Let’s consider a straightforward scenario – you have a Wi-Fi 7 mobile phone (also known as MLD STA) connected to a Wi-Fi 7 access point (MLD AP).

Imagine you are engaged in a MS Teams video call that lasts for an hour. Being health-conscious you prefer to walk around your house or office during the call.

Now, let’s delve into what occurs on the Wi-Fi side during this typical usage scenario.

MLO

The device supports MLO, with popular mobile devices supporting MLMR STR or EMLSR, while some lower-end devices may support MLSR.

Bandwidth

The MLO typically consists of two links operating in 2.4, 5, or 6 GHz, supporting bandwidths of 20, 40, 80, 160, or 320 MHz as applicable. These links can be symmetrical, where both links use the same bandwidth, or asymmetrical, where they use different bandwidths. Therefore, each combination of symmetric and asymmetric bandwidths needs to be tested.

Range

As you move around during the call, the distance between your device and the access point fluctuates. For simplicity, let’s consider three ranges – near, mid, and far.

Wi-Fi interference

In urban environments, there are numerous sources of Wi-Fi interference, such as neighboring offices or apartments. Interference levels can range from 10% to 90%, with different bands experiencing varying levels of interference. For instance, 2.4 GHz is typically noisier than 6 GHz, although this may change as more 6 GHz devices enter the market.

Testing this simple use case involves evaluating MLO vs Bandwidth vs Range vs Interference. Just imagine the number of combinations possible!

In this context, the range is basically for live application performance(live audio or video) over different distances.

A simple report template is given below. For simplicity, only 3 interference levels are considered and 320 MHz is not included.

A comprehensive test solution for validating this scenario should include:

1) Support for various types of MLO (MLMR STR, EMLSR, MLSR, etc.)
2) Support for different bandwidth combinations, including 320 MHz in the 6 GHz range.
3) Ability to test various ranges.
4) WiFi 7 noise generation capability for all three bands simultaneously. This capability should allow for the generation of different levels of noise in each band simultaneously.
5) A time synchronized multiband WiFi 7 sniffer to identify and debug any MLO issues.

A sample setup for testing the above scenarios is shown below.

One might wonder why we need to test all the combinations mentioned above. The following quote is possibly the best answer.

If it isn’t tested it doesn’t work – Klein S Gilhousen (Qualcomm co-founder)