There are three main factors in wireless connectivity, both in mobile networks and in WiFi networks: speed, range and number of connected users simultaneously. All the new standards have been improving one of these aspects, as we can see in the most recent iterations of mobile networks such as 4G, or the last of the WiFi networks, the 802.11ac Wave 2, which will be replaced by the WiFi 802.11ax.
802.11ax WiFi: 10 Gbps maximum speed
The saturation of wireless networks is usually one of the main problems in large crowds of people. The 802.11ac Wave 2 was looking to improve this with the introduction of MU-MIMO, but that was only a first step compared to what the new 802.11ax WiFi will offer, which will be the new big leap that WiFi connectivity will take in the next two years, allowing up to four times more clients connected than 802.11ac Wave 2.
While 802.11ac (which operates in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands) has recently been supplemented by the 802.11ad (operating in the band of 60 GHz), the 802.11ax It will be the new standard that will continue to enhance the benefits of the current ones 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. The new standard organize packages requested by connected devices in an orderly manner, allows adjust bandwidth in real time to reduce saturation, and also more efficiently manage when a device wakes up to send or receive data, reducing battery consumption.
Quantenna presented last October the first chip compatible with 802.11ax, with 8 × 8 MU-MIMO in the 5 GHz band and 4 × 4 in the 2.4 GHz band. This was just an access point, and now Qualcomm has presented its two new solutions, both the access (such as routers) such as chips for client devices.
It may interest you …
How to find public WiFi networks anywhere we go Roberto Adeva February 9, 2017 • 21:02
Chips for routers and devices
The first chip is the IPQ8074, with a solution of up to 12 streams operating at the same time, just like the Quantenna chip: 8 antennas in the 5 GHz band and 4 antennas in the 2.4 GHz band. The chip supports channels of up to 80 MHz of bandwidth and MU-MIMO for both sending and receiving data. The SoC also includes a Cortex-A53 quad-core processor up to 2 GHz and a network acceleration chip for inspecting packets. Total, speed is up to 10Gbps.
On the other hand, the QCA6290 It will feature 2 2×2 antennas with Qualcomm’s proprietary low-power systems for longer battery life in the devices that equip it.
Despite the fact that Broadcom has been Qualcomm’s quintessential competitor in the field of WiFi, they have yet to comment on their solutions. The SoC chip IPQ8074 Qualcomm will arrive to the new routers by the end of the year, while devices equipped with the QCA6290 will arrive from 2018.
You can know more details about these 802.11ax WiFi chips in RedesZone, as well as you can stop by our Network and WiFi Forum.
