Fibocom FG370 is a compact module that combines WiFi 7 and 5G cellular connectivity designed for 5G FWA routers for the home, SMB (Small and Medium-sized Business), and industrial applications.
Based on the MediaTek T830 quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 SoC, the FG370 supports 5G NR sub-6GHz, two 10Gbps USXGMII interfaces, and dual-band BE7200 WiFi 7 achieving an MLO (Multi-link operation) speed of up to 7.2Gbps.
Note this is not the first “FG370 announcement” from the company, as global operators have used the 5G-only FG370 since October 2023, and the company introduced the FG370 with 5G and tri-band BE19000 WiFi 7 at MWC2024. The company has unveiled a mid-range variant of the FG370 module with 5G and BE7200 at Computex 2024.
The company has yet to release a datasheet for the 5G + WiFi 7 variants, but for reference, here are the Fibocom FG370 (5G-only) specifications: (North American version)
- SoC – MediaTek T830 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor up to 2.2 GHz with network accelerators, MediaTek M80 5G modem (3GPP Rel 16)
- System Memory – 2GB DDR
- Storage – 4GB flash
- Cellular connectivity
- Support SA/NSA, NR CA
- Frequency bands
- 5G Sub-6 – n2/5/7/12/14/25/26/29/30/38/41/48/66/70/71/77/78
- LTE FDD – B2/4/5/7/12/13/14/17/25/26/29/30/66/71
- LTE TDD – B38/41/42/43/48
- MIMO (LB 4×4 MIMO)
- 5G NR: DL 4×4 MIMO; UL 2×2 MIMO:
- LTE – DL 4×4 MIMO
- 8Rx / 3Tx reserved
- Downlink
- 5G NR Sub-6: 256QAM / Peak data rate 7.01Gbps
- 4G LTE: 256QAM / Peak Rate 1.6Gbps
- Uplink
- 5G NR Sub-6: 256QAM / Peak data rate 1.25Gbps
- 4G LTE: 256QAM / Peak Rate 211Mbps
- GNSS – GPS/GLONASS/Beidou/Galileo/QZSS
- Antennas – 8x cellular + 1x GNSS
- Host communication – AT Command Set: 3GPP TS 27.007 and 27.005, proprietary FIBOCOM AT commands
- Interfaces – UART, PCIe 4.0, GPIO, I2S, UIM
- Operating Voltage – 3.3V to 4.4V; typical 3.8V
- Dimensions – 48 x 45 x 2.75mm (LGA package)
- Temperature Range – Standard: -30 to +75°C; extended: -40 to +85°C
- FCC certifications (NA version)
Drivers are available for Linux 5.4 and the module is supposed to run OpenWrt 21.02. While the model above only supports 5G, we do have some information about the just announced WiFi 7 dual-band model from the press release which looks to be based on the MediaTek Filogic 860 chipset:
- IEEE 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) standard
- 4K QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) modulation scheme
- 160MHz channel bandwidth
- Dual-band 2.4GHz 4×4 and 5GHz 5×5 to achieve multi-link speed of up to 7.2Gbps.
- Features – OFDMA, Multi-RU, and MU-MIMO
- 5dB antenna gains
Potential applications for the 5G FWA routers based on the FG370 include 4K/8K video transmission, virtual/augmented reality, cloud gaming, video conferencing, etc… As discussed above there’s limited information about the 5G + WiFi 7 modules, but any details should eventually surface on the FG370 product page.
Thanks to TLS for the tip.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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MediaTek has made significant strides in upstreaming their Network SoCs to the Linux kernel. If they choose to release the T830 code in the same manner as they did with the Filogic series, they are well-positioned for market dominance.