What You Should Know:
The landscape of healthcare is increasingly digital, relying on a robust and reliable network infrastructure to support everything from patient monitoring to advanced medical imaging. The latest generation of WiFi technology, WiFi 7, promises a significant leap forward in capacity, speed, and latency. To delve deeper into the transformative potential of WiFi 7 for hospitals and health systems, we had the opportunity to speak with Roger Sands, CEO and co-founder of Wyebot, a leading provider of AI-powered WiFi analytics and automation solutions.
With his deep expertise in wireless technology and a keen understanding of the unique demands of healthcare environments, Roger sheds light on the key differences between WiFi 7 and previous generations, the most significant advancements it offers, and the specific benefits it can bring to hospitals and health systems striving for enhanced connectivity and improved patient care. Join us as we explore how WiFi 7 is poised to revolutionize healthcare networks and what leaders need to know to prepare for this exciting evolution.
Can you explain the key differences between WiFi 7 and previous WiFi generations?
Roger Sands, CEO and co-founder of Wyebot: WiFi 7 delivers up to 5 times more capacity than WiFi 6, thanks to wider channels, Multi-Link Operation (MLO), and higher modulation rates. For healthcare environments, this dramatic improvement can support more connected medical devices simultaneously without performance degradation, the rapid transmission of large medical files like MRIs and CT scans, and significantly reduced latency for critical real-time applications such as telemedicine and remote patient monitoring.
With enhanced reliability and better performance in crowded settings, WiFi 7 can provide the network backbone needed to support advanced medical technologies, improve patient care, and streamline healthcare operations.
What are the most significant advancements and improvements?
Roger Sands: Multi-Link Operation (MLO). MLO is a key feature of WiFi 7, enabling devices to use multiple frequency bands (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz) simultaneously. This greatly increases throughput and reduces latency by allowing for more flexible and efficient data transmission paths.
Wider Channels
WiFi 7 delivers wider channels (up to 320 MHz wide), which allows for more data to be transmitted simultaneously at faster speeds.
Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO)
MU-MIMO allows multiple clients to simultaneously access an AP. This means shorter wait times and faster connectivity. WiFi 5 supported MU-MIMO downlinks, WiFi 6 added uplink support, and now WiFi 7 doubles the number of spatial streams available. This means there is more bandwidth, and networks can deliver faster speeds to more devices.
Higher Modulation Rates
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) is a measurement of how much data can be sent in each transmission. WiFi 7 supports 4K-QAM, an improvement over WiFi 6 (1024-QAM). These higher modulation rates pack more data into the same space.
What are the specific benefits of WiFi 7 for hospitals and health systems?
Roger Sands: Hospitals and health systems can benefit from WiFi 7’s focus on making the network experience better for every connected device. Healthcare is swimming in technology with mobile and IoT devices used for everything from lifesaving patient care to financial transactions and communications. It’s critical that every connected device works reliably, this is where WiFi 7’s MU-MIMO comes in, allowing hospitals to design networks that support more devices without a drop in speed or other performance measures.
Similarly, when hospitals need to transmit data intensive materials – X-rays, MRI scans, etc. – WiFi 7’s focus on higher throughput will make a significant difference in the speed of the transaction. This will also be true for telemedicine calls, and any video or AR training tools used by health systems.
How does WiFi 7 address the growing demands for bandwidth and connectivity in today’s healthcare environments?
Roger Sands: WiFi 7’s improved MU-MIMO support doubles the number of spatial streams available for devices. This means more bandwidth is available for more devices. WiFi 7’s wider channels allow for more data to be transmitted at a time. This is especially great for data intensive applications. With MLO, WiFi 7 helps APs avoid congestion and interference, improving data rates and load balancing, while reducing latency and increasing throughput, overall improving connectivity.
Are there specific situations or use cases where WiFi 7 is particularly well-suited for healthcare?
Roger Sands: WiFi 7 is most useful for these healthcare needs:
1. Enhanced Data Transmission for Medical Imaging
WiFi 7’s extremely high throughput enables faster transmission of large electronic health records such as MRIs, CT scans, and X-rays. This allows for rapid diagnoses and seamless sharing of high-resolution images across departments or with remote medical centers.
2. Improved Real-Time Applications
The low latency and high reliability of WiFi 7 supports critical real-time applications in healthcare. This includes: high-quality video conferencing for telemedicine and collaborative consultations; real-time remote patient monitoring, including the real-time transmission of vital signs; robot-assisted surgery; and high-quality livestreaming for medical training and education.
3. Support for More Connected Devices
WiFi 7’s ability to handle a higher density of connections is crucial in hospital settings where numerous devices need to be connected simultaneously. This includes: medical equipment, patient monitors, staff wearables, and IoT sensors used for vital sign monitoring.
4. Enhanced Security and Data Protection
WiFi 7 offers increased security options, such as WPA3 encryption, which is essential for protecting sensitive patient data and ensuring compliance with healthcare privacy regulations
5. Improved Operational Efficiency
WiFi 7 facilitates better device management and increases operational efficiency in hospitals by supporting network connected solutions that: automate inventory control of medications and supplies; improve patient flow management; enhance staff coordination; and deliver more efficient hospital administration processes.
How can healthcare organizations stay ahead of the curve and prepare for future advancements in WiFi technology?
Roger Sands: Consistently and constantly analyze current network performance. Regularly review historical and current analytics to accurately understand the health and behavior of your network, what your network is asked to support, and how that has changed over the last 3 months, 6 months, and year. This is the best way to strategically plan for the future and efficiently invest in the technologies that your network specifically needs.
Invest in vendor-agnostic analytics and optimization solutions so that no matter what device and technology changes you make over time, you have a consistent view of network performance and operations.
WiFi 7 is a promising technology, but most devices currently operate on 2.4GHz and would not be able to take full advantage of WiFi 7’s benefits. Also many countries currently have regulations on the frequencies that can be used, limiting the actual capabilities of WiFi 7 implementations. It’s a new technology and an added cost, so you need to balance the opportunity cost of adoption with the actual benefits you expect.
What role will AI and automation play in the future of WiFi network management?
Roger Sands: AI and automation are here now, providing significant advantages for WiFi management and optimization. Today’s networks are incredibly complex and dense. True management – by which I mean actual, future-proofed optimization – requires 24/7 real-time analytics, historical analytics, predictive maintenance, proactive problem solving, and remote access for IT professionals. Without these pieces, IT does not have complete visibility into the network. This means issues can go undetected and can take anywhere from hours to weeks to resolve when they are detected. In this scenario, network reliability isn’t guaranteed. In today’s world, with critical infrastructure dependent on our networks, we have to have that guarantee.
AI and automation solutions deliver the always-on view and intelligent insights that IT needs to eliminate problems quickly, and maintain optimal performance long-term. These solutions can analyze multiple APs, various bandwidths, and thousands of devices – alerting IT teams to anomalies and potential issues before they affect users. Human IT professionals on their own can’t provide this type of real-time analysis and troubleshooting.
What is the most important advice you would give to healthcare leaders regarding WiFi technology and network management?
Roger Sands: Don’t ignore WiFi optimization solutions. A resilient WiFi network is critical to healthcare operations and patient care. Look after your network first and you ensure every other solution has the foundation it needs to work well.
