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The development of the next gen Wi-Fi 8 (802.11bn – Ultra High Reliability) standard – led by Task group IEEE802.11bn – is said to be making “steady progress” and, according to Qualcomm Technologies, a high-level of consensus has now been achieved on a significant portion of the future standard that will focus more on improving network reliability than speed.
At present most UK consumers have yet to even adopt kit that supports either the Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax with support for the 6GHz band) or latest Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be – Extremely High Throughput) standard. Both of those made big improvements toward network reliability and tackling congestion, but they were also a lot more about peak speeds and harnessing the “new” 6GHz band.
In theory, the latest Wi-Fi 7 standard might be able to achieve theoretical peak data speeds of up to 46Gbps (Gigabits per second) in your local network. But history tells us that real-world experiences always fall considerably below that level (real-world peaks of 5-6Gbps are more realistic on the best kit) – due to various factors like distance from access point, signal obstructions, power levels, spectrum allocations, router / antenna design and interference from other networks etc.
Suffice to say that raw network speed is less of an issue in the current standard than ensuring that you can actually deliver that capability with some reliability to users of the network. The good news, we think, is that developers of the next WiFi standard are already adopting a different approach, which is why the Wi-Fi 8 initiative has long been known as Ultra High Reliability (UHR).
The good news is that the initial technical draft standard for Wi-Fi 8 – TGbn draft 1.0 (D1.0) – was effectively agreed last week (we don’t expect the final standard until May 2028) and Qualcomm Technologies, which is playing a role in its development (one of many organisations), have now given us a preview of what we can expect and how it will improve reliability.
Key Features of Wi-Fi 8 – Qualcomm
Seamless roaming:
802.11bn introduces a transformative approach to mobility through the concept of Single Mobility Domains, enabling seamless roaming across multiple access points. This allows devices to provide a “once connected, always connected” experience by maintaining continuous, low-latency connections as they move — without the interruptions or packet drops caused by traditional handoffs.
Reliable coverage at the edge:
Another important innovation vector in the 802.11bn standard is the focus on enhancing edge performance — the ability of a Wi-Fi network to maintain reliable, high-quality connectivity for client devices operating under non-ideal signal conditions. This is especially important for client devices operating at the outer boundaries of AP coverage or in environments with signal degradation due to distance, interference or power limitations. The standard addresses these challenges with a range of physical layer enhancements that work together to strengthen performance at the edge.
Smarter coordination for dense deployments:
In high-density environments, such as enterprise campuses, apartment buildings and public venues, Wi-Fi networks can face challenges with overlapping signals and airtime contention. These conditions can lead to latency spikes, degraded throughput and overall user experience. Wi-Fi 8 tackles this head-on with one of its most important innovations: multi-AP coordination. By enabling APs to operate collaboratively rather than independently, Wi-Fi 8 introduces a smarter, more efficient way to access the medium and share resources between access points, providing a consistent user experience.
Improved in-device coexistence:
Modern devices increasingly integrate multiple radios (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, UWB), creating new coexistence challenges, such as disruptions on one technology while the shared antenna is used for another technology. Wi-Fi 8 introduces improved in-device coexistence to ensure smoother operation when multiple radios share antennas or spectrum, gracefully handling the temporary outages when the antenna is used for another technology.
Smarter energy use:
As Wi-Fi becomes more central to everyday life, power efficiency is critical for extending battery life of client devices and mobile APs and reducing energy consumption of fixed APs and residential gateways. Wi-Fi 8 introduces new features that make wireless connectivity more energy-aware without compromising responsiveness.
According to the IEEE’s related Scope Document, Wi-Fi 8 will also aim to deliver at least 25% higher throughput in challenging signal conditions, 25% lower latency at the 95th percentile of the latency distribution and 25% fewer dropped packets, especially when roaming between access points. This perhaps isn’t as attractive to marketing departments as peak network speed figures, but it’s a big improvement for a technology as mature as Wi-Fi.
Now, if history is anything to go by, we might well see the first Wi-Fi 8 capable hardware starting to ship in late 2027 using a near final draft specification of the full standard – usually at heavily inflated prices. But it’ll probably be late 2028 or early 2029 before final certified kit starts to ship based on non-draft standards.