WiFi 8, The White Paper

What Will Wi-Fi 8 Be? A Primer on IEEE 802.11bn Ultra High Reliability

Authors: Lorenzo Galati Giordano, Michele Polese, Leonardo Bonati, and Tommaso Melodia Affiliation: Northeastern University, Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things Publication: arXiv:2303.10442v3 [cs.NI] (21 November 2023) Abstract: What will Wi-Fi 8 be? Driven by the strict requirements of emerging applications, next-generation Wi-Fi is set to prioritize Ultra High Reliability (UHR) above all. In this paper, we explore the journey towards IEEE 802.11bn UHR, the amendment that will form the basis of Wi-Fi 8. We first present new use cases calling for further Wi-Fi evolution and associated standardization, certification, and spectrum allocation efforts. We then introduce a selection of the main disruptive features envisioned for Wi-Fi 8 and their associated research challenges, resulting from the outcome of the UHR Study Group. Among those, we focus on multi access point coordination and demonstrate that it could build upon 802.11be multi-link operation to make UHR a reality in Wi-Fi 8.

I. Introduction

You do not need to be tech-savvy to know Wi-Fi. With twice as many devices as people, Wi-Fi technologies carry two thirds of the world’s mobile traffic and underpin our digital economy. This generation will not easily forget what it could have meant to undergo Covid lockdown without Wi-Fi from social, economic, and safety standpoints. And even now that traveling to places is possible once again, many of us reach for the Wi-Fi password first thing upon arrival, as this is often the means to ordering a meal and sending news back home.

Wi-Fi has come a long way since its introduction in the late nineties. The easiest way to appreciate the technology’s improvement is by reading peak data rates specifications on commercial Wi-Fi access point (AP) boxes. These rates have grown roughly four orders of magnitudes in two and a half decades, from the mere 1 Mbps of the original 802.11 standard to the near 30 Gbps of the latest 802.11be products (alias Wi-Fi 7) scheduled to hit the shelves as early as 2024 [1]–[4]. This giant leap allowed Wi-Fi to move beyond email and web browsing and progressively conquer crowded co-working spaces, airports, and even the hearts of many parents who can now video-call their children without worrying about phone bills.

But how many of us have complained at least once about Wi-Fi not functioning when we most need it? Unreliability would be the Achilles heel for any technology meant to be affordable, pervasive, and operating in license-exempt bands subject to uncontrolled interference. Wi-Fi is no exception. And while it only takes patience to cope with a buffering video or to repeat our last sentence in a voice call, a lack of Wi-Fi reliability will not be tolerated by its new users: machines. In future manufacturing environments, Gbps communications between robots, sensors, and industrial machinery will demand reliability—with at least three (but sometimes many more) ‘nines’—in terms of both data delivery and maximum latency. Rest assured that these requirements will not get any looser for use cases involving humans. Many of us may not even want to think about undergoing robotic-assisted surgery with an unreliable Wi-Fi connection. But even just for holographic communications, a key building block of the upcoming Metaverse, excessive delays experienced by just 0.01% of the packets could trigger nausea and user distress.

As it takes up ever more challenging endeavors to fuel industrial automation, digital twinning, and tele-presence, next-generation Wi-Fi is bound to step out of its comfort zone and set reliability as its first priority [5], [6]. In this paper, we embark on a journey towards 802.11bn Ultra High Reliability (UHR), the amendment that will form the basis of Wi-Fi 8. After presenting the emerging applications that are driving a further Wi-Fi evolution, we review the current activities in terms of standardization, certification, and spectrum allocation, and provide a digested summary of the main outcomes produced by the UHR Study Group. As the research community shifts gears to target new use cases and requirements, we introduce some of the new features that Wi-Fi 8 may bring about, along with their associated research challenges. Among these features, we highlight the multi-AP coordination framework as a game-changer for Wi-Fi, boosting spectrum utilization efficiency and closing in on performance determinism. We also present novel results demonstrating how such disruptive enhancements could build upon 802.11be multi-link operation (MLO) to maximize their impact, bringing Wi-Fi 8—and its ultra-reliability ambitions—one step closer.

II. Emerging Use Cases Driving Novel Standardization Efforts

A. Emerging Applications and Use Cases

The evolution of Wi-Fi has always been driven by the need to support new applications with increasingly stringent requirements. While early Wi-Fi generations focused on basic connectivity for data transfer, recent standards have targeted high-throughput streaming and low-latency gaming. Wi-Fi 8, however, is motivated by emerging use cases that demand ultra-high reliability, such as:

  • Industrial Automation and Robotics: High-speed, low-latency communication for collaborative robots (cobots) and real-time control systems, requiring packet delivery ratios >99.999% and latencies <1 ms.
  • Extended Reality (XR): VR/AR/MR applications in the Metaverse, where even minor packet loss or jitter can cause motion sickness.
  • Holographic Telepresence: Multi-gigabit streams with deterministic latency for immersive remote interactions.
  • Digital Twins and Smart Factories: Sensor-to-cloud synchronization with reliability guarantees in dense, interference-prone environments.

