Qualcomm 10G Fiber Gateway Platform supports Wi-Fi 7 and "Service Defined Wi-Fi technology"

Qualcomm 10G Fiber Gateway Platform combines 10G Passive Optical Network (PON) technology with Wi-Fi 7 connectivity to deliver 10 Gbps Internet speed to the home. The platform also supports “Service Defined Wi-Fi technology” to enable cloud-to-device quality of service.

It seems it was only a few years ago that we talked about 1 Gbps broadband Internet speed, but some companies like Sonic already offer 10 Gbps fiber optic internet to residential customers in the US. That means we’ll need powerful CPEs to deliver 10 Gbps speed to the home and distribute them through the home through multi-gigabit Ethernet and/or WiFi 7, and Qualcomm 10G Fiber Gateway Platform aims to address this market.

Qualcomm 10G Fiber Gateway Platform specifications:

CPU – Unnamed quad-core processor
Passive Optical Network
- Deployment types: XGS-PON Residential Gateway (HGS/ONT), XGS-PON SFU ONU, XGS-PON SFU+ ONU
- Peak Downstream Rate: 10 Gbps
- Peak Upstream Rate: 10 Gbps
Wi-Fi
- Peak PHY Rate: Up to 33 Gbps (aggregate)
- Support for Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be), Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax), Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), Wi-Fi 4 (802.11b/g/n)
- Frequencies – 6 GHz, 5 GHz, 2.4 GHz up to four bands
- Channels – 320 MHz, 240 MHz, 160 MHz, 80 MHz, 40 MHz, 20 MHz
- Spatial Streams: Up to 16
- Features
  - 4K QAM, multi-link operation, and adaptive interference puncturing
  - Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC)
  - Qualcomm MultiLink Mesh technology for WiFi Mesh
  - Qualcomm Service Defined Wi-Fi technology for QoS
Ethernet – 10 Gbps Ethernet (but few details provided by Qualcomm, and Ethernet almost feels like an afterthought on this platform)

The platform/chip will be supported by open-source software and middleware such as OpenWRT, RDK, TiP OpenWiFi, prplOS, and OpenSync.The “Qualcomm Service Defined Wi-Fi” sounds like marketing jargon to me and the company describes it as follows:

Qualcomm Service Defined Wi-Fi, a groundbreaking cloud-to-device Quality of Experience (QoE) framework, empowers broadband service providers with orchestration and insights into their subscriber’s quality of experience. This enables differentiated services optimized for gaming, streaming, and working from home, to attract, satisfy, and retain subscribers. Qualcomm Service Defined Wi-Fi unlocks operational efficiencies by providing actionable insights into applications and devices, proactively helping to resolve performance issues.

The Qualcomm 10G Fiber Gateway Platform, the first PON solution from the company, is expected to become commercially available by summer 2024. Further information may be found on the product page and press release.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

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.