The standard WiFi 7 is closer than we all think, now the well-known chipmaker Broadcom has released the components for future WiFi routers and WiFi access points that use the new wireless standard. These chipsets will be used by other manufacturers such as ASUS, AVM, D-Link, NETGEAR and many others in their devices, in this way, they will be able to launch new top-of-the-range WiFi routers and also the usual professional access points. Do you want to know what chipsets they are and what features they have?
Broadcom chipsets with Wi-Fi 7
Right now we are immersed in Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E technology, however, the technology is evolving by leaps and bounds and we already have Broadcom chipsets with us with the new Wi-Fi 7 standard. We must bear in mind that This new wireless standard is going to offer us great performance due to the combination of three characteristics:
- 16 streams maximum for each frequency band
- Support for 320MHz contiguous channel width, this only works on 5GHz and 6GHz, because they are the only bands with that much contiguous channel width.
- Support for 4096-QAM, or also known as 4K-QAM, which will allow us to better use the spectrum.
Broadcom has released several chipsets geared towards residential and business environments as well. All Broadcom chipsets support both 4K-QAM as well as the Multi-Link Operation function. Next, we explain what they are and their main characteristics.
BCM6726
This chipset is aimed at the residential or domestic market, it will be the chipset that will be incorporated into high-end home WiFi routers and also WiFi repeaters and WiFi access points oriented to the home environment. The features are as follows:
- It can work in the 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz band, depending on the WiFi amplifiers used for it.
- They have 4-streams to provide very good wireless performance.
- Support 160MHz channel width at most, this chipset does not support 320MHz channel width.
- It has a maximum speed of up to 5.75Gbps.
Manufacturers will use this chipset for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, however, it is possible that for the new 6GHz band they will use another one that does support 320MHz, especially in high-end equipment.
BCM67263
This chipset is oriented to the residential or domestic market, it will be the chipset chosen to provide connectivity in the new 6GHz band. The features are as follows:
- It works on the 6GHz band only.
- They have 4-streams to provide very good wireless performance.
- Supports 320MHz channel width.
- It has a maximum speed of up to 11.5Gbps. Double that of the previous one as it has double the width of the channel.
Manufacturers will use this chipset for the 6GHz band exclusively, to provide maximum performance by supporting the 320MHz channel width.
BCMN43740
This chipset is aimed at the professional market, it will be incorporated into professional Wi-Fi access points from manufacturers such as D-Link, NETGEAR and many others. The features are as follows:
- It can work in the 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz band.
- They have 4-streams to provide the best performance.
- Supports 320MHz channel width at most.
- It has a maximum speed of up to 11.5Gbps.
Manufacturers will use this chipset for any of the frequency bands, but it will be aimed at top-of-the-range models because it has everything.
BCMN43720
This chipset is aimed at the professional market, but it will be the entry level for professional APs from different manufacturers, since the previous chipset is clearly more powerful. The features are as follows:
- It can work in the 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz band.
- They have 2-streams.
- Support 160MHz channel width at most.
- It has a maximum speed of up to 2.88Gbps.
Manufacturers will use this chipset for any of the frequency bands, but it will be aimed at top-of-the-range models because it has everything.
What processor will the new computers use?
The new top-of-the-range routers will use the Broadcom BCM4916 processor, a really powerful processor based on ARMv8 that is Quad-Core, although the operating frequency is unknown, it will surely work at 2GHz or 2.2GHz like the latest top-of-the-range models. A very important detail is that this new SoC allows up to 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports for the LAN, two 10G ports for WAN or LAN and we can also have two additional 2.5G Multigigabit ports. In other words, the routers that incorporate this chipset will be able to have a large number of Multigigabit ports so as not to have a bottleneck in the wireless network.
On the right side of the diagram below, you can see the typical configuration of the Wi-Fi 7 wireless network, both for the 2.4Ghz, 5GHz and 6GHz bands.
Manufacturers such as ASUS, AVM, D-Link or NETGEAR among others, will be able to configure their devices as they wish, depending on what range they are in and their price. As you can see, the new Wi-Fi 7 will not only bring higher wireless speed, but the standard NBASE-T It will be the standard of the wired network, and it will be completely necessary if we want to get the most out of the new standard.