Qualcomm has debuted its first commercial platforms supporting the new WiFi 7 networking standard, opening a new chapter in the most widely used wireless internet protocol. By using the new family of Qualcomm products, consumers will enjoy broader bandwidth, higher speeds, wider communication channels, more intelligent adaptation systems, and effortless scalability.
More specifically, according to the company’s press note, the performance benchmarks have shown 320 MHz channel support, 33 Gbps of wireless interface capacity, and a peak throughput figure that surpasses 10 Gbps. The bandwidth is twice that of the WiFi 6 protocol, while the addition of the 6GHz band introduces a new data highway to reduce latency and increase throughput even in highly congested spaces.
The new product portfolio comprises the following:
- Qualcomm Networking Pro 1620: Quad-band, 16-stream, 33.1 Gbps peak wireless capacity for a stadium, large enterprise, and premium home mesh systems.
- Qualcomm Networking Pro 1220: Tri-band, 12-stream, 21.6 Gbps peak wireless capacity for enterprise, SMB, prosumer, and premium home mesh systems.
- Qualcomm Networking Pro 820: Quad-band, 8-stream, 13.7 Gbps peak wireless capacity for enterprise, SMB, prosumer, and premium home mesh systems.
- Qualcomm Networking Pro 620: Tri-band, 6-stream, 10.8 Gbps peak wireless capacity for enterprise, SMB, gaming, and home mesh systems.
As Qualcomm explains, these platforms were designed with scalability in mind, but each supports multiband channel utilization schemes as required for accommodating the varied regional spectrum availability, so they remain versatile in international and regional markets.
These products are expected to play a vital role in redefining WiFi connectivity in multi-user environments such as business centers and work offices, as well as real-time gaming hubs, teleconference, video-sharing, and metaverse applications.
In general, WiFi 7 is less about speeds and data rates and more about increasing network capacity, boosting efficiency, and greatly reducing latency. Qualcomm’s launch of the new Networking Pro line is ushering a new era, but it will be a while before home router vendors, laptop manufacturers, and makers of consumer-level electronic devices will catch up and adopt the protocol.
