Product Overview Huawei eKitEngine AP371 is a next-generation indoor access point (AP) in compliance with Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be). It can simultaneously provide services on 2.4 GHz (2×2 MIMO) and 5 GHz (2×2 MIMO) frequency bands, supporting a total of 4 spatial streams and achieving a device rate of up to 3.57 Gbps. The AP is empowered by brand-new Wi-Fi 7 technologies and is equipped with built-in smart antennas to enable always-on Wi-Fi signals for users, significantly enhancing users’ wireless network experience. Additionally, it has a compact size, facilitating flexible deployment and saving customer investment. These strengths make the eKitEngine AP371 ideal for indoor coverage scenarios such as small- and medium-sized business (SMB) workplaces, hospitals, and shopping malls and supermarkets.
lProvides services simultaneously on both the 2.4 GHz (2×2) and 5 GHz (2×2) frequency bands, at a rate of up to 689 Mbps at 2.4 GHz, 2.88 Gbps at 5 GHz, and 3.57 Gbps for the device.lHas built-in smart antennas that automatically adjust the coverage direction and signal strength based on the intelligent switchover algorithm. Such capability enables the AP to flexibly adapt to the application environment changes, providing accurate and stable coverage as STAs move.lSupports Fit and cloud management working modes, and enables Huawei cloud management platform to manage and operate APs and services on the APs, reducing network O&M costs.lThe cloud management (APP or SNC) is recommended for AP371. The local management capability of S380+AP371 will be supported on September 30.
Feature Descriptions Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) standard Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) is the next-generation Wi-Fi standard to be launched, also known as IEEE 802.11be or extremely high throughput (EHT). Based on Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 7 introduces technologies such as 320 MHz bandwidth, 4096-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), multi-resource unit (RU), multi-link operation (MLO), enhanced multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO), and multi-AP coordination. Drawing on these cutting-edge technologies, Wi-Fi 7 delivers a higher data transmission rate and lower latency than Wi-Fi 6. The network throughput of Wi-Fi 7 is expected to increase to more than 30 Gbps, about three times that of Wi-Fi 6. Wi-Fi 7 vs. Wi-Fi 6 Based on the Wi-Fi 6 standard, Wi-Fi 7 introduces a plurality of new technologies. The following compares Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7.
New Features in Wi-Fi 7
Wi-Fi 7 aims to increase the WLAN throughput to over 30 Gbps and provide low-latency access assurance. To achieve this goal, the standard defines modifications to both the physical layer (PHY) and MAC layer. Compared with Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 7 brings the following technical innovations:
Multi-RU*
In Wi-Fi 6, each user can send or receive frames only on the RUs allocated to them, which greatlylimits the flexibility of spectrum resource scheduling. To resolve this problem and further improvespectrum efficiency, Wi-Fi 7 defines a mechanism for allocating multiple RUs to a single user. Tobalance the implementation complexity and spectrum utilization, the standard specifications imposecertain restrictions on RU combination. That is, small RUs (containing fewer than 242 tones) can becombined only with small RUs, and large RUs (containing greater than or equal to 242 tones) can becombined only with large RUs. Small RUs and large RUs cannot be combined together.
Features marked with asterisks (*) can be implemented through software upgrade.
Higher-Order 4096-QAM
The highest order modulation supported by Wi-Fi 6 is 1024-QAM, which allows each modulationsymbol to carry up to 10 bits. To further improve the rate, Wi-Fi 7 introduces 4096-QAM so that eachmodulation symbol can carry 12 bits. With the same coding scheme, 4096-QAM in Wi-Fi 7 canachieve a 20% rate increase compared with 1024-QAM in Wi-Fi 6.
Multi-Link Mechanism
To efficiently utilize all available spectrum resources, the TGbe defines multi-link aggregationtechnologies, including the MAC architecture of enhanced multi-link aggregation, multi-link channelaccess, and multi-link transmission.
Multi-AP Coordination*
In the current 802.11 protocol framework, there is not much coordination between APs. CommonWLAN functions, such as automatic radio calibration and smart roaming, are vendor-defined features.Multi-AP coordination aims to optimize channel selection and adjust loads between APs to achieve
efficient utilization and balanced allocation of radio resources. Coordinated scheduling between multiple APs in Wi-Fi 7 involves inter-cell coordinated planning in the time and frequency domains, inter-cell interference coordination, and distributed MIMO. This reduces interference between APs and greatly improves the utilization of air interface resources.
lMulti-AP coordination can be implemented in various methods, such as coordinated orthogonalfrequency division multiple access (C-OFDMA), coordinated spatial reuse (CSR), coordinatedbeamforming (CBF), and joint transmission (JXT).
