FROM THE INDUSTRY
much wireless contention, that it becomes noticeable to the end-user. This leads to annoyance, generates support calls and negative feedback. Wi-Fi performance challenges in the home are a commonly occurring issue (ask any support team), and these often prove some of the most frustrating and complex issues to resolve remotely. So, it is a good time to start thinking about a plan to future-proof the home network with next-gen Wi-Fi, that looks to address the issues of reliability, latency and spectrum management. What Does Wi-Fi 7 Actually Bring? There are already many articles out there explaining the tech behind Wi-Fi 7, so I won’t attempt to re-invent the wheel here. Long story short - Wi-Fi 7 brings key enhancements to improve data throughput and reliability. The result is client devices in the home or office (where multiple devices contend for airspace), can now make more efficient use of the frequency space available to them. The desired outcome is to reduce latency and maximise throughput. Increased
capacity, lower latency and better spectrum management, will all improve the connectivity experience for users, and likely reduce the number of trouble-tickets logged with the ISP. Happy days.
Your Connected Home
How many devices do you have connected to your home Wi-Fi? Probably more than you think. The accumulation of smartphones, laptops, voice control assistants, door bells, smart-meters, kitchen appliances…it is estimated that the average UK household has around 30 devices connected to the home internet. That’s a lot of competition for bandwidth. These days more and more devices support 5GHz channels (so many of them used to be 2.4GHz only), but this has the knock-on effect of adding load to the 5GHz radios already serving your console, smart TV, iPads and work-at-home machines. All of these devices which really need the best connectivity experience, are now sharing the frequency space with an ever-increasing number of IoT or auxiliary devices. Additionally, more users have wireless- meshing enabled at home, most likely using 5GHz channels too. We will inevitably reach a point in the connected- home, when the growing number of (30+) devices, mesh, and interference from the neighbours’ Wi-Fi, regularly creates so
Increased capacity, lower latency and better spectrum management, will all improve the connectivity experience for users, and likely reduce the number of trouble-tickets logged with the ISP.
MARCH 2024 Volume 46 No.1
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