The Internet of Things (IoT), as a carrier of highly integrated and comprehensive utilization of new generation information technology, is widely applied in daily production and life, playing an important role in the new round of industrial transformation and the green, intelligent, and sustainable development of the economy and society. Due to the different operational mechanisms and numerous application scenarios across various industries, as the development of smart IoT (AIoT) accelerates, different industries have raised higher and more diverse requirements for the IoT. In addition to cellular connections, further building a high-quality service system for short-range and long-range connections such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and LoRa to meet the personalized connection needs of different industries has become an inevitable requirement for the digital transformation of the economy and society in the era of smart IoT (AIoT).
1. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as Important Short-Range IoT Connection Methods
According to data released by institutions such as IoT Analytics and Zhici Fang Research Institute, in 2022, the number of active IoT device connections worldwide was 14.3 billion, and it is expected to grow by 16% to 16.7 billion in 2023, reaching an estimated 29.7 billion by 2027 at a compound annual growth rate of 16%; meanwhile, from 2022 to 2026, the global AIoT (enterprise-level) market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.1% to 7.6087 trillion yuan.
Chart 1: Global IoT Device Connection Scale from 2015 to 2027 (Unit: Billion)
Source: IoT Analytics
Chart 2: Global and China AIoT Industry (Enterprise-level) Market Size and Growth Rate from 2018 to 2026
Source: Zhici Fang Research Institute
Although there are various connection methods behind the IoT, only a few technologies have formed large-scale applications after years of development. According to tracking data from IoT Analytics, Ericsson, ABI Research, and others, the global IoT connections are dominated by four key technologies: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular networks, and LoRa, which together account for about 80% of the market share.
Among them, according to IoT Analytics statistics, Wi-Fi accounts for about 31% of all IoT connections. In 2022, more than half of Wi-Fi devices worldwide were based on the latest Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E technologies, and Wi-Fi technology and devices are continuously evolving, with Wi-Fi 7 being actively developed. Compared to Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 7 can provide higher data transmission rates and lower latency. According to Fior Markets, in 2023, the number of devices connected to Wi-Fi 7 is expected to reach 27.75 million, and it is projected to exceed 1 billion by 2027. In all IoT scenarios, Wi-Fi technology is leading the IoT connections in smart homes, smart buildings, and healthcare.
Chart 3: Global Wi-Fi 7 Device Connection Numbers from 2023 to 2027 (Unit: Million)
Source: Fior Markets, compiled by Zhici Fang Research Institute
In addition, LoRa, as another important long-range connection method, has a wide range of applicable scenarios and advantages such as long communication distance, wide coverage, and low power consumption. Currently, LoRa is the most widely used unlicensed spectrum wide area communication network globally.
It can be seen that beyond cellular IoT, technologies such as Wi-Fi and LoRa have large connection scales and high market shares, playing an important role in the development of the digital economy. Especially with the recent official announcement from the Wi-Fi Alliance to launch Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7™, starting the certification of Wi-Fi 7 devices to ensure that terminal devices meet the standard requirements and can work well together. Currently, many leading chip and module manufacturers are accelerating their comprehensive layout of Wi-Fi 7 products.
Global leading IoT solution provider Quectel Communication officially launched the communication modules FGE576Q and FGE573Q supporting Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3 (supporting 2Mbps BLE) during the 2024 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), strongly promoting the global WLAN market into the Wi-Fi 7 era.
2. Wi-Fi 7 and BLE Technologies Stand Out, Playing an Important Role in Digital Transformation
Wi-Fi has been used for many years in mobile phones, tablets, and personal computers due to its fast data transmission rates and high quality. With the in-depth advancement of the Internet of Everything, it is expected to be more widely used in Wi-Fi AP/routers, smartwatches, smart homes, and smart buildings in the future. The recent Wi-Fi 7 introduces larger wireless bandwidth (320MHz), higher-order modulation schemes (4096-QAM), more flexible spectrum utilization (MRU, Multi Resource Unit), higher space-time reuse (16×16 MIMO), more link operations (MLO), and multi-AP collaboration among other new technologies, allowing Wi-Fi 7 to provide higher data transmission rates and lower latency:
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Faster: Nearly 4 times the wireless data link performance, expected to support data throughput approximately 3 times that of Wi-Fi 6 within the same time frame.
