Cisco and Intel strengthen collaboration to advance enterprise Wi-Fi 7 technology

Cisco and Intel strengthen collaboration to advance enterprise Wi-Fi 7 technology and enhance user experiences

Wireless technologies have become indispensable tools for businesses and consumers alike, enabling increased productivity, mobility, and innovation. Organizations now operate in highly dynamic environments, relying on wireless to streamline operations, reduce costs, and support flexible work arrangements. However, success hinges on the interoperability and reliability of wireless systems.

As the Wi-Fi ecosystem continues to advance, close collaboration among industry players is instrumental in driving innovation and ensuring interoperability across different wireless technologies and standards. These collaborations facilitate the development of interoperable solutions that address the evolving needs of customers, driving innovation in wireless connectivity and business outcomes by optimizing performance, capacity, latency, and reliability.

Intel and Cisco have announced plans to expand their existing engagement to jointly develop next-generation wireless technologies that deliver quality user experiences, and fuel adoption of new wireless standards, including the recently finalized Wi-Fi 7 certification by the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA). The agreement was completed at the recent Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain.

The agreement includes investments by both companies to develop next-gen Wi-Fi 7 solutions, working closely together to enhance customer experiences by delivering seamless product interoperability through joint labs, early code sharing and testing. Additionally, Cisco and Intel are collaborating on a number of wireless innovations to address the next generation of latency sensitive applications requiring higher throughputs, managed latency, and enhanced traffic prioritization for more deterministic and reliable connectivity.   This is in line with Intel’s focus to deliver wireless connectivity that is ready for the upcoming and future needs of its recently announced AI PC platforms.

"There's no doubt that Wi-Fi 7 will revolutionize the wireless enterprise landscape by driving extreme productivity, and the timing couldn't be more perfect as we witness AI permeating every facet of the enterprise. Ensuring top-tier interoperability for excellent connectivity quality is our primary focus.”, said Eric Mclaughlin, Vice President of Client Computing Group and General Manager of Wireless Solutions Group at Intel. “We are delighted to join forces with Cisco to bring Wi-Fi 7 technology and products to the forefront of the market. Our close co-engineering efforts aim to ensure robust interoperability and performance between Cisco Access Points and Intel PC Client devices, significantly enhancing the wireless connectivity experience for our customers. We deeply value our collaboration with an industry leader like Cisco and eagerly anticipate working together to deliver exceptional connectivity solutions to enterprises in 2024 and beyond."

Wi-Fi 7 features new capabilities to reduce latency, increase network capacity, boost efficiency, and support more connected devices. Wi-Fi 7, also known as 802.11be, will utilize Extremely High Throughput (EHT) to deliver peak data rates of more than 40Gbps, making it significantly faster than previous generations of the Wi-Fi standard. Additionally, Multi-Link Operation (MLO) in Wi-Fi 7 allows devices to simultaneously send and receive data across different frequency bands and channels, enhancing wireless connections' efficiency. Additional features such as encryption and authentication over WPA3 Enterprise further strengthen Wi-Fi security.

Through this cooperation, Intel and Cisco will provide a significantly higher level of end-to-end reliability, robust high throughput, low latency and deterministic Wi-Fi 7 performance by optimizing MLO and Quality of Service Management (QoSM), as well as utilizing 6ghz spectrum on Low Power Indoor (LPI) and standard power Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC).

“Cisco and Intel share a long-standing history of joint innovation, and we are excited to advance this collaboration on wireless with a focus on Wi-Fi 7 innovations to optimize customer experiences," said Matt MacPherson, Cisco's Wireless CTO. "Our joint development work will help deliver new capabilities for emerging applications requiring higher throughput, and more predictable and reliable connectivity, while addressing evolving customer challenges and shaping the future of wireless technology."

To date, Intel has unveiled its Wi-Fi 7 client solution for PC devices, the Intel® Wi-Fi 7 BE200 series.  Through our joint work with Cisco, customers can expect to see both companies expand their wireless product portfolios over time with new innovations.

Performance varies by use, configuration, and other factors. Learn more at intel.com/performance-wireless.