By Martin May, Business Development: Networking at Duxbury

In part one we introduced Wi-Fi 7 as the catalyst for an intelligent edge. In part two we explored why adoption is accelerating. This third article focuses on how Wi-Fi 7 changes design assumptions at the access layer and where that shifts wired versus wireless decisions.

Until recently, latency-sensitive or business-critical applications were assumed to need a cable. Wi-Fi 7 changes that. The standard is now formal, and certification has been active since early 2024, which gives local teams a stable target for planning and deployment.

The first shift is how network clients use spectrum. Legacy devices typically select a single band and ride it until conditions force a roam. Wi-Fi 7 introduces Multi-Link Operation (MLO). This means capable clients can transmit and receive on multiple bands at once. You can aggregate for higher throughput or run a secondary link for redundancy so spikes in interference do not translate into jitter for the user. It is a practical way to turn 2.4, 5, and 6GHz into a coordinated fabric rather than three isolated lanes.

The second shift is clean air. The 6GHz band gives organisations access to wide, relatively uncongested channels. ICASA has already opened the lower 6GHz (5925–6425 MHz) band for licence-exempt Wi-Fi, the spectrum foundation that enables Wi-Fi 7 to perform as intended. Combined with 320 MHz channels and 4096-QAM, you get multi-gigabit headroom that was not realistic on older WLANs. Of course, this is not about chasing a headline-grabbing 46Gbps lab peak. Instead, it is about having sufficient capacity and scheduling efficiency to keep many applications responsive simultaneously.

The third shift is determinism by design. Wi-Fi 7 adds tools that improve how airtime is carved up under contention. Alongside MLO, features such as wider channels and improved scheduling help keep time-sensitive traffic flowing when floors are busy. In practice, that means fewer visible stalls on calls when someone starts a large sync, and far more predictable behaviour for devices that care about latency.

Blurred lines

This is where the line between wireless and wired begins to blur. Suppose the wireless edge can deliver multi-gigabit throughput, lower, more consistent latency, and faster recovery from interference. In that case, the access layer can take on work that was previously reserved for a switch port.

That has architectural consequences:

• Access points become small compute nodes: Vendors are already shipping Wi-Fi 7 platforms that do more than move frames. For instance, HPE Aruba Networking’s Wi-Fi 7 launches emphasise capacity, security, and edge capabilities suited to AI and IoT workloads. Moving lightweight inspection, location services, or telemetry summarisation to the AP reduces backhaul load and shortens the feedback loop that makes applications feel immediate.
• Policy becomes consistent across wired and wireless: As edge radios add capacity and intelligence, unified management can apply the same segmentation, prioritisation and visibility across the campus regardless of medium. The win is simpler change control and fewer choke points. You do not have to hardwire every room for performance, and you do not need two playbooks for the same policy.

Adapting planning

What does this mean for South African enterprises planning refresh cycles over the next 12 to 24 months?

1. Design for 6GHz from the outset. The performance story depends on spectrum. Survey materials and attenuation carefully in our concrete-and-steel buildings, and place APs to exploit clean 6GHz channels where they matter most. ICASA’s decision on the lower 6GHz band makes this practical.
2. Engineer for predictability, not only peak speed. Use MLO for redundancy and aggregation, set quality of service with intent, and size channels when latency budgets are tight. The goal is steady behaviour under load rather than a single impressive PHY rate.
3. Push lightweight functions to the edge. Where it makes sense, host small apps or analytics on APs to localise decisions and reduce round-trips. Treat access points as intelligent edge platforms, not just radios.
4. Unify policy and observability. Choose a management solution that treats wired and wireless as a single fabric, so segmentation, prioritisation, and monitoring remain consistent from the core to the edge. That is how you keep complexity from creeping back in.

While Wi-Fi 7 does not replace Ethernet everywhere, it does remove the automatic assumption that critical equals wired connections. When the wireless edge is fast, predictable and locally smart, the network stops dictating where work can happen. It becomes an enabler of how teams want to work and how spaces need to evolve. That is the edge we are designing for now that Wi-Fi 7 is real.