Qualcomm Technologies, this week announced an end-to-end 802.11ax portfolio, which includes the IPQ8074 system-on-chip (SoC) for network infrastructure and QCA6290 solution for client devices. Qualcomm expects the two models in the first half of 2017.
802.11ax, the next-generation Wi-Fi standard, focuses primarily on expanding network capacity and making better use of Wi-Fi spectrum to maintain excellent connectivity in more complex environments. As Wi-Fi networks become more crowded, dense and diverse, the 802.11ax solutions are designed to improve connected experiences, delivering up to 4x greater capacity to make Wi-Fi traffic more efficient, resulting in up to 4x faster user throughput and longer battery life for Wi-Fi devices, said Qualcomm.
According to the company, the growing number of connected devices, diversity of traffic, and density of overlapping networks currently overloads Wi-Fi spectrum and threatens the quality of our connected experiences. To address this, Qualcomm Technologies’ 802.11ax solutions support 12-streams (eight 5GHz and four 2.4GHz), 8x8 MU-MIMO, 80 MHz channels and other features to maximize capacity and coverage. Additionally, the solutions feature proven cellular techniques, such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and traffic scheduling, which is designed to provide greater efficiency, higher user throughput, and a more consistent performance.
This managed approach of resource allocation, along with the optimization of wake-up time, can reduce Wi-Fi power consumption by 2/3rd to extend device battery life without adversly impacting performance.
Although the benefits will be greatest for 11ax-based devices, Qualcomm said it has designed its solutions to improve the performance of all devices, including ones using the previous 802.11ac and 802.11n technologies, which are designed to realize better connections on 11ax networks.
Rahul Patel, SVP & GM, Connectivity, Qualcomm Technologies
We were the first to commercialize capacity utilization-focused solutions, such as MU-MIMO, Wi-Fi SON and 802.11ad, and are now on the front lines of 11ax innovation that will propel the Wi-Fi industry into the next phase of high-capacity, high-efficiency networks. The transformative features of our 802.11ax solutions are designed to enable our customers to meet these demands, ensuring ample Wi-Fi capacity for richer connected experiences.
Anand Oswal, SVP, Enterprise Networking Group, Cisco
Wi-Fi is now an essential element of every corporate, education, service provider and public network. IT executives are reporting their biggest challenges are capacity and scalability, given the enormous growth of users.
