Have you ever tried to clutch a one-v-five in Counter-Strike only to lag
out because your roommate is torrenting over 1,000 episodes of One Piece? Well,
Wi-Fi 7 is supposed to fix this with a feature called multi-link operation or
MLO. It promises a massive speed upgrade
and an end to lag spikes. But before you
run out and buy a shiny new Wi-Fi 7 router, you should know that the Wi-Fi 7
label doesn't guarantee you actually get MLO. Let's get into why that is, why
your devices probably can't even fully use MLO yet, and whether upgrading your
Wi-Fi is even worth it. Think of Wi-Fi
like a highway. Your router and device are connected by multiple lanes, 2.4, 5,
and 6 GHz. In prior Wi-Fi generations,
your data could travel in one lane at a time, and that's fine until you hit
traffic. Maybe your neighbor's smart fridge or your roommate's massive
downloads are hogging the lane. That's fine, you know, you can switch to a
different lane. Or can you? In theory, your devices should switch to the best
band automatically, but band steering in practice is a bit of a mess. So, your
options are stay in the slow lane and deal with it, or manually switch and
hope your device cooperates. Regardless, that gap where you're in between lanes
or fighting to get into one at all is what causes a lag spike. MLO changes the
rules by allowing your data to drive in every lane simultaneously.
It's no longer bound by the laws of time and space. No more picking between 5 or
6 GHz, you can use both at once for massive wireless speeds and zero handoff
delay. For cloud gaming and VR, that's the difference between a buttery smooth
experience and explaining a fist-shaped hole in the drywall to your landlord.
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demo today. Now, here's where it gets messy. Not all routers that claim to be
Wi-Fi 7 are actually Wi-Fi certified 7.
To make sure a laptop from brand A works with a router from brand B, companies
rely on standards. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, or
simply IEEE, writes the rulebook
outlining the technical specs of each new generation of Wi-Fi. Then, a
coalition of over 900 major tech companies called the Wi-Fi Alliance acts
as the referee, certifying that devices actually follow those rules and have the
specified required features. Only devices that pass certification can earn
the official trademarked Wi-Fi 7 logo.
Unfortunately, if you're not paying attention, you could accidentally buy a
pretty sus {quote unquote} Wi-Fi 7
router where the most important feature, MLO, is either incomplete, broken, or
missing entirely. And even among certified routers, features like 320 MHz
channels and 4K QAM, the stuff responsible for those massive advertised
speed numbers, aren't a requirement for certification. And that's just the
router. Your personal devices have their own problems, stemming from how Wi-Fi
fundamentally works. Unlike cellular networks, where the network actively
guides your phone, instructing it which band to use, when to hand off, and how
to manage interference, Wi-Fi puts your devices in charge. Personal devices have
to balance networking with cramped antenna space, thermal constraints, not
to mention interference from everything else that's trying to use the 2.4 GHz
band, baby monitors, microwaves, garage door openers, your neighbor's security
cameras, and basically anything else that's using Bluetooth. Come on. Because
their manufacturers prioritize battery life over raw power, most client devices
only support a light mode of MLO called
MLSR, or enhanced multi-link radio. It
can listen on two bands, but it only talks on one at a time. So, while it
does switch lanes fast enough to dodge lag, it won't actually give you that
massive speed boost you see advertised on router boxes. The full power mode,
STR, or simultaneous transmit and receive, is what actually delivers those
multi-band speeds. And while your certified router will almost certainly
support STR, almost no client device on the market right now has the hardware to
actually use it. So, between the label traps, the limited base features, and
the device bottleneck, the whole Wi-Fi 7 ecosystem is a bit of a mess right now.
That shiny new Wi-Fi certified 7 router is selling you a promise it can't keep
because your devices just aren't ready for it. If your Wi-Fi 6 or 6E setup is
working, the best upgrade you can make right now is you being a little more
patient. But if you do need a router today, check the Wi-Fi Alliance
certification list before you buy. And no, you won't be getting the full MLO
experience just yet. That's a promise Wi-Fi 8 will have to keep. And if you
want to know if mesh Wi-Fi is actually the answer to your coverage woes, check
out this video here. I think it's pretty good.