> While some draft specifications could be released in 2027, the official Wi-Fi 8 standard is projected to be finalized only in mid-2028. Commercial products that officially support the new standard are not expected to reach the market until late 2028 at the earliest.
I bet companies will release WiFi 8 products even when it's still a draft, just as they did with WiFI 7.
I upgraded my home setup to WiFi 7 a few weeks ago, and after being a WiFi hater for so long, was actually surprised at how much better it was over my previous experiences with WiFi. With MLO clients get 2-3ms latency with 2.5Gbit links, I'm all for WiFi 8 trying to reduce the latency further, I don't need more speed.
> I bet companies will release WiFi 8 products even when it's still a draft, just as they did with WiFI 7.
They must. Otherwise it cannot be tested within the labs.
And producing chips before a standard is finalized is usually no problem at all: there are gates within the standardization process where the will be no more changes that are relevant for the silicon.
These 802.11n-draft APs were a singular fuckup regarding this.
Similar transition for me. Basic dual AP setup that I took from first gen UAPs (wifi 4) to U7 Pro. I think I have only one client (a Lenovo laptop) that connects with wifi 7, but even the wifi 6 devices are screamers now; my phone can get 600mbps symmetric with line of sight or 200-300mbps from two floors away. Just bonkers.
I very much doubt it wills make any difference right now, especially in a home environment where it’s only a handful of clients and minimal real congestion.
I got the pros as a vanity move to be 6GHz ready but truthfully there’s zero reason for it.
> I bet companies will release WiFi 8 products even when it's still a draft, just as they did with WiFI 7.
They've been doing this since the dawn of wifi pretty much. I distinctly remember seeing "802.11 draft n" being printed an all the hot new and faster wifi cards back in the day.
If you want reliable Wifi at home, get yourself Ubiquity access points and throw away TP-Link. The issue is not the protocol. After many years of unplugging and plugging back in my TP-link router I know that they are cursed.
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[ 1.8 ms ] story [ 34.0 ms ] threadI bet companies will release WiFi 8 products even when it's still a draft, just as they did with WiFI 7.
I upgraded my home setup to WiFi 7 a few weeks ago, and after being a WiFi hater for so long, was actually surprised at how much better it was over my previous experiences with WiFi. With MLO clients get 2-3ms latency with 2.5Gbit links, I'm all for WiFi 8 trying to reduce the latency further, I don't need more speed.
They must. Otherwise it cannot be tested within the labs.
And producing chips before a standard is finalized is usually no problem at all: there are gates within the standardization process where the will be no more changes that are relevant for the silicon.
These 802.11n-draft APs were a singular fuckup regarding this.
I got the pros as a vanity move to be 6GHz ready but truthfully there’s zero reason for it.
They've been doing this since the dawn of wifi pretty much. I distinctly remember seeing "802.11 draft n" being printed an all the hot new and faster wifi cards back in the day.
Ubiquity stuff was giving me constant buffer bloat issues and it was a pain to do basic configuration for. Just too many options.
TP-LInk generally works just fine as long as the WiFi channel is clear.
With MAP 2.4GHz can serve as long range network that can be filled with High-Rate 5GHz / 6GHz cells. And all of them can be utilized in parallel.
802.11be (Wifi-7) still lacks this.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11bn
So they're explicitly look at more than just adding more bits per second.