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More reliable: The new MRU reduces multi-user latency by 25%.
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More stable connections: The new MLO reduces single-user latency by 80%, with throughput gains of up to 300%.
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New frequency band: Wi-Fi 7 introduces a new 6GHz band (5.925GHz-7.125GHz), increasing the maximum bandwidth to 320MHz to meet the high throughput/low latency needs of 4K video, AR/VR, and more.
Chart 4: Performance Comparison of Wi-Fi 5, 6/6E, and 7 Versions
Source: H3C, Shenwan Hongyuan Securities
The multi-link operation, multi-AP collaborative scheduling, time-sensitive networking, and enhanced retransmission mechanisms of Wi-Fi 7 enable it to possess more efficient and flexible characteristics.
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MLO defines two working modes: synchronous and asynchronous. In synchronous mode, the multi-link device (MLD) synchronously performs TX/RX operations across multiple links, avoiding interference between the two links. In asynchronous mode, there are no strict timing requirements between multiple links.
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Multi-AP collaborative scheduling is proposed, which is more conducive to collaborative orthogonal frequency division multiple access, collaborative spatial reuse, collaborative beamforming, and collaborative data transmission.
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HAQR (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, a method combining forward error correction and automatic repeat request) allows the first transmission data packets and retransmission data packets to be jointly decoded, improving the efficiency of successful decoding.
BLE not only has good device compatibility, supporting various radio options, and can adapt to various peripheral devices, allowing developers to build products that meet their customers’ unique connection needs. In recent years, it has continuously improved its technical performance in energy saving, ranging, and data transmission, laying a solid foundation for its large-scale application promotion. After integrating mesh networking technology, it can also achieve large-scale network connections, with obvious application advantages.
LoRa has experienced rapid development in China in recent years. Based on its advantages in flexible networking, it is moving towards industrialization and standardization, accelerating the integration of resources along the industrial chain, continuously improving transmission security and reducing power consumption; the application direction is gradually focusing on emerging hot application scenarios including robotics, wearable devices, smart supply chains, positioning, and navigation.
As the digital transformation of the economy and society deepens and the digital industrial chain matures, the integration of the IoT with social production and life continues to deepen, and industry application demands become more diversified, raising higher and more diverse requirements for coverage, cost, latency, and more. Often, a single communication technology is no longer sufficient to address these needs. Short-range transmission technologies such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, coupled with cellular IoT and long-range IoT technologies like LoRa, provide fully connected application services that efficiently meet the connection needs of different application scenarios.
The integration network solutions of Wi-Fi 7, BLE, and cellular IoT along with long-range IoT technologies like LoRa should emerge as the market develops, with all parties forming a complementary and deeply integrated situation, combining multiple communication technologies for better cost-effectiveness and meeting more fragmented industry demands.
3. Quectel Communication’s Wi-Fi 7 Module Sets a New Industry Benchmark, Empowering High-Quality Digital Development
On January 9, during the 2024 CES conference, Quectel Communication officially launched the communication modules FGE576Q and FGE573Q supporting the latest Wi-Fi 7 technology standards, which can provide higher transmission rates, larger connection capacities, and better communication efficiency, possessing many of the Wi-Fi 7 technology advantages mentioned above, easily meeting the growing demand for wireless communication capabilities in smart homes, industrial automation, healthcare, transportation, and other fields.
Chart 5: Quectel Communication’s Wi-Fi 7 Modules FGE573Q and FGE576Q
Source: Quectel Communication
High speed and low latency will bring users an unprecedented smooth experience
In terms of the network connection rate that the market cares most about, these two modules perform excellently, with FGE576Q achieving a data transmission rate of up to 3.6Gbps, supporting dual-band concurrent connections at 2.4GHz+5GHz and 2.4GHz+6GHz, while FGE573Q provides a rate of up to 2.9Gbps. Moreover, both Wi-Fi modules utilize multi-link operation functionality. Through this feature, routers can connect to Wi-Fi 7 clients, utilizing multiple wireless bands and channels for concurrent operations, achieving greater throughput and lower latency, resulting in a qualitative leap in data transmission rates.
