Qualcomm introduces Wi-Fi 7 immersive home platforms
For connected homes, Qualcomm Technologies, has unveiled its Wi-Fi 7 Immersive Home network platform. It is built to support the latest high speed broadband connections and devices populating for connected homes. The Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7 Immersive platform delivers more than 20Gbits per second of total system capacity in a compact, power-efficient, cost effective network chipset architecture.
The platform introduces Qualcomm Multi-Link Mesh for high throughput and real-time responsiveness.
Nick Kucharewski, senior vice president and general manager, Wireless Infrastructure and Networking, Qualcomm Technologies, said: “Wi-Fi 7 brings powerful new capabilities which are best experienced using a tri-band system. . . Wi-Fi mesh can deliver performance gains for both new and legacy devices.”
The Qualcomm Immersive Home Platform is engineered to enable collaboration, telepresence, AR/VR (augmented reality / virtual reality) and immersive gaming applications. It offers multi-Gigabit coverage and low latency.
Within the platform, Qualcomm Multi-Link Mesh redefines home networking, said Qualcomm, through dynamically managed client-facing and mesh-backhaul wireless links. Through a process of selecting, aggregating or alternating links in the 2.4, 5.0 and 6.0GHz unlicensed spectrum bands based on network conditions, device capabilities and home network topology, it enables deterministic low latency for virtually lag-free gaming experiences. Real-time latency in congested environments can be reduced by up to 75 per cent reduction, reported Qualcomm.
Wi-Fi 7 can achieve extremely high performance with multi-Gigabit coverage over a wide area. Key features include expanded 5.0GHz spectrum performance, with 240MHz channels and 4K QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) that can deliver 80 per cent higher capacity compared to Wi-Fi 6.
The maximised 6.0GHz spectrum performance, with 320MHz and 4K QAM modulation can deliver 140 per cent higher capacity compared to Wi-Fi 6E, added Qualcomm. Full support for the turnkey Qualcomm AFC provides corner-to-corner multi-Gigabit coverage, said the company. The AFC Solution is available for customer device integration immediately. Once regulatory approvals are granted, it will be commercially available for use by the public.
Support for Wi-Fi 7 Multi-Link and adaptive interference puncturing is claimed to optimise operation even in congested environments. Intelligent congestion avoidance algorithms ensure high performance even in the presence of potential interference from neighbouring networks or other devices.
The platform delivers maximum connectivity to the latest high-performance devices, delivering peak speeds up to 5.8Gbits per second to a single connected device, said Qualcomm.
The platform is based on low profile form factors based on a modular and scalable design architecture to accelerate time to market. It uses advanced process node and fully integrated RF front-end modules (FEMs) for performance optimisation.
The tri-band Wi-Fi 7 configurations, ranging from 10 to 20Gbits per second peak wireless capacity, mean the platform delivers nearly twice the capacity of comparable Wi-Fi 6 systems, claimed Qualcomm, enabling higher user count, higher speed connections, or extended range requirements.
David Henry, president and general manager of Connected Home Products and Services at Netgear, commented: “We’re looking forward to combining this technology with our wireless RF and networking expertise to provide our customers with unique, high performance, multi-band Orbi Mesh products.”
Sharing a common architecture with the production-ready Qualcomm Networking Pro Series Wi-Fi 7 platform, the Immersive Home Platforms are sampling now with commercial availability expected in the second half of 2023.