Wi-Fi 7 Application Scenarios
New functions introduced by Wi-Fi 7 will significantly improve the data transmission rate and deliver lower latency. These highlights will contribute to the development of emerging applications:
lVideo stream
lVideo/Voice conference
lOnline gaming
lReal-time collaboration
lCloud/Edge computing
lIndustrial IoT
lImmersive AR/VR
lInteractive telemedicine
Basic Specifications
Fit AP Mode
| Item | Description |
| WLAN features | Compliance with IEEE 802.11be and compatibility with IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax
Maximum ratio combining (MRC) Space time block code (STBC) Cyclic Delay Diversity (CDD)/Cyclic Shift Diversity (CSD) Beamforming Multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) Compliance with 4096-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and compatibility with 1024-QAM, 256-QAM, 64-QAM, 16-QAM, 8-QAM, quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), and binary phase shift keying (BPSK) Low-density parity-check (LDPC) Frame aggregation, including A-MPDU (Tx/Rx) and A-MSDU (Tx/Rx) 802.11 dynamic frequency selection (DFS) Short guard interval (GI) in 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, and 160 MHz modes Wi-Fi multimedia (WMM) for priority-based data processing and forwarding |
| Description | Item |
| WLAN channel management and channel rate adjustment
Automatic channel scanning and interference avoidance NOTE For detailed management channels, see the Country Codes & Channels Compliance. Service set identifier (SSID) hiding configuration for each AP, supporting Chinese SSIDs Signal sustain technology (SST) Unscheduled automatic power save delivery (U-APSD) Control And Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) in Fit AP mode Automatic onboarding in Fit AP mode Extended Service Set (ESS) in Fit AP mode Multi-user call admission control (CAC) Advanced cellular coexistence (ACC), minimizing the impact of interference from cellular networks 802.11k and 802.11v smart roaming 802.11r fast roaming (≤ 50 ms) |
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| Network features | Compliance with IEEE 802.3ab
Auto-negotiation of the rate and duplex mode and automatic switchover between the Media Dependent Interface (MDI) and Media Dependent Interface Crossover (MDI-X) Compliance with IEEE 802.1Q SSID-based VLAN assignment Uplink VLAN trunks on Ethernet ports Management channel of the AP’s uplink port in tagged and untagged mode DHCP client, obtaining IP addresses through DHCP Tunnel data forwarding and direct data forwarding STA isolation in the same VLAN IP access control lists (ACLs) Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) Service holding upon CAPWAP link disconnection in Fit AP mode Unified authentication on the AC in Fit AP mode AC dual-link backup in Fit AP mode Telemetry in Fit AP mode, quickly collecting AP status and application experience parameters |
| QoS features | WMM power saving
Priority mapping for upstream packets and flow-based mapping for downstream packets |
| Item | Description |
| Queue mapping and scheduling
User-based bandwidth limiting Adaptive bandwidth management (automatic bandwidth adjustment based on the user quantity and radio environment) to improve user experience Airtime scheduling Air interface HQoS scheduling |
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| Security features | Open system authentication
WEP authentication/encryption using a 64-bit, 128-bit, 152-bit or 192-bit encryption key WPA2-PSK authentication and encryption (WPA2-Personal) WPA2-802.1X authentication and encryption (WPA2-Enterprise) WPA3-SAE authentication and encryption (WPA3-Personal) WPA3-802.1X authentication and encryption (WPA3-Enterprise) WPA-WPA2 hybrid authentication WPA2-WPA3 hybrid authentication WPA2-PPSK authentication and encryption in Fit AP mode WAPI authentication and encryption Wireless intrusion detection system (WIDS) and wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPS), including rogue device detection and containment, attack detection and dynamic blacklist, and STA/AP blacklist and whitelist 802.1X authentication, MAC address authentication, and Portal authentication DHCP snooping 802.11w Protected Management Frames (PMF) |
| Maintenance features | Unified management and maintenance on the AC in Fit AP mode
Automatic onboarding, automatic configuration loading, and plug-and-play (PnP) in Fit AP mode Automatic batch upgrade in Fit AP mode STelnet using SSHv2 SFTP using SSHv2 System status alarm |