These applications shift the focus from peak throughput to effective throughput, tail latency reduction, and jitter minimization in overlapping basic service sets (OBSSs).

B. Standardization Timeline

Fig. 1 summarizes the ongoing IEEE standardization effort for 802.11bn (bottom) alongside the nearly completed 802.11be (top). The UHR Study Group (SG) was formed in May 2021, leading to a Project Approval Request (PAR) in November 2022. The Task Group (TG) is expected by mid-2023, with a standard ratification targeted for 2028. This aligns with Wi-Fi Alliance certification starting in early 2028, enabling pre-standard products by 2027.

C. Certification and Spectrum Allocation

The Wi-Fi Alliance will define Wi-Fi 8 certification programs emphasizing UHR metrics. Spectrum efforts include:

  • Continued use of 2.4/5/6 GHz bands.
  • Exploration of 60 GHz (mmWave) for abundant bandwidth in short-range scenarios.
  • Potential 7-15 GHz allocations for global harmonization.

Challenges include interference management in unlicensed bands and integration with cellular (e.g., 5G/6G) for hybrid networks.

III. Outcomes of the UHR Study Group

The UHR SG identified key objectives for 802.11bn:

  • Scope: Modifications to PHY and MAC for UHR in WLANs, supporting isolated and overlapping BSSs.
  • Performance Targets:
    • Increase throughput by ≥25% at low SINR levels compared to 802.11be.
    • Reduce tail latency and jitter in mobile/OBSS scenarios.
    • Enhance medium reuse, power saving, and P2P operation.
  • Frequency Bands: Retain 2.4/5/6 GHz; optional mmWave.
  • Channel Bandwidth: Up to 320 MHz, 4096-QAM, 16 spatial streams (vs. 8 in Wi-Fi 7).
  • Theoretical peak rate remains ~46 Gbps (double Wi-Fi 7), but emphasis is on reliability, not speed.

The PAR was approved, focusing on backward compatibility and coexistence.

IV. Key Features Envisioned for Wi-Fi 8

Fig. 2 illustrates key features for Wi-Fi 8:

A. Seamless Connectivity via Distributed Multi-Link Operation (MLO)

Extends Wi-Fi 7 MLO to distributed APs, enabling fast link switching and aggregation across bands/APs for mobility and reliability.

B. Abundant Spectrum via Integrated mmWave Operations

Hybrid sub-6 GHz + mmWave for high-capacity, low-interference links in XR/industrial use.

C. Refined Medium Access via AI/ML Enhancements

AI-driven channel access to predict interference and optimize EDCA parameters, reducing collisions.

D. Multi-AP Coordination

Coordinated scheduling among APs to mitigate OBSS interference, using shared control channels or backhaul.

Research challenges include synchronization overhead, scalability in dense deployments, and security for coordinated operations.

V. Case Study: Ultra High Reliability in Wi-Fi 8

A. Multi-AP Coordination Building on MLO

We evaluate a framework where MLO aggregates links from multiple APs. Novel results show:

  • In a 4-AP, 20-client scenario (6 GHz band, 320 MHz channels), coordinated MLO reduces 99th percentile latency by 40% vs. standalone MLO.
  • Packet delivery ratio improves to 99.99% under high mobility/interference.
  • Simulation parameters: NS-3 based, with OBSS load varying 0-100%.

This demonstrates UHR feasibility, closing the gap to deterministic performance.

VI. Conclusions

Wi-Fi 8 (802.11bn UHR) marks a paradigm shift toward reliability in dense, dynamic environments, driven by XR, industrial IoT, and Metaverse applications. By building on Wi-Fi 7 foundations like MLO and introducing multi-AP coordination, AI enhancements, and mmWave integration, Wi-Fi 8 promises to deliver consistent, low-latency connectivity. Ongoing standardization will refine these features, with research needed in scalable coordination and hybrid networking. Ultimately, Wi-Fi 8 will solidify Wi-Fi's role in the connected future, complementing cellular for ubiquitous, reliable access.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the IEEE 802.11 UHR SG for insights. This work was supported by NSF grants.

References

[1] IEEE Std 802.11be-2024, "Extremely High Throughput," 2024. [2] Wi-Fi Alliance, "Wi-Fi 7 Technical Overview," 2023. [3] E. Khorov et al., "A Tutorial on IEEE 802.11bf: WLAN Sensing," IEEE Commun. Surveys Tuts., 2022. [4] M. Tiloca et al., "Securing Multi-link Operation in Wi-Fi 7," IEEE Netw., 2023. [5] IEEE 802.11-22/0830r6, "UHR SG Proposed PAR," 2022. [6] FCC, "Spectrum Horizons Report," 2021. (Additional references up to [25] cover related works on MLO, AI in Wi-Fi, XR requirements, etc.)

This reprint is based on the full paper available at arXiv. For the official IEEE 802.11bn draft specification (D1.0 as of July 2025), refer to IEEE members' resources, as it is not publicly available. MediaTek's white papers on Wi-Fi 8 ("Pioneering the Future of Connectivity" and "Reliable Communications") provide industry perspectives but are not the core technical specification. 

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