The TP-Link Archer 8 Ultra is set be available very soon, on the 30th of September (for preoders), and there has been a lot of hype considering that this is the first WiFi 8 wireless router that’s going to hit the market. But, before you part with your hard earned money, let me tell you why you should wait a bit and see if it actually make sense to be an early adopter of this new technology.
The hardware is arriving first. The client ecosystem is not ready.
What does the WiFi 8 solve?
First of all, what’s the point of the WiFi 8? Considering that we barely have started to get some more mature WiFi 7 routers and access points, while a lot of the market is still flooded with only MLO-capable dual-band devices, isn’t it too early for WiFi 8? Who needs it?
The idea behind this new standard is not (necessarily) to bump up the data rates, but to solve a very pressing problem: getting reliable wireless communication in very dense environments. And there have been several attempts over the years through technologies like OFDMA, BSS Coloring, MU-MIMO and Beamforming that have also been regarded as improvements toward this goal.
And the interesting thing about the WiFi 8 is that it enhances all of these feature and more, adding extra complexity layers to address interference, roaming issues, help with a better client and even AP distribution, better QoS behavior and, as a consequence, a far better range. Bear in mind that, technically, the WiFi 8 and WiFi 7 share the same theoretical maximum data rate, both rely on the same three frequency bands (2.4GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz), the same max channel bandwidth (320MHz), 4096-AQM and up to 8 spatial streams.
This is actually very exciting because while the monkey brain thrives for the high throughput numbers, I much prefer a good connection and reliable Internet access on all my devices. But, can you actually use the TP-Link Archer A8 Ultra right now to its full abilities? …and what are its abilities?
The WiFi 8 Draft Stage
What TP-Link says will be added to the Archer 8 Ultra are the following:
Enhanced Long Range + DRU
Enhanced Long Range and Distributed Resource Units which should be useful extend usable range and, perhaps more importantly, improve the uplink performance for low-power devices that are far away from the router. This matters because the AP is only half of a wireless connection. A router may have enough transmit power to reach a client, while a smartphone, IoT device or other lower-power clients may struggle to transmit back reliably. DRU attempt to improve the uplink budget by spreading the allocated resources across a wider bandwidth, so the client can use more total transmit power while remaining within the allowed limits.
Non-Primary Channel Access
Non-primary Channel Access which allow WiFi 8 devices to make use of a secondary channel when the primary one is occupied by traffic from another overlapping network. This should be useful in dense environments with multiple overlapping networks such as apartment buildings, offices and some enterprise settings.
UEQM + New MCS
Unequal Modulation, as well as New Modulation and Coding Schemes that should help keep a consistent throughput even if there is a lot of interference. This essentially manages to adapt the spatial streams to the signal quality when using multiple antennas, so the chance of a successful data transmission is higher, and the extra Modulation schemes do improve the accuracy of the transmission even more.
You can see that quite a few features that are already included in the current WiFi 8 draft are missing from the Archer 8 Ultra at this stage and it’s completely normal for such an early implementation. Because the WiFi 8 standard is not yet fully adopted, but it’s in its draft stage. So expect quite a bit of chaos and not necessarily because the router is unstable, but because it could not play nice with all your devices and the OSes out there.
Will TP-Link update the Archer 8 Ultra so that it gains more WiFi 8 features?
Like I said before, some features may not be available and even if promised, they may not be up to their full potential when and if they arrive at all. It’s not uncommon for the manufacturer to have to release several hardware revisions in the future of the same model so that it can support newer and mroe mature implementations of the same features.
I mean, TP-Link themselves and other brands have done so over the years, one of the newest such situation was the support for UL-OFDMA (WiFi 6 standard) which required new hardware. But let’s say, we do get new features of older hardware, like it happened with MLO and the whole budget-friendly device update (Ubiquiti with its U7 Pro and Pro Max, Zyxel with its NWA130BE), does it matter if there are no client-side support of these features?
No WiFi 8 adapters yet is a much more complicated argument that you may think
I admit that trying to make MLO work properly when it initially was released on some WiFi 7 access points was a bit of a traumatic event for me.
The WiFi device firmware was unstable, and new releases happened every few weeks or even days. Linux did not support it for almost half a year after the alleged Windows 11 support.
Having a feature listed on the specification sheet
and being able to actually use it reliably are two very different things.
I already learned this lesson with early WiFi 7 and MLO support.
And the Windows 11 support was unstable because one update showed that it could technically work, but it was unstable depending on what WiFi adapter I would use. And that one also had unstable drivers. It ws fun. If you don’t mind to go through that, then go ahead, but I would advice to wait for mature client-level support and that will happen probably at the end of the next year, more realistically in 2028. And the fun part is that right now, there are no retail WiFi 8 adapters that you can go and buy at all.
WiFi 8 doesn’t need to prove that it can be fast.
WiFi 7 is already fast. WiFi 8 needs to prove that it can deliver a more reliable connection when conditions are less than ideal.
Is the Archer 8 Ultra backwards compatible?
Yes, it will work with older standards but understand that a WiFi 7 client will not suddenly gain access to the WiFi 8 capabilities just because it is connected to the Archer 8 Ultra. You may still benefit from some improvements on the router side but you won’t be able to properly evaluate the stuff that makes WiFi 8 different until compatible clients actually arrive.
And this is what the Archer 8 Ultra needs to prove. Not that it can produce a huge throughput number, but that WiFi 8 can actually improve the range, lower the latency and offer a more reliable connection under heavy interference. Until I can test the device with actual WiFi 8 clients, why pay the early-adopted premium instead of buying a mature, reliable WiFi 7 router and waiting until it actually makes sense to upgrade.
I also look forward with great interest to see how the reviewers will test the WiFi 8 gear now when latency and stability are the focus, not raw throughput 😀