KDDI, Qualcomm Technologies and NEC announced a draft 802.11ax home gateway product based on Qualcomm’s IPQ8072 family of 802.11ax chipsets and designed by NEC Platforms that KDDI plans on rolling out this month.
The product is based on a draft version of 802.11ax because full standardization and certification has yet to occur; expectations call for the draft specification to be approved later this year and for certification of products to start in the latter part of 2019.
Meanwhile, the companies said the draft 11ax carrier gateway will be delivered to KDDI’s home subscribers in Japan this month. It supports 11ax features, promising up to four times higher wireless networking capacities and better performance.
The seemingly insatiable demand for connectivity continues to grow, with bandwidth-hungry applications like video streaming putting a big strain on Wi-Fi networks. Qualcomm says its 802.11ax platform delivers the network efficiency and capacity to improve connected experiences today, as well as optimizing for the performance requirements of next-generation carrier gateways and consumer routers.
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The 802.11ax chipset is based on a networking platform that can support up to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) wide-area networks and up to 6.5 Gbps peak physical layer rates on Wi-Fi. Described as the industry’s first 14 nanometer Wi-Fi system on chip, the IPQ8074Q features advanced 8x8 sounding and improves the connectivity experience for virtually all users through its MU-MIMO, which allows multiple users to be simultaneously connected to an access point. The platform also features advanced WPA3 encryption for better protection of user passwords and stronger privacy in Wi-Fi networks.
“At KDDI, we are committed to delivering the next era of broadband and entertainment experiences to our subscribers, and leveraging the most advanced technology to achieve that is of the utmost importance,” said Yasuhisa Yamada, KDDI’s deputy general manager of product and customer service sector, in a press release. “Qualcomm Technologies and NEC Platforms have raised the bar in terms of innovation in home connectivity with this advanced and highly-integrated 802.11ax solution.”
Wi-Fi Now noted last month that KDDI’s plans for a 802.11ax-based home gateway was only the second announcement by a Tier 1 telco on availability of 802.11ax Wi-Fi services. Late last year, Korea’s other large telco, KT, technically became the first carrier to announce 802.11ax services in the run-up to the Winter Olympics, delivering speeds of up to 4.8 Gbps.
While the benefits will be greatest for 802.11ax-based devices, the home gateway platform will also improve the performance of legacy devices using the previous 802.11ac technologies, according to Qualcomm.