Experimental Analysis of Performance–Energy Trade-Offs in Wi-Fi 7 Multi-Band Mobile Systems

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental evaluation of Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be) performance in a multi-band operational scenario, focusing on the trade-off between network performance and energy consumption in mobile devices. Measurements were conducted across the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands under controlled laboratory conditions using a commercial access point and a device under test (DUT). Key performance indicators, including throughput, latency, jitter and electrical current consumption, were simultaneously collected and analyzed. The results demonstrate a clear performance hierarchy across frequency bands, where higher-frequency bands achieve substantial gains throughput and latency reduction at the cost of increased instantaneous power consumption. However, when evaluated in terms of energy efficiency (Mbps/W), the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands exhibit superior performance due to higher data rates. The 6 GHz band provides the best overall performance, combining low latency, high throughput and improved temporal stability. These findings provide practical insights into the operational behavior of Wi-Fi 7 devices and highlight the importance of multi-band optimization for next-generation high-throughput and latency-sensitive applications.