Qualcomm today announced an end-to-end 802.11ax portfolio, which includes the IPQ8074 system-on-chip (SoC) for network infrastructure and QCA6290 solution for client devices.

The new 802.11ax solutions are designed to deliver up to 4x greater capacity to make Wi-Fi traffic more efficient, resulting in up to 4x faster user throughput and longer battery life for Wi-Fi devices. Qualcomm Technologies expects to sample the IPQ8074 and QCA6290 in the first half of 2017.

802.11ax, the next-generation Wi-Fi standard, focuses primarily on expanding network capacity and making better use of Wi-Fi spectrum to maintain connectivity in more complex environments. Qualcomm Technologies' 802.11ax solutions support 12-streams (eight 5GHz and four 2.4GHz), 8x8 MU-MIMO, 80 MHz channels and other features to maximize capacity and coverage. Additionally, the solutions feature proven cellular techniques, such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and traffic scheduling, which is designed to provide greater efficiency, higher user throughput, and a more consistent performance. This managed approach of resource allocation, along with the optimization of wake-up time, can reduce Wi-Fi power consumption by 2/3rd to extend device battery life without adversly impacting performance.

The IPQ8074 is a SoC for the next generation of enterprise access points, carrier gateways and consumer routers.

Utilizing a 12x12 configuration, uplink and downlink MU-MIMO, and supporting eight 80 MHz streams, the IPQ8074 quadruples capacity, delivers up to 4.8 Gbps, and maintains fast connections over larger coverage areas.

In addition to Qualcomm Wi-Fi Self-Organizing Network (SON), which simplifies installation, optimizes traffic, and reduces dead spots, the IPQ8074 offers features to reduce harmful interference in dense areas with many overlapping Wi-Fi access points.

The Soc integrates an 11ax radio, MAC and baseband, plus a quad-core 64-bit A53 CPU and dual-core network accelerator to provide a fully-offloaded 11ax subsystem. The 14nm design provides power and size advantages.

The QCA6290 is an 802.11ax client device SoC offering throughput, battery-life and rich user experiences in homes, enterprises, public venues and other high-traffic areas, and automobiles.

The SoC supports 2x2 MU-MIMO and realizes the benefits of the 8x8 MU-MIMO by supporting the advanced 8x8 sounding mechanism. It Offers up to 1.8 Gbps peak speeds through Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) combining 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, and higher order modulation (1024 QAM).

Qualcomm also touts the power consumption reduction of the chip, through its optimizations, in addition to the support for the 802.11ax standard power save features.

The combination of DBS with the increased capacity and throughput also allows for improved experiences in vehicles, including Gigabit in-car Wi-Fi hotspot, content sharing between brought-in devices and the car's infotainment system, and support for multiple video streams along with screen mirroring.