What is Wifi 8?

[RMerlin]

Asus posted a fairly lengthy page on their website listing all the features introduced in Wifi 8. There are a lot more than I initially expected.

https://www.asus.com/ca-en/content/what-is-wifi8/

Now, how much of these features will actually end up in most consummer-grade devices remain to be seen. And also how many of these will actually work as expected...

 

[Kendo]

Interesting read, thanks for sharing.

 

[Untried3868]

Will one need a mortgage to purchase a Wi-Fi 8 router?

 

[Tech9]

Newer Wi-Fi generations are gold mine for false advertising. Expect more hard to verify working or not features actively used for marketing purposes and skipped after for cost saving measures just like in Wi-Fi 7 products. Marketing teams struggle to find words to describe the theoretical improvements. We had "seamless roaming" claims for years, now we are going to get "improved seamless roaming". Next time perhaps "vastly improved seamless roaming" is coming. Improved connectivity to old existing clients, of course, especially IoTs. Like... improved back to Wi-Fi 4 levels or smart speakers getting vertical takeoff feature with 2x flight time when connected to Wi-Fi 8 router? I like the new Beamforming picture where two "smart" routers shoot own targets. This is an improved picture over previous false advertising picture. I can hear clients screaming "Pick me!" already. Must be some AI involvement in advertising, mandatory key word. Looking forward for "uninterrupted AI experience", my favorite.

 

[RMerlin]

Newer Wi-Fi generations are gold mine for false advertising. Expect more hard to verify working or not features actively used for marketing purposes and skipped after for cost saving measures just like in Wi-Fi 7 products. Marketing teams struggle to find words to describe the theoretical improvements. We had "seamless roaming" claims for years, now we are going to get "improved seamless roaming". Next time perhaps "vastly improved seamless roaming" is coming. Improved connectivity to old existing clients, of course, especially IoTs. Like... improved back to Wi-Fi 4 levels or smart speakers getting vertical takeoff feature with 2x flight time when connected to Wi-Fi 8 router? I like the new Beamforming picture where two "smart" routers shoot own targets. This is an improved picture over previous false advertising picture. I can hear clients screaming "Pick me!" already. Must be some AI involvement in advertising, mandatory key word. Looking forward for "uninterrupted AI experience", my favorite.

When reading these "tech promos", you have to cut through the marketing BS to find the actual technical nuggets. For me is seeing how many new technologies are being added with Wifi 8. Whether they will provide the advertised enhancements remains to be seen. But the fact is, Wifi 8 seem to add a lot of new features, more than the last few Wifi releases did. And they all seem to target reliability rather than throughput, which is a good thing. I already can push Wifi 7 to the near limits of a 2.5 Gbps Ethernet (which isn't even fully common yet, a majority of LANs are still only Gigabits). Make it maintain a higher speed over a longer distance, or better schedule traffic when both a 2x2 320 MHz and a 1x1 80 MHz client try to access the same radio at the same time - that's where there is worthwile room for improvements possible.

 

[Tech9]

The consumer market allows a lot of false advertising with no big risk of negative consequences. Many users can't filter marketing BS and will pay for advertised non-working or no improvement features. Since Wi-Fi 7 generation it become almost guaranteed to happen.

 

[RMerlin]

The consumer market allows a lot of false advertising with no big risk of negative consequences. Many users can't filter marketing BS and will pay for advertised non-working or no improvement features. Since Wi-Fi 7 generation it become almost guaranteed to happen.

Since puffery is legal, the line is probably quite blurry.

 

[Tech9]

Puffery?

Let's pretend we know absolutely nothing and make purchase decisions based on advertisements.

Since we both live in Canada let's read some definitions first:

False or Misleading Representations and Deceptive Marketing Practices

The Competition Act contains provisions addressing false or misleading representations and deceptive marketing practices in promoting the supply or use of a product or any business interest. All representations, in any form whatever, that are false or misleading in a material respect are subject...

competition-bureau.canada.ca

Let's go to ASUS Canada now and click on the cheapest BE-class router they offer, the RT-BE59:
https://www.asus.com/ca-en/networking-iot-servers/wifi-7/all-series/rt-be59

Lets see the advertised speed:

Yay, we are getting >4.3Gbps on 5GHz band! But... how?
The MCS table is here: https://mcsindex.net/, I see... we need non-existent 3-stream BE client.

Let's see supported technologies:

Yay, we are getting Simultaneous MLO too! But... do we?
Let's check the specifications for details. Hmm... no word about MLO, strange.

Oh, at least it's an Extendable router! The technology is called AiMesh, very nice!
Let's see what AiMesh is on ASUS Canada:
https://www.asus.com/ca-en/site/aimesh

Since all devices enjoy access to all the features of the main router we can buy a better ASUS router later on and do Guest Network to LAN port on RT-BE59! We see it as a feature on our main router. But... can we?

