Qualcomm announces Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 Mobile & Router Chips

[Clueless_Gamer]

 

"The new Wi-Fi 6E standard has opened up 1,200 MHz of spectrum real estate for Wi-Fi devices which will offer more channels and increased transfer speeds. Qualcomm hopes its latest chips will quickly permeate a wide range of smartphones and wireless routers, which will solve some of the biggest frustrations related to Wi-Fi speed, latency, and reliability."

 

Qualcomm announced the FastConnect 6900 and 6700 Mobile Connectivity Systems today, promising that they're built from the ground up for a modern experience. The company is promising things like low-latency Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and wired-class voice and music over a wireless connection.

 

All of this is brought to you by Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. Wi-Fi 6E can use the new 6GHz band, delivering speeds of up to 3.6Gbps with the FastConnect 6900 (3Gbps on the 6700). And with an additional 1,200MHz of spectrum for the 6GHz band, it triples the Wi-Fi spectrum. Bluetooth 5.2 promises better audio features for quality, reliability, and responsiveness.

 

With the Wi-Fi 6E-enabled chipset, devices will be able to use the 6GHz frequency when other frequencies are being used by other devices. That means lower latency, higher speeds, and more that will improve things like cloud gaming, VR video streaming, etc. Combined with Bluetooth 5.2, you'll get lower latency on peripherals, the kind of latency that usually requires a wired connection.

 

Qualcomm says it's using things like 4-Stream Dual Band Simultaneous to harness multiple antennas and bands, dual-band 160MHz support and its 4K QAM modulation all for a best-in-class experience. And of course, when you're not on Wi-Fi, you'll be able to have low latency and fast connectivity speeds with 5G, another area where Qualcomm is leading the pack.

 

The new FastConnect solutions will show up in Qualcomm chipsets next year, likely with the higher-end 6900 in the Snapdragon 875, or whatever it ends up being called. These chips are available for manufacturer sampling and will most likely go into high-end smartphones to be released in the second half of this year and in early 2021.

 

Qualcomm also announced four new chips for routers under the Networking Pro brand that will support anywhere from six to sixteen concurrent Wi-Fi streams and maximum theoretical speeds ranging from 5.4 Gbps to 10.8 Gbps.

 

There's a probability Android phone manufacturers will wait until Wi-Fi 6E capabilities are baked into Qualcomm's Snapdragon SoCs before jumping into the fold, while Qualcomm is hoping companies will adopt the newer FastConnect chips sooner to differentiate their products, which would lead to a faster adoption of the new standard.

 

 

 

Sources - 

 

https://www.techspot.com/news/85418-qualcomm-first-wi-fi-6e-chips-aimed-phones.html

 

https://www.qualcomm.com/products/fastconnect-6900

 

https://www.neowin.net/news/qualcomm-announces-fastconnect-6700-and-6900-with-wi-fi-6e-and-bluetooth-52

 

 

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, Clueless_Gamer said:

With the Wi-Fi 6E-enabled chipset, devices will be able to use the 6GHz frequency when other frequencies are being used by other devices. That means lower latency, higher speeds, and more that will improve things like cloud gaming, VR video streaming, etc.

While all that is good, wouldn't that cause interference should a wireless carrier also uses 6 GHz 5G?

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-363945A1.pdf

Quote

But it turns out there’s a role for 5G in the new 6GHz spectrum, as well. Starting with the next release of the 5G standard, a currently obscure feature called 5G-U (“5G-unlicensed”) will enable 5G devices to make use of unlicensed spectrum. Currently, 5G networks use frequencies below 2.6GHz, around 3.5GHz, and above 24GHz in various parts of the world, but 5G-U will eventually let devices opportunistically access 5G using 5GHz, 6GHz, and/or some higher frequencies when they’re needed and available. Picture the magenta Volkswagen merging from the clogged private road onto the open highway as appropriate, or in some cases, simultaneously using both roads at once to deliver an especially big load.

https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/02/wi-fi-6e-and-5g-will-share-6ghz-spectrum-to-supercharge-wireless-data/

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

everyone will stay on overcrowded 2.4GHz

reminds me of those LTE hotspot devices that still uses 2.4 GHz wifi.

[Commodus]

1 minute ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

My opinion: damned radio manufacturers should stop making 802.11b/a/g modems. 802.11n/ac/ax should be the minimum of any new radio. You can add as much spectrum as you want, but without pushing people to newer standards everyone will stay on overcrowded 2.4GHz using unneficient modulation, encoding and protocols.

There are some good reasons to keep 2.4GHz around.  Lower frequencies tend to have better range and penetration (hence why many LTE networks are in the 700MHz range).  But it is true that those legacy networks can hold newer technology back.

[captain_to_fire]

3 minutes ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

but without pushing people to newer standards everyone will stay on overcrowded 2.4GHz using unneficient modulation, encoding and protocols.

I think for the coverage, most IoT devices such as smart security cameras or smoke alarms still use 2.4 GHz. It has longer propagation and better wall penetration that 5GHz wifi.