What Is the Outlook for Extremely High Throughput Wi-Fi 7 in 2025

By Andrew Zignani | 4Q 2024 | IN-7636

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It has been nearly 2 years since the first Wi-Fi 7-capable smartphone, the Xiaomi Mi13 Pro, arrived on the market. Since then, the Wi-Fi Alliance has certified nearly 200 Wi-Fi 7 products, encompassing a range of Wi-Fi chipsets and modules, Access Points (APs), smartphones, tablets, Personal Computers (PCs), and games consoles, among other devices. In addition, there are a whole host of other Wi-Fi 7 devices that have arrived on the market, while new announcements throughout 2024 point to 2025 being a year when a considerable portion of the Wi-Fi market will shift toward Wi-Fi 7 technology. However, with the growing cost and complexity inherent to Wi-Fi 7 adoption, vendors are swiftly planning to adopt the technology, but what challenges remain to Wi-Fi 7 adoption?

On the AP side, 2024 has seen a huge increase in the availability of Wi-Fi 7 devices on the market. Alongside this, there have been several recent announcements combining Wi-Fi 7 with heavily promoted Artificial Intelligence (AI) feature sets. In September 2024, Juniper Networks introduced its AP47 Series APs, integrating Wi-Fi 7 alongside location services and advanced AI features as part of its AI-Native Networking Platform. This includes enhanced security features, customizable service levels, capacity optimization, self-configuration, self-healing, and other benefits. In October 2024, Qualcomm unveiled its Networking Pro A7 Elite Platform, combining Wi-Fi 7 with an AI coprocessor featuring a Qualcomm Hexagon Neural Processing Unit (NPU). In addition to supporting up to 33 Gigabits per Second (Gbps) aggregate throughput, AI features such as the Smart Traffic Classifier to help prioritize traffic depending on the application, AI-based range boost to increase transmit power, and Networking Artificial Intelligence Operations (AIOps) to better identify and log network faults, can all help improve the performance and reliability of the network. In November 2024, Cisco launched its first Wi-Fi 7 APs, the 9176 and 9178, touting not just the enhanced performance of Wi-Fi 7, but also a suite of AI tools bringing performance optimization, self-configuration, and quality assurance for different end-user applications. Somewhat ironically, given Cisco's leadership in the industry, Cisco was the last major AP vendor to introduce Wi-Fi 7 solutions, and these announcements follow various other Wi-Fi 7 AP and gateway product launches in 2024, including those from ASUS, Acer, SonicFi, NETGEAR, H3C, Linksys, eero, Xiaomi, Ruijie, Nokia, Ubiquiti, TP-Link, Zyxel, Edgecore, ZTE, Huawei, and many others, in addition to Wi-Fi 7 networking chipsets available from Qualcomm, MediaTek, Broadcom, Realtek, and MaxLinear.

The year 2024 has also seen a significant acceleration of smartphones that support Wi-Fi 7, based primarily on Wi-Fi 7 chipsets from Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Broadcom. Over 130 different models now support Wi-Fi 7, key among these including the first iPhones to support Wi-Fi 7 via the iPhone 16 series, Google's Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro, and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition, alongside multiple models from ASUS, HONOR, Huawei, Motorola, OnePlus, Sony, OPPO, ZTE, vivo, and Xiaomi, among others. In the PC space, support from Intel, MediaTek, Qualcomm, Realtek, and Broadcom have led to multiple vendors supporting the technology, though Apple has not yet adopted Wi-Fi 7 in its MacBook or iPad portfolio, to date. Interestingly, recent rumors also point to Apple potentially developing its own Wi-Fi 7 chip for products in 2025, similar to what it has historically done with Bluetooth® and Ultra-Wideband (UWB). However, many other Wi-Fi 7-capable PC products have arrived on the market, including the Samsung Galaxy Book4, HONOR MagicBook Art, Lenovo IdeaPad 5x Slim, and Microsoft Surface Pro, among others from Hewlett Packard (HP), Dell, and Acer. Alongside these, some tablets, including the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, the Xiaomi Pad 6S and 7 Pro, and the OnePlus Pad Pro and Pad 2, in addition to other devices from OPPO and vivo, point to swift adoption of Wi-Fi 7 in the computing space.

In the home entertainment arena, MediaTek also announced that its latest premium 4KTV System-on-Chip (SoC), the Pentonic 800, will support the capability to add MediaTek Filogic Wi-Fi 6, 6E or 7 chipsets, in addition to existing support on the Pentonic 700 and 1000 series. Given its strong position in the Television (TV) processor market, this should help significantly accelerate adoption of Wi-Fi 7 in TVs in 2025 and beyond. Meanwhile, other vendors active in the Set-Top Box (STB) and TV space such as Realtek have also begun to more actively showcase Wi-Fi 7 portfolios for home entertainment applications. Alongside this, the recently launched PS5 Pro and handheld gaming platforms such as the AYANEO Pocket EVO also support Wi-Fi 7. Meanwhile, in the automotive realm, earlier this year, Qualcomm developed its first Wi-Fi automotive-grade AP solution, the QCA 6796AQ, while support for Wi-Fi 7 can also be found in MediaTek's Dimensity Auto Connect solution. ABI Research also expects numerous announcements about Wi-Fi 7 AP, PC, gaming, TV, automotive, and other consumer products at CES in January.