 

[RMerlin]

Puffery?

"Puffery" is where advertisers are allowed to make outlandish claims, such as "The number one brand in the country", or "Red Bull gives you wings".

The MCS table is here: https://mcsindex.net/, I see... we need non-existent 3-stream BE client.

You can achieve that by having two routers connected together in a mesh/repeater setup. I remember back when I didn't have a Wifi 7 client to test things, I ended up connecting a second router as a repeater, which allowed me to confirm that I was properly displaying 802.11be info on the Wireless Log. I remember having a link rate around ~4300 Mbps then. No idea on the throughput however, as I didn't have any way of connecting a client at higher speeds than 2.5 Gbps to run a speed test.

 

[Tech9]

You can achieve that by having two routers connected together in a mesh/repeater setup.

There is no such requirement in the advertisement. There is no word about aggregated throughput either. This means best case scenario ~2.3Gbps limited by the ports speed or ~2.8Gbps link speed limited by available clients. Everyone is doing it, but it's false advertising.

"To determine whether a representation is false or misleading, the courts consider the "general impression" it conveys, as well as its literal meaning."

 

[Clark Griswald]

My technical observation on WiFi 8 is Asus stopped using rocket ships for speed indicators and now uses automobiles.

 

[RMerlin]

This means best case scenario ~2.3Gbps limited by the ports speed

Some routers have dual 10 Gbps Ethernet ports, so you can definitely go higher than this.

 

[Tech9]

Some routers have dual 10 Gbps Ethernet ports

I'm looking at specific product advertising. It can't do what is advertised as speed, most likely doesn't support what is advertised as technology and expandability information is straight misleading. All of the above was done in purpose with goal influencing customers' decision to buy the product.

 

[Viktor Jaep]

My technical observation on WiFi 8 is Asus stopped using rocket ships for speed indicators and now uses automobiles.
View attachment 71260

The only thing better are snails... and snails on rockets!

 

[user114514]

Not sure if wifi8 itself is just a gimmick, but it’s expected that wifi8 STA chipsets will introduce 4x4 MIMO, which would be very useful even for older standards.

Also, it is expected wifi8 AP chipsets will introduce 25G MAC and optional features that were missing in wifi7 chipsets.

 

[RMerlin]

Not sure if wifi8 itself is just a gimmick, but it’s expected that wifi8 STA chipsets will introduce 4x4 MIMO, which would be very useful even for older standards.

Also, it is expected wifi8 AP chipsets will introduce 25G MAC and optional features that were missing in wifi7 chipsets.

Here's Broadcom BCM6719:

Wi-Fi 8 | 4x4 + 4x4 Access Point Chip | Residential

Learn about Broadcom’s next-gen Wi-Fi 8 dual-radio, dual-band SoC, delivering performance, efficiency and reliability for the AI era.

www.broadcom.com

And the BCM6718 (for the 6 GHz band):

Wi-Fi 8 | Access Point Chip | Residential

Learn about Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 next gen 802.11bn (UHR) access points, ideally suited for residential gateways, routers, extenders.

www.broadcom.com

 

[Tech9]

The standard is expected to be finalized in 2028. What we are looking at is "draft" specification chips for "beta tester" edition devices. I'm sure the early bird membership is going to be $500+ and there will be no single client to test the claimed improvements with.

 

[user114514]

Here's Broadcom BCM6719:

Wi-Fi 8 | 4x4 + 4x4 Access Point Chip | Residential

Learn about Broadcom’s next-gen Wi-Fi 8 dual-radio, dual-band SoC, delivering performance, efficiency and reliability for the AI era.

www.broadcom.com

And the BCM6718 (for the 6 GHz band):

Wi-Fi 8 | Access Point Chip | Residential

Learn about Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 next gen 802.11bn (UHR) access points, ideally suited for residential gateways, routers, extenders.

www.broadcom.com

It's no surprise, given Broadcom has lost Apple, its largest customer.

Qualcomm's performance in wifi8 is much better:

WCN885x STA chipset with 4x4 MIMO

Qualcomm® FastConnect™ 8800 Mobile Connectivity System

Next-generation Wi-Fi 8, Bluetooth® 7 wireless technology, Ultra Wideband (UWB), and Thread mobile connectivity system for the fastest peak speeds1,3, up to 3x longer gigabit range2, and seamless proximity experiences.

www.qualcomm.com

IPQ96xx AP chipset with 5x5 MIMO, 2x 25GbE, 4x 2.5GbE, 32b DDR5, 1x Cortex-A76, 4x Cortex-A55

NPro A8 Elite Platform

The Dragonwing NPro A8 Elite Platform is Qualcomm Technologies’ most advanced Wi‑Fi 8 infrastructure solution, bringing together superior compute and native edge AI to support low‑latency, high‑capacity connectivity across home and enterprise deployments.

www.qualcomm.com

These additional improvements are far more useful than wifi8 itself.