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Commonly confused · Wireless & Mobility

Wi-Fi 5 vs Wi-Fi 6 vs Wi-Fi 7: What's the Difference?

Each generation raises peak speed, but the bigger story is efficiency. Wi-Fi 5 is 5 GHz only with downlink MU-MIMO, Wi-Fi 6 adds OFDMA and uplink MU-MIMO for dense environments (and 6 GHz with 6E), and Wi-Fi 7 adds 320 MHz channels, 4096-QAM, and Multi-Link Operation.

Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)

vs

Wi-Fi 6/6E (802.11ax)

vs

Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be)

Full definition
Wi-Fi 5Wi-Fi 6/6EWi-Fi 7
IEEE standard802.11ac802.11ax802.11be
Bands5 GHz2.4, 5, and 6 GHz (6E)2.4, 5, and 6 GHz
Max channel width160 MHz160 MHz320 MHz
Modulation256-QAM1024-QAM4096-QAM
Multi-userDownlink MU-MIMOOFDMA, uplink and downlink MU-MIMOOFDMA, MU-MIMO, multi-RU
Key featureWide channelsTarget Wake Time, BSS coloring, OFDMAMulti-Link Operation (MLO)
Theoretical max rateAbout 3.5-6.9 GbpsAbout 9.6 GbpsAbout 46 Gbps
Remember it

Wi-Fi 5 got wide, Wi-Fi 6 got efficient, Wi-Fi 7 got multi-link.

Exam tip

Match features to generations: OFDMA and BSS coloring mean Wi-Fi 6, 6 GHz access means 6E or 7, and MLO means Wi-Fi 7. Know that Wi-Fi 5 does not operate on 2.4 GHz.

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