A Glimpse into IEEE 802.11be Channels: Can They Improve CSI-Based Sensing?

Wireless sensing based on Channel State Information (CSI) is rapidly spreading with the advent of 6G and newer Wi-Fi versions. Today, the CSI is regarded as one of the most promising elements for boosting service innovation on indoor device-free sensing. In addition, the wide adoption of the latest IEEE 802.11be standard, commonly known as Wi-Fi 7, might open up new possibilities for Wi-Fi sensing applications with even larger bandwidths, up to 320 MHz, and 4096 sub-carriers per spatial stream. However, researchers have still limited access to CSI extraction tools for such systems. In this work, we devise a framework based on software-defined radios to investigate the potential implications of the new Wi-Fi features, namely the wider channels and the higher number of sub-carriers, on a device-free positioning system based on position fingerprinting. In particular, we analyze the impact and the performance variations of this new technology across different bands in a position classification system, which has proven to be very accurate with previous versions of Wi-Fi. Our preliminary findings set some clear guidelines to direct future research efforts towards a better usage of newer Wi-Fi channels for sensing purposes. Furthermore, we publicly release our framework to the community of researchers and engineers for developing better Wi-Fi sensing solutions for smart homes, health care, and Internet-of- Things applications in general.