World’s First Commercially Available Draft 11ax Carrier Gateway Platform Supports up to 10 Gbps WAN/LAN with 4X the Network Capacity of Legacy 11ac Wave 2 Platforms for Improved Performance and User Experiences

Today, Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) through its subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., KDDI Corporation, and NEC Platforms, Ltd. have announced shipment of the world’s first commercially available draft 802.11ax carrier gateway. The BL1000HW is scheduled for delivery to KDDI home subscribers in Japan in March 2018, is based on Qualcomm Technologies’ IPQ807x family of 802.11ax chipsets, and is designed by NEC Platforms. The platform delivers up to 4x higher wireless networking throughput versus previously deployed carrier gateway solutions and delivers better performance for bandwidth-intensive applications and environments.

Qualcomm Technologies’ 802.11ax chipset is based on a powerful networking platform that can support up to 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps) wide-area networks and up to 6.5 Gbps peak physical (PHY) layer rates on Wi-Fi. As the industry’s first commercially available 14 nanometer Wi-Fi system on chip (SoC), the IPQ8072 is designed to improve the connectivity experience for virtually all users, through its MU-MIMO that allows multiple users to be simultaneously connected to an access point. The platform also features advanced WPA3 encryption to support robust protection of user passwords and stronger privacy in Wi-Fi networks.

As consumers’ demand for connected devices and bandwidth hungry applications like video streaming services, and 4K/8K video and VR continues to grow, home Wi-Fi networks have become strained. Qualcomm Technologies’ 802.11ax platform is designed to deliver the network efficiency and capacity to improve connected experiences today, as well as optimize for the performance requirements of next-generation carrier gateways and consumer routers. Today’s announcement underscores how worldwide carrier, enterprise and retail customers can build solutions that support more devices in the home, reduce interference and dropped signals and provide one of the best Quality-of-Service for different types of applications – ranging from media streaming to simple temperature control.

“Qualcomm Technologies has been a market leader in the development of innovative 11ax solutions that solve some of consumers’ most pressing demands for better Wi-Fi and advanced user experiences,” said Rahul Patel, senior vice president and general manager, connectivity and networking, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Our 802.11ax solution is a testament to that innovation, powering the industry’s first commercially available carrier-class home getaway with one of the industry’s highest performing 802.11ax chipset. As KDDI and NEC Platforms continue to push boundaries with this powerful solution, we are thrilled to be partnering with them to revolutionize Wi-Fi connectivity and deliver virtually unmatched performance to their customers.”

“At KDDI, we are committed to delivering the next era of broadband and entertainment experiences to our subscribers and leveraging the most advanced technology to achieve that is of the utmost importance,” said Yasuhisa Yamada, deputy general manager, product & customer service sector, KDDI Corporation. “Qualcomm Technologies and NEC Platforms have raised the bar in terms of innovation in home connectivity with this advanced and highly-integrated 802.11ax solution. We are looking forward to working with them to deliver the enhanced experiences our customers have come to expect from our services.”

“We are excited about the potential positive impact 802.11ax will have on the growing number of connected devices that are currently crowding networks and burdening Wi-Fi infrastructures,” said Mamoru Nagatani, senior vice president, NEC Platforms, Ltd. “Working with KDDI and Qualcomm Technologies on a carrier gateway solution allows us to address the demands of Wi-Fi deployments in the home that will truly live up to the expectations of consumers with ultra-high speed WAN access.”

The carrier gateway platform demonstrates the benefit of broadband updates to 10G-EPON by matching multi-Giga WAN with multi-Giga Wi-Fi capacities. Although the benefits will be greatest for 802.11ax-based devices, the carrier gateway platform will also improve the performance of legacy devices utilizing the previous 802.11ac technologies.