Broadcom began sampling an end-to-end Wi-Fi chipset offering in April 2022
Intel and Broadcom teamed up on a Wi-Fi 7 demonstration that utilized the former’s Core processor-based laptop and the latter’s Wi-Fi 7 access point (AP). According to the companies, the test achieved over-the-air speeds greater than 5 gigabits per second.
There are a number of proposed features for the Wi-Fi 7 standard, but direct enhancements over Wi-Fi 6 include support of multi-band/multi-channel aggregation and operation, 320 MHz transmissions — which is double the 160 MHz of 802.11ax — the use of higher modulation orders, optionally supporting 4096-QAM — up from 1024-QAM in 802.11ax — and the allocation of multiple resource units, such as groups of OFMDA tones. Wi-Fi7 is also referred to as Wi-Fi Extremely High Throughput as result of its projected ability to support up to 30Gbps throughput, roughly three times faster than Wi-Fi 6.
“We are proud to highlight how next-generation Wi-Fi 7 can make new mobile PC experiences possible. Industry collaboration is essential to ensure we deliver on the promises of this new wireless technology,” said Carlos Cordeiro, Intel fellow and wireless CTO of Intel’s client computing group.
Broadcom is often an early mover in the Wi-Fi space, having been the first to announce the availability of a full suite of 6 GHz Wi-Fi chips and then in April 2022, already began sampling an end-to-end Wi-Fi chipset offering, which was again, ahead of the curve.
According to Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance, this most recent demo shows that Broadcom is “leading the way again with Wi-Fi 7.”
Vijay Nagarajan, vice president, Wireless Connectivity Division at Broadcom, agreed with Cordeiro about the importance of collaboration, commenting: “Today’s milestone sends a clear message: The ecosystem is ready and Wi-Fi 7 is here to deliver extraordinary capacity and blazing fast speeds to extend gigabit broadband… Industry collaboration is key to making this unprecedented connectivity a reality and we were delighted to work with Intel to achieve another industry first.”