Additionally, both FGE576Q and FGE573Q modules have also achieved the optimal coexistence of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, integrating dual-mode Bluetooth with a maximum rate of 2Mbps, supporting low-power audio and BLE functionalities.
With outstanding communication performance and reliability, the FGE576Q and FGE573Q Wi-Fi 7 modules will bring users an unprecedented smooth experience in emerging scenarios such as cloud gaming, 8K ultra-high-definition streaming, AR/VR, industrial IoT, and telemedicine.
Multiple encryptions ensure product security and reliability
For wireless network connections, security is an important aspect that cannot be overlooked. The FGE576Q and FGE573Q adopt features such as WPA3 encryption to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of data transmission.
Additionally, throughout the entire process from product architecture to firmware/software development, they adhere to industry-leading practices and standards, not only reducing potential vulnerabilities through independent testing by third-party organizations but also executing security practices such as generating SBOM and VEX files, and firmware binary analysis throughout the software development lifecycle to ensure product security and reliability.
Empowering customer product development with high flexibility and compatibility to reduce costs and increase efficiency
The FGE576Q and FGE573Q adopt a compact design in packaging, helping customers seamlessly integrate them into various terminal devices; at the same time, these two modules also have strong compatibility, effectively compatible with the dimensions and product characteristics of mainstream modules on the market, assisting customers in shortening the development cycle of terminal products and reducing costs.
To further facilitate customers’ design processes, Quectel Communication has also adapted various types of Wi-Fi/Bluetooth antennas for this series of modules, including YF0026AA, YEWT004AA, and YF0027CA, to meet the requirements of different projects with high flexibility and compatibility. Moreover, Quectel Communication can also provide customized solutions for the unique needs of each project to further enhance customer terminal development efficiency.
Additionally, it is worth mentioning that Quectel Communication not only showcased the latest Wi-Fi 7 modules FGE576Q and FGE573Q at this conference, but also launched the high-performance LoRa module KG200Z, which has comprehensive advantages such as long-distance transmission, ultra-low power consumption, high cost-performance, and high reliability, capable of meeting the critical needs of IoT devices for bidirectional communication, end-to-end security, mobility, and localized services.
The KG200Z module can achieve transmission distances of 2-5 kilometers in urban environments and up to 10-15 kilometers in suburban areas; it supports the LoRaWAN standard protocol, designed specifically for various ultra-low power IoT applications, significantly extending the battery life of IoT terminals; it features rich peripheral interfaces such as UART, SPI, I2C, and SWD, along with reliable security guarantees, meeting the diverse needs of various applications.
KG200Z is particularly suitable for power-sensitive applications that need to intermittently send messages over long distances at low rates, such as smart locks, gas and water leak detection, air quality monitoring, HVAC monitoring, smart parking and traffic monitoring, public metering, waste management, and asset tracking.
Chart 6: Quectel Communication’s LoRa Module KG200Z
Source: Quectel Communication
4. Conclusion
Globally, the rapid development of technologies such as IoT, big data, and computing power is injecting vigorous momentum into the digital transformation trend across various industries. In the rapidly developing era of smart IoT (AIoT), wireless connections have become an indispensable part of daily life and work. Online office, online education, online shopping, and other production and lifestyle methods have raised higher demands for home network quality; 4K/8K ultra-high-definition video, social gaming, and metaverse applications have increasingly stringent network requirements, necessitating the continuous upgrading of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other short-range transmission technologies, coupled with cellular IoT and long-range IoT technologies like LoRa, to meet the growing and diverse network demands.
As a leading module manufacturer deeply engaged in the IoT field for over a decade, Quectel Communication has launched two Wi-Fi 7 modules and one LoRa module based on its rich cellular module product system, further enriching and upgrading the integration product system of wide-area + local area, cellular + non-cellular, strengthening its ability to provide high-quality fully connected application services, and will set a new benchmark for the development of the smart IoT industry.
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