WLAN tester enhanced to support Wi-Fi 7 with network mode

With the launch of devices based on the new Wi-Fi 7 communications standard, there is a growing market for test instrumentation to evaluate them. To meet this need, Anritsu Corporation has introduced a new Network Mode option for its MT8862A Wireless Connectivity Test Set, enabling the instrument to evaluate the Wi-Fi 7 signal quality of devices under test.

Developed by the IEEE, the IEEE802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) wireless communication standard is the successor to the IEEE802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6/6E) WLAN standard. The new standard is created to accomplish a transmission speed of 30Gbps or more, much faster than Wi-Fi 6/6E. As well as extending conventional technologies, including 4096 QAM, 320MHz channel bandwidth, and Multi-RU, Wi-Fi 7 also adopts new technologies such as Multi-Link Operation (MLO), allowing a device to simultaneously send and receive data across different frequency bands and channels.

With the new Network Mode option, the company is playing a major role in enhancing the signal quality of Wi-Fi 7 devices and contributing to the growth and success of this important new communications protocol.

Because the signal quality of WLAN varies with the data rate, it is extremely important to evaluate the signal at each of the proposed rates. The device enables the user to specify the data rate for the test, allowing RF evaluation to be executed at all the data rates used by the major WLAN standards, including Wi-Fi 7.

The device provides a test environment for evaluating RF TRX characteristics (TX power, modulation accuracy, RX sensitivity, etc.) of WLAN devices, including Wi-Fi 7.