range of innovative scenarios such as metaverse, and extended reality (XR)–
based remote collaboration, telemedicine, and interactive teaching.

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Huawei Wi-Fi 7 AP
 Figure 8-1 AirEngine 8771-X1T

 Exclusively supports 12T12R, delivering up to 12 spatial streams and a

throughput of 18.67 Gbit/s (4 spatial streams @ 320 MHz + 4 spatial
streams @ 160 MHz + 4 spatial streams @ 40 MHz). Such strengths make
the AP ideal for heavy-traffic services such as AR/VR and XR remote
collaboration.
 Has built-in dynamic-zoom smart antennas that can dynamically switch
between the omnidirectional and high-density modes based on specific
scenarios, improving network-wide performance in high-density mode and
ensuring high-density service experience for users.
 Uses the triple-radio design (1 x 2.4 GHz radio + 1 x 5 GHz radio + 1 x 6 GHz
radio) to increase the number of concurrent users by 50%.

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Huawei Wi-Fi 7 AP
 A Acronyms and
Abbreviations
Table A-1 Acronyms and abbreviations

Acronym/Abbre Full Name

viation

AGV automated guided vehicle

AI artificial intelligence

AOI automated optical inspection

AP access point

AR augmented reality

BSS basic service set

CCK complementary code keying

CoSR coordinated spatial reuse

DSSS direct sequence spread spectrum

EHT Extremely High Throughput

FHSS frequency hopping spread spectrum

GI guard interval

37
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Acronym/Abbre Full Name
viation

HE High Efficiency

HE MU PPDU HE multi-user PPDU

HE SU PPDU HE single-user PPDU

HE TB PPDU HE Trigger-based PPDU

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

IoT Internet of Things

IR infrared

MAC medium access control

MIMO multiple-input multiple-output

MLD multi-link device

MLO multi-link operation

MRU multiple resource unit

MU-MIMO multi-user multiple-input multiple-output

OFDM orthogonal frequency division multiplexing

OFDMA orthogonal frequency division multiple access

OOK on-off keying

PHY physical layer

PLC programmable logic controller

PPDU PHY protocol data unit

QAM quadrature amplitude modulation

RTT round trip time

R-TWT restricted TWT

RU resource unit

SNR signal-to-noise ratio

38
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Acronym/Abbre Full Name
viation

STA station

SU-MIMO single-user multiple-input multiple-output

TWT target wake time

VR virtual reality

WFA Wi-Fi Alliance

Wi-Fi Wireless Fidelity

WLAN wireless local area network

WuR wake-up radio

XR extended reality

39
Acronyms and Abbreviations
Contact Us
networkinfo@huawei.com

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Acronyms and Abbreviations