Future Directions for Wi-Fi 8 and Beyond

Generation after generation, Wi-Fi has experienced tremendous growth in both market penetration and technical capabilities. Wi-Fi 6/6E is the latest generation of the technology with commercially available products. In the meantime, the industry is already developing Wi-Fi 7, based on features defined in IEEE 802.11be. As the feature set of Wi-Fi 7 becomes well defined and product development is underway, it is essential to take a step back to analyze what the usages and technology drivers of the next 5-10 years will be. With this understanding and the expectation that Wi-Fi 8 could become a market reality in the 2027/2028 timeframe, we can anticipate technology candidates that can be part of Wi-Fi 8. In this article, we provide an overview of Wi-Fi generations until Wi-Fi 7, and then discuss future market requirements, drivers, and technology challenges in meeting them. We then introduce several possible technical directions for Wi-Fi 8 along different performance vectors, including throughput, capacity, and device density, as well as improved support for quality of service, latency and reliability, and operation in new frequency bands.