In the ever-evolving and fast-paced world of wireless communications, Wi-Fi 7 delivers substantial advances in speed, capacity, and efficiency. With the potential for faster data transfer rates, Wi-Fi 7 is designed to meet the growing demands of an increasingly connected world.
Wi-Fi 7's 320-MHz channel bandwidths double the maximum speeds of existing Wi-Fi 6/6E
This week Broadcom introduced samples of three new Wi-Fi 7 chipset solutions that are part of the company's second generation of Wi-Fi 7 solutions. In this article, we'll evaluate these three Wi-Fi 7 solutions to better understand their technology and the state of the Wi-Fi 7 space.
BCM6765: Residential Wi-Fi 7 Chip
The first of Broadcom's three Wi-Fi 7 chips to sample is the BCM6765.
BCM6765 is described a Wi-Fi 7 system-on-chip (SoC) that is designed to power a range of residential devices, from access points, routers, repeaters and service vendors. To support all these applications, the device is designed as a low-power, compact solution that can also deliver multi-gigabit speeds.
At the core of the BCM6765 is a potent quad-core Arm v8 CPU running at 2.0 GHz. This calculation is complemented by dual 2x2 radios that can operate in the 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz bands. For improved 2.4 GHz operation, the SoC also integrates a 2.4 GHz power amplifier and supports digital predistortion (DPD) external front-end module (FEM) to help reduce power consumption.
In communication terms, the BCM6765 can achieve a combined PHY rate of up to 8.64 Gbps and supports a channel bandwidth of up to 320 MHz. It uses 4096-QAM modulation and supports multilink operation (MLO) of up to three links when used with an external third radio.
BCM47722: Enterprise Access Point Platform SoC
The BCM47722 is an advance SoC communications processor with design focus on efficacy and compactness, making it potentially useful for corporate applications.
The three new Wi-Fi 7 offerings
Powered equally by a quad-core Arm v8 CPU, the BCM47722 features dual 802.11be 2x2 space stream 320 MHz WLAN radios, dual BLE/802.15.4 IOT radios, and an integrated 10 Gb Ethernet PHY compliant with 802.3 standard. Thanks to the rich RF hardware, the SoC supports multiple frequencies including 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz and is compatible with various IoT radios such as Bluetooth Low Energy, Zigbee, Thread and Matter protocols. In addition, the SoC complies with IEEE and WFA Wi-Fi 7 standards, as well as Bluetooth 5.4 and draft future specifications (e.g. channel detection).
Like the BCM6765, the BCM47722 features an integrated 2.4 GHz power amplifier and supports DPD external FEM to reduce power consumption. Thanks to its 4096-QAM modulation, it can achieve PHY rates up to 8.64 Gbps and channel bandwidths up to 320 MHz.
BCM4390: Wi-Fi 7 and bluetooth 5 combo chip for smart mobile devices
The third and final of the three new Wi-Fi 7 chips is the BCM4390, which Broadcom says is designed to meet the needs of cell phone applications. With a balance of performance, latency, power and size, the chip is designed to be a low-power, highly integrated Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 combo chip.
The core of the BCM4390 is a synchronous dual-band 2x2 IEEE 802.11be compliant radio. The chip works with a double core Bluetooth 5.4 radio and a specialized scanning core to significantly enhance the operation of Bluetooth and WLAN systems. It also supports 160 MHz wide-channel and 5/6 GHz band support as well as 4K-QAM conditioning to provide high-speed data transmission.
One of the notable features of the BCM4390 is support for dual-stream Wi-Fi 7. This combined with dual radios supporting simultaneous 2x2 2.4 GHz and 2x2 5/6 GHz operation allows for a PHY rate of 3.2 Gbps, making it a valuable candidate for high-speed applications.
The BCM4390 has also been integrated with classic Bluetooth and low power support, as well as Wire and Zigbee support. This allows it to be a versatile chip that can deal with multiple wireless communication protocols. It also supports client-side Multi-Link Operation (MLO), which can further enhance its performance.
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