Other vendors are also expected to enter the Wi-Fi 7 chipset market in the coming months. In 2023, Synaptics entered a new deal with Broadcom to add Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth® 6.0, and Bluetooth® Enterprise True Wireless Stereo (TWS) Internet Protocol (IP) to help accelerate Synaptics' connectivity roadmap across home entertainment, automotive, automotive, security cameras, tablets, and the audio market. Synaptics' first Wi-Fi 7 devices were made available for customer sampling in 2024 for high-performance security and high-throughput video and audio applications. Typically, it takes some time for the wider Internet of Things (IoT)-centric vendors to take advantage of the latest Wi-Fi standards, and this is likely to remain the case for this transition also. However, ABI Research expects several more vendors to announce their Wi-Fi 7 lineups and roadmaps in 2025.

With all this in mind, 2025 looks set to be a year of much more rapid adoption for Wi-Fi 7, as more and more vendors jump on the Wi-Fi 7 bandwagon. Similarly, as more and more smartphones, tablets, PCs, and smart TVs transition to new processor platforms capable of Wi-Fi 7, this will open up new opportunities for companion Wi-Fi 7 Integrated Circuits (ICs) to be adopted, particularly as end users begin to realize the performance benefits of the technology. This acceleration will also mean that the lifecycle of Wi-Fi 6E in mainstream devices will likely be even more protracted. However, there are still some challenges that need to be solved if Wi-Fi 7 is to meet its potential in the coming years.

First, while some of the higher performance and multi-Gbps throughput abilities of Wi-Fi 7 will require taking full advantage of the 6 Gigahertz (GHz) spectrum, there is no requirement for Wi-Fi 7 devices to support this band. This means that whereas high-end devices will harness 6 GHz to deliver superior performances, many mid-range and entry-level Wi-Fi 7 devices may cut 6 GHz support to reduce the total Bill of Materials (BOM). Another feature that may be removed from products to lower production costs is 320 Megahertz (MHz) channels, which again are vital toward achieving the high throughputs and low latencies that high-performance next-generation applications such as Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR) demand. This has the potential to cause a branding challenge for Wi-Fi 7, as there may be some confusion about whether a particular Wi-Fi 7 devices is or is not compatible with 6 GHz, or if it supports 320 MHz channels. This contrasts with Wi-Fi 6, where the 6E marker was leveraged to clearly demonstrate support for the 6 GHz band.

This is not to say that dual-band Wi-Fi 7 (supporting the legacy 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands only, without 6 GHz) will not also bring multiple benefits when compared with Wi-Fi 6. Many vendors are banking on the growth of dual-band Wi-Fi 7 and see it as the mainstream option for most Wi-Fi 7 products. Compounding this is the continued regional divergence around 6 GHz adoption, where allocation remains uneven or, in some cases, non-existent, providing limitations on performance depending on where it is deployed. This can also result in delayed adoption. For example, in India, continued clashes between Wi-Fi and cellular solution providers over the 6 GHz band may reduce the speed of adoption in that region. Similarly, in regions with limited or no adoption of the 6 GHz band, the incentive of adopting tri-band Wi-Fi 7 may be reduced. Limitations on standard power 6 GHz may also lead to Wi-Fi 7 not being able to fulfill its true potential, particularly within enterprise applications.

In addition, end users will need to have Wi-Fi 7-compatible hardware on both sides of the chain, and many will have just completed upgrades to Wi-Fi 6 or 6E AP equipment. It will, therefore, take some time for the technology to become the dominant installed technology in the home and enterprise, despite strong projected growth. Some vendors also continue to report that the cost of Wi-Fi 7 remains too high and that there is still a considerable price gap with Wi-Fi 6 and 6E. For this purpose, portfolios of dual-band solutions and limits to the channel bandwidth of 160 MHz remain viable options in keeping the cost down in the goal to find a sweet spot for device manufacturers beyond high-end and flagship devices. Given the complex nature of Wi-Fi 7 with up to 320 MHz channels, different approaches to Multi-Link Operation (MLO) and dual versus triple frequency implementations, vendors will need to prioritize the feature set to meet the specific requirements of their application.

To counteract these challenges, vendors are innovating to help reduce complexity and cost, and broader messaging around AI may help spur on Wi-Fi 7 adoption. For example, integration of other technologies alongside Wi-Fi 7 such as Qualcomm's FastConnect 7900 combines not only Wi-Fi and Bluetooth® but also integrates UWB support. This also supports AI features to help enable better performance through greater contextual awareness and prioritization of different applications. This can help vendors reduce the complexity of integrating additional radios, reduce size and BOM cost, and improve efficiency. Broadcom, similarly, has integrated not just a dual-core Bluetooth® radio but also Zigbee/Thread into its BCM4390 mobile chipset. Meanwhile, other vendors such as MediaTek continue to bring their own unique enhancements to their Wi-Fi 7 solutions. For example, MediaTek Xtra Range 3.0 can provide more reliable and power-efficient Wi-Fi 7 connectivity over extended range by using AI-optimized wireless beams, enhancing coverage by up to 30 meters.

Pushing the AI message may also incentivize adoption. It is important to emphasize that connectivity is at the forefront of enabling enhanced AI experiences, which will be vital to next-generation services within smartphone, tablets, and PCs. Wi-Fi 7 can help reduce latency and ensure consistent performance for AI-related services. Conversely, AI can also help enable better contextualization for connectivity and enhance the performance of the overall Wi-Fi network.

Ultimately, despite these challenges, the transition to Wi-Fi 7 is expected to accelerate considerably in 2025, with more and more chipsets and products set to emerge early next year. Greater clarity on the regulatory environment, smaller form factors, cost reductions, expanded variety in product portfolios, new entrants to the market, the continued integration of AI, and growing awareness of the benefits of Wi-Fi 7 will all help to scale up the technology further. With Wi-Fi 8 starting to be promoted by vendors, the next year will be a critical juncture in the rollout and acceleration of Wi-Fi 7, as well as laying a further 6 GHz foundation for future Wi-Fi standards that will focus on ultra-high reliability.