LAS VEGAS – As mobile operators look to Wi-Fi to support voice calls, data offload and even LTE, the makers of Wi-Fi chipsets are racing to deliver more speed and throughput in routers, gateways and end-user devices. Today at CES, Broadcom launched a new portfolio that it says will include the world’s fastest 4×4 multi-user multiple input multiple output, or MU-MIMO, chip.
Broadcom is promising a 4x speed boost for wireless gateways and set-top boxes. The company says its 8×8 configuration offers 8 client MU-MIMO support. MU-MIMO divides the signal spatially so a device can simultaneously transmit multiple signals on the same frequency. That means each Wi-Fi hot spot can support more users at the same time.
The new chips support 802.11ac, the fastest currently deployed Wi-Fi standard, which operates in the 5 GHz band. ABI Research predicts that by next year more than half of all consumer Wi-Fi equipment shipments will be 802.11ac access points.
For retail Wi-Fi access point routers, the new chips will be coupled with a Broadcom network processor system-on-chip which includes a 1.4 GHz dual core ARM processor.
Broadcom is a leader in wireless connectivity chipsets but is not the first company to launch MU-MIMO in a Wi-Fi chipset. Qualcomm and Quantenna both announced MU-MIMO Wi-Fi solutions last year. This week at CES, Qualcomm said that several leading manufacturers will be unveiling home networking products based on its MU-MIMO Wi-Fi solution.
For routers and wireless repeaters, Broadcom has introduced two new dual-band 2×2 5G Wi-Fi chipsets. They company said these are the first SoCs to integrate a 2×2 802.11ac radio, a CPU and an Ethernet switch on one chip.
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