Breaking News

Is Your Neighbor’s WiFi Slowing You Down? Fix it with WiFi 7 Preamble Puncturing!

January 29, 2025
There are a lot of amazing WiFi 7 technologies and features worth knowing about, and Preamble Puncturing is one of them. You may know of quad-band WiFi 7 with faster speeds, 320 MHz channels, multi-link operation (MLO), and 4096 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (4K QAM), but did you know preamble puncturing can split the bandwidth even more to cut through the chatter?https://www.netgear.com/hub/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/preamble-punturing-graphic-featured.jpg

What Is Preamble Puncturing?

Multi-RU Preamble Puncturing is a new feature in WiFi 7 routers. It lets you bypass interference from neighboring networks or radio sources by “puncturing” or “splitting” part of a WiFi channel. The rest of the channel remains usable with better internet speed, particularly in busy and built-up environments.

Imagine a highway, but only the left lane is open, and the other lanes are closed. That was the scenario before the introduction of WiFi 7 routers. Preamble Puncturing allows your router to split the bandwidth into additional usable channels.

Preamble puncturing gives you an extra lane of superfast and reliable WiFi 7, comparable to an extra lane opening on a highway to relieve congestion.

How Preamble Puncturing Benefits Users

WiFi 7, also called Extremely High Throughput, builds upon the best WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E features such as MU-MIMO and OFDMA to deliver multi-Gbps speeds, more usable channel bandwidth, and ultra-low latency. Preamble Puncturing can:

Reduce Network Congestion

Preamble Puncturing makes your WiFi more efficient by letting your devices use any part of the channel that’s not already in use. You can connect WiFi devices seamlessly to the internet with a WiFi 7 router, unlike older routers that only connect when the entire channel is clear.

Improved Performance for High-Bandwidth Applications

By keeping more bandwidth available, Preamble Puncturing is perfect for large WiFi networks and consistently high speeds for gamers, streamers, and podcasters. WiFi 7 is the secret behind the best enhanced AI, virtual reality, and augmented reality technology for the internet.

How Preamble Puncturing Works

Preamble puncturing gives you wider channels for wireless networking. The new ‘punctured’ channel portion doesn’t suffer from narrowband interference from nearby networks or devices. This allows for more WiFi 7 access points and next-generation devices in your network. The average home in the US includes 24 WiFi-connected devices all vying for speed and bandwidth, and WiFi 7 routers and mesh systems are the best way to stay connected.

Leading NETGEAR Nighthawk Routers and NETGEAR Orbi Whole-Home Mesh Systems include WiFi 7 for faster data rates, more channel width, and connection for up to 200 concurrent devices. You can create a home network, a guest network, and a smart home IoT network, so everyone under your roof has their own space for online work or play. NETGEAR WiFi 7 with Preamble Puncturing makes life easier.

NOTE: Preamble Puncturing is a new WiFi 7 technology. You will experience the full benefit of preamble puncturing as you progressively upgrade to WiFi 7 devices.

How WiFi 7 Benefits Users

There are lots of use cases that showcase the benefits of WiFi 7. The new WiFi generation is a quantum leap forward in a world where wireless connectivity is important. The addition of the 6 GHz band, 4096 QAM, and 320MHz channels (up from 160MHz), preamble puncturing, and other benefits give WiFi 7 2.4x faster speeds than WiFi 6, with lower latency for multiple devices. WiFi 7 is perfect for homes and apartments of all sizes.