Qualcomm unveils Wi-Fi 7 networking platform

After announcing its chip capable of Wi-Fi 7 at the Mobile World Congress, Qualcomm has recently unveiled their Wi-Fi 7 capable Qualcomm Networking Pro Series Gen 3 family of platforms, composed of the 1620 (quad-band, 16-stream, 33.1 Gbps peak), 1220 (tri-band, 12-stream, 21.6 Gbps peak), 820 (quad-band, 8-stream, 13.7 Gbps peak), and 620 (tri-band, 6-stream, 10.8 Gbps peak). In addition to Wi-Fi capability, Qualcomm claims this family of platforms to be the industry’s most scalable portfolio commercially available.

“Qualcomm Technologies has enabled the era of 10 Gbps Wi-Fi with our first customer deliveries of the Wi-Fi 7 Networking Pro Series,” said Nick Kucharewski, senior vice president and general manager, Wireless Infrastructure and Networking, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “With this product line, we anticipate a new class of customer systems for both today’s applications and the emerging Wi-Fi 7 ecosystem.”

Available in tri-band, and quad-band configurations, the Qualcomm Networking Pro Series enables Wi-Fi connectivity across 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz spectrum. They are expected to achieve unparalleled performance through expert implementation of key features, as follows:

• Support for Wi-Fi 7 320MHz channels (delivering a two-times increase in throughput over Wi-Fi 6) provides maximum throughput and ultra-low latency.
• Multi-Link technology enables customer traffic to dynamically aggregate or alternate bands to avoid wireless interference and deliver deterministic, predictable low latency in heavily congested environments.
• To maximize 6 GHz operation, including long-range and outdoors, the Qualcomm AFC service is a turnkey solution for hardware and software.

WiFi 7, also known by its technical name IEEE 802.11be, aims more efficient use of the wireless spectrum and the reduction of latency. Among the targeted improvements include 320 MHz bandwidth, 4K QAM, and multi-link operations. The amendments, meanwhile, are projected to be completed by 2024.