With the accelerating demands for connected smart devices, diversity of traffic, and interlocking network service providers, Qualcomm Technologies Inc. introduced its end-to-end 802.11ax portfolio. Together with the new standard, the company also announced a pair of chips, the IPQ8074 system-on-chip (SoC) for network infrastructure and the QCA6290 solution for client devices.
According to Qualcomm, the new 802.11ax standard can deliver up to 1.8 Gbps on the client side through Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) combining 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, all while spending 2/3rd less power than its predecessor without compromising performance.
As the Qualcomm Technologies' 802.11ax solutions become the pioneer in supporting the new standard, it should deliver 4x greater capacity for efficient Wi-Fi traffic thorough proven cellular techniques, such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and traffic scheduling.
The "Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access" (OFDMA) technology is commonly equipped on smart device today to improve the capacity of LTE networks. According to ArsTechnica, OFDMA utilizes the full bandwidth on the router through a client, which allows channels to be split up into sub-carriers that load big data being sent and received to different devices simultaneously.
The method of Target Wake Time (TWT) is also included in the 802.11ax standard. The said feature allows the router and wireless clients to connive on a future time and a length of time to establish connection, "allowing the router to minimize overlap for devices that need regular but not continuous network connectivity."
Qualcomm also focused on capacity on its new standard by adding a 12x12 configuration, uplink and downlink MU-MIMO, and by supporting eight 80Mhz streams.
Rahul Patel, senior vice president & general manager, connectivity of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. said: "CAPACITY- not peak speed-has become the most important measure of a network's ability to handle the ever-increasing demands of today's diverse mix of application and services."
"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," Patel added.
Based on reports, Qualcomm is expecting to test both SoCs in the first half of 2017.