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Forum Discussion
WIFI 8
You all see wifi 8 is now a thing and other companies promoting it. I thought the orbi 970 was future proofing ? with this new wifi 8 it seems like we are soon to be getting new hardware again for wifi 8? We are still here waiting on wifi 7 to work properly lol. Most of us using wifi 7 which doesnt show you are on wifi 7 because it still shows your connection as 5ghz Little to no 6ghs connection. On a few devices like the samsung phones shows what ghz you are connected to beside the wifi and I have still yet to see wifi 7 showing up there.
11 Replies
I thought the orbi 970 was future proofing ?
No such thing. FWIW, WiFi 9 is being discussed.
WiFi 8 isn't finalized yet, so any marketing you see on it is about pre-standard implementations.
The bottom line here is that if you are satisified with the performance you are geting now, there is no need to immediately jump to the next gen wifi when it is launched.
Most of us using wifi 7 which doesnt show you are on wifi 7 because it still shows your connection as 5ghz Little to no 6ghs
WiFi 6e was the first to support 6 ghz (launched back in 2021). Of course the client devices need 6 ghz radios to use it. It can take quite a while for new tech to take hold.
That said, there is more to WiFi 7 than 6 ghz - including more efficient modulation and MLO. Though MLO is still a work-in-progress for Netgear (and other vendors).
Why would you say no such thing is being discuss if somebody is educating you it is? Please go on Asus website you will see it's basically there already. If you read what I wrote you would have notice we are not happy with the current wifi 7 and behaviors a matter a fact if we were happy none of us will be on this thread right now we are disgruntled customers speaking out over here, With that said Wifi 7 seem to not be ready yet either why we having so many issues so it shouldn't be surprising of them releasing wifi 8 shortly. they did it with 6e and 7. I have the latest techs testing with wifi 7 including the new Mac book pro and google pixel 10 pro, samsung s26 and none of them seems to be handling wifi 7 with the orbi.
Why would you say no such thing is being discuss if somebody is educating you it is? Please go on Asus website you will see it's basically there already.
If you search some more, you'll find that the standard (IEEE 802.11bn) is expected to be finalized in September 2028 - so still two years away. It is still a draft.
I didn't say that WiFi 8 wasn't being discussed - I just said that the standard isn't finished yet. So anything you see about WiFi 8 is pre-standard.
I did say there is no such thing as "future proofing" for WiFi. WiFi manufacturers are already looking ahead and discussing features for WiFi 9. This is all business-as-usual for WiFi. It's always being improved, with care taken to ensure backwards compatibility.
I always look here first to see what is happening as most anything WiFi for the home gets checked here:
https://www.wi-fi.org/wi-fi-macphyWiFi standards are driven by a combination of the WiFi Alliance and the IEEE.
www.wi-fi.org is the website for the WiFi Alliance - so it is great source.
we having so many issues so it shouldn't be surprising of them releasing wifi 8 shortly. they did it with 6e and 7.
Disagree here. These folks don't handle implementation issues that way. Instead, they would publish amendments/clarifications to WiFi 7 itself if that were needed.
WiFi 7 was not a bug-fix for WiFi 6e. What happened back then is that the FCC opened up 6 Ghz spectrum for WiFi use in early 2020. Manufacturers wanted to take immediate advantage of that spectrum, so WiFi 6e was fast-tracked and rolled out in January 2021.
WiFi 7 was launched in 2024, so three years after that. As I said above, it adds some other features - such as MLO and more efficient modulation. The main change to 6 ghz was adding 320 mhz channels to get more performance.
A matter a fact here is the link
I always look here first to see what is happening as most anything WiFi for the home gets checked here:
https://www.wi-fi.org/wi-fi-macphy
That said, there is more to WiFi 7 than 6 ghz - including more efficient modulation and MLO.
For both WiFi 7 and WiFi 8 the max theoretical data rate is 46 Gb/s.
I'm always buffed on how people are walking into marketing traps.
One good example is Multi-Link Operation (MLO). While this looks interesting, fancy, and very promising to reach higher bandwidth over the air, almost the only application for MLO are wireless backhaul on real-word-existing Mesh system. Almost and of April 2026 now, there are virtually -no- real concurrent usage MLO wireless clients available. Another overly marketing pushy Wi-Fi vendor still writes:
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MLO also requires MLO-compatible client devices, such as laptops with Intel BE200 wireless adapters, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, and the Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.
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Education or marketing? Pure marketing lies! None of these devices are (or will ever) supporting true MLO. They might allow just MLSR (Multi-Link Single Radio) or EMLSR (Enhanced Multi-Link Single Radio). True MLO - with all marketing promises attached - would mean Async MLMR (Asynchronous Multi-Link Multi-Radio) or Sync MLMR (Synchronous Multi-Link Multi-Radio).
You know, why? Neither there is enough power available on the common industry standard whatever-laptop-PCI slots, nor on a single USB-C. Laptop PCIe-slots with PCIe Gen 3 operates at 8 GT/s (gigatransfers per second) which roughly translates to 1 GB/s per PCIe lane. On newer laptops by comparison, PCIe Gen 4 operates at 16 GT/s, or around 2 GB/s (gigabytes per second) per PCIe lane. All speeds are simplex, so one way only, no concurrent duplex. Sure, dreamers are talking of PCIe Gen 5 operating at 32 GT/s, or about 8 GB/s - something still to come.
