This week Qualcomm introduced its new 10G Fiber Gateway Platform, the industry’s first fully integrated 5G advanced-ready fixed wireless access (FWA) and Wi-Fi 7 offering.
News: Next Generation 10G Broadband Gateway with Wi-Fi 7
Wi-Fi 7 represents a significant advancement in wireless connectivity to meet the growing demands of internet usage and the proliferation of Wi-Fi connected devices. It achieves this through several key features:
- Triple-Band Utilization: Wi-Fi 7 leverages all three Wi-Fi bands – 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz – to provide higher throughput and lower latency, catering to the increasing need for connectivity.
- Increased Channel Size: It supports channel sizes of up to 320 MHz in the 6 GHz spectrum, resulting in substantial throughput improvements.
- Multi-Link Operation (MLO): MLO enables multiple radios on a router, which enhances throughput and reduces latency by simultaneously handling multiple data streams.
- 4K Modulation: Wi-Fi 7 incorporates 4K modulation, boosting peak rates and increasing overall throughput and capacity.
- Flexible Channel Utilization: The technology employs flexible channel utilization based on preamble puncturing to avoid channels with interference, ensuring a more reliable and interference-free connection.
These advancements provided by Wi-Fi 7 offer faster and more reliable wireless connectivity while also addressing the growing demand for high-speed internet and the increasing number of connected devices.
An early provider of Wi-Fi 7 solutions, Qualcomm began delivering products in 2022. Its portfolio included Qualcomm’s FastConnect 7800 for client devices, Wi-Fi 7 Qualcomm Networking Pro Series professional-grade networks, and Qualcomm Immersive Home Wi-Fi 7 Platforms for home networks.
Today, Qualcomm goes further, introducing a groundbreaking home connectivity solution, the Qualcomm 10G Fiber Gateway Platform. The new platform is designed to support emerging 10 Gigabit (10G) Fiber broadband service, combining software-defined gateways and service-optimized Wi-Fi 7 for superior home network performance.
- Unified Network Management: The Qualcomm Service Defined Wi-Fi technology addresses the challenge of managing access networks and in-home Wi-Fi separately, providing a unified data flow management architecture from the cloud to the device. This ensures a consistent quality of service across diverse devices, applications, and connectivity technologies.
- Enhanced User Experience: The new platform delivers orchestration, classification, scheduling, and insights to meet subscriber performance expectations, adapting to user activity to provide a seamless experience to users.
- Service Provider Revenue Growth: Qualcomm’s 10G Fiber Gateway Platform, combined with 5G and Wi-Fi 7, provides service providers with a comprehensive solution to drive revenue growth, innovate services, and offer more immersive subscriber experiences.
The Qualcomm 10G Fiber Gateway Platform combines 10G Passive Optical Network (PON) technology with multi-Gigabit Wi-Fi 7 connectivity to provide high-speed and low-latency access throughout the home. It includes the Qualcomm Service Defined Wi-Fi technology, allowing providers to create differentiated services optimized for various applications.
Charter Communications and UK-based provider EE will be the first service providers to bring the product to market. Qualcomm estimates the products will roll out through its first customers in 2024.
Analysis
Significant advancements in home networking are on the horizon, and broadband operators need to embrace these changes to offer compelling services to their customers. Four key pillars will drive the upcoming evolution of home networking:
- Adopting Wi-Fi 7 and 6 GHz: Embracing the latest Wi-Fi technologies, including Wi-Fi 7 and the 6 GHz spectrum, is crucial. These advancements will ensure that home networks can meet the complex demands of modern applications and avoid becoming bottlenecks.
- Migrating to Fiber and 5G FWA: Broadband operators should accelerate the deployment of fiber or establish partnerships to lease fiber lines. Additionally, exploring options like 5G Fixed Wireless Access will expand their customer base and support the increasing network requirements.
- Value-Added Services: Offering a range of complementary value-added services is essential. These services should be integrated to enhance capabilities through convergence and simplify user interactions, rather than being deployed in isolation.
- Software-Defined Gateways: The evolution of home networking will involve software-defined gateways, bringing several enhancements, including improved reliability, interoperability, and network visibility. This technology will enable application-aware prioritization, consistent policies, and end-to-end service management for optimized performance and troubleshooting.
Qualcomm’s new gateway solution addresses each of these while offering operators room to differentiate. This also provides another example of Qualcomm’s impressive cadence of innovation in connectivity.
