The 802.11be standards build on 802.11ax by providing ultra-high throughput, improved resource utilization, and interference mitigation. The 320 MHz support increases the throughput and performance in the 6GHz band. The improved resource utilization is attributed to the introduction of Multiple Resource Units (MRU) in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) transmission and Multi-Link Operation (MLO).

Until now, a multi-band client (for example, a phone with 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz radios) could connect to an AP using only one of the bands. Therefore, only one connection link formed between the client and the AP. Multi-link Operation (MLO) is the capability of the client and the AP to connect to more than one band simultaneously establishing multiple links. The clients that are capable of communicating with each other over multiple radio links at the same time are called Multi-Link Devices (MLD).