The mechanical format of M.2 (NGFF) Connector is limited to max four lanes: PCIe x4 (main interface for high-performance NVMe SSDs), SATA (optional, depending on host support). Three socket types exist:
- Socket 1, typically wireless (Wi‑Fi/Bluetooth), often Key A/E (PCIe x1)
- Socket 2, typically WWAN or SSD (SATA/PCIe x2) on some designs.
- Socket 3, typically NVMe storage (PCIe x4 or PCIe x2 + SATA, PCIe x4), commonly Key M or B+M.
Rounding up, USB
- USB 3.2 Gen 1x1 (raw data rate 500 MB/s, 5 Gb/s)
- USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 (raw data rate 1212 MB/s, 10 Gb/s)
- USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (raw data rate 2424 MB/s, 20 Gb/s)
So how these WiFi 7 and WiFi 8 bandwidth should come in reality from any device (real world mobile devices, notebooks, ...) to the air is out in the blue.
Though MLO is still a work-in-progress for Netgear (and other vendors).
True MLO concurrently using more than a single band certainly has a future where high performance wired copper or fiber connections aren't an option - in true MLO . This comes - as Orbi 9 customers already know - comes at a (high) price point.
The currently unique full MLO capable WiFi 7 client (UniFi AirWire) is - while comparably inexpensive - perfect proof what effort is required on the host side to provide the physical connections(!) to allow Sync MLMR (Synchronous Multi-Link Multi-Radio) - this is what allows their STR MLO - in my understanding requiring more power than a common single USB 3.2 port on a host does supply) .
However, this continues to be a niche market for now, no matter if we're talking of WiFi 7 or WiFi 8.
One good example is Multi-Link Operation (MLO). While this looks interesting, fancy, and very promising to reach higher bandwidth over the air, almost the only application for MLO are wireless backhaul on real-word-existing Mesh system.
FWIW, I also am skeptical about MLO becoming mainstream in clients anytime soon (and I wouldn't be surprised if it never goes mainstream).
One good example is Multi-Link Operation (MLO). While this looks interesting, fancy, and very promising to reach higher bandwidth over the air, almost the only application for MLO are wireless backhaul on real-word-existing Mesh system. Almost and of April 2026 now, there are virtually -no- real concurrent usage MLO wireless clients available. Another overly marketing pushy Wi-Fi vendor still writes:
MLO also requires MLO-compatible client devices, such as laptops with Intel BE200 wireless adapters, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, and the Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.
I think you have forgotten about the last two model years, soon to be three, of Apple's iPhone, and their current model of MacBook Pro laptops. Probably some Apple desktops support it too. This is a massive number of consumer and business devices, and it can be a benefit to reliability of connections without the little micro drops that happen in a mesh world - so apps like Zoom, remote desktop, FaceTime, Virtual Desktop Technologies may run smoother. It can help in latency-sensitive apps too, as traffic can be split or dynamically routed over the lowest-latency link at any moment. This is especially useful in environments where running ethernet is not practical. Under the covers there are benefits in the management of the network in terms of congestion triage, power use, traffic capacity, and band steering options; but people don't see that, they only see the lack of those network tools if their network performance suffers.
And on the 971 it works well - it just happens as long as the Apple device is configured for "Automatic WiFi 6E", which then uses the max wifi, whether that's WiFi 6 or MLO, that the device supports. There is no configuration on the server.
But it's still rolling out, to be sure - it doesn't help stuff like everybody's favorite app web browsing, many apps are not MLO-aware, and I doubt there are any MLO-compliant coffee shop networks around 😀
I think you have forgotten about the last two model years, soon to be three, of Apple's iPhone, and their current model of MacBook Pro laptops.
Yeah, he didn't call them out. Those support EMLSR mode correct?
schumaku​ did say that EMLSR (and MLSR) would be out there.
Under the covers there are benefits in the management of the network in terms of congestion triage, power use, traffic capacity, and band steering options; but people don't see that, they only see the lack of those network tools if their network performance suffers.
Certainly with ethernet, multigig outperforms LAGs on home networks. And MLO is essentially a form of link aggregration.
My general view is that there is a lot of complexity under the covers with link aggregation, and that performance gains in practice are disappointing unless you have a lot of simultaneous flows to manage. Enterprise networks have that (at least on their trunks). But I don't think many home networks do. Personally I think using 320 mhz channels is the better path for most home users, combined with IoT networks that keep lower bandwidth devices off the 6 ghz client network.
Yes StephenB​ the Apple devices all support EMLSR mode, which is single radio. Nothing more advanced yet that I have read, like on the brand new Macs. I believe that is single radio as well. Also I think the things I mentioned as improvements don't necessarily show up as a big gain for any single user, unless there is congestion etc. - I think it allows the router to more effectively manage the entire network traffic more efficiently/more effectively, indirectly helping all devices of course.
I thought the orbi 970 was future proofing ? with this new wifi 8 it seems like we are soon to be getting new hardware again for wifi 8?
Yes, this is exactly the case. WiFi networking products are built around WiFi chipsets. When a new WiFi technology is developed, the chip manufacturers design chips that implement the new capabilities and then WiFi vendors incorporate those new chips into actual products. It is simply not feasible to reprogram existing WiFi chips with the new features. And, the WiFi chips are always soldered onto the printed circuit board, so physically replacing them is not feasible.
The future proofing that the "very latest" network products provide is in terms of current vs. future devices on the network. I may have only WiFi5 products at this time, but in the near future I may purchase new products that support WiFi6 or WiFi7. If I am looking for a new WiFi system, is it better to purchase something that support only the products I have now? Or, is it better to anticipate that in the future I may have products that support newer features?
