Qualcomm finds way to extract real performance from 10G Fiber broadband

Qualcomm has found a way to turn broadband connections into real broadband connections. The company is unveiling the Qualcomm 10G Fiber Gateway Platform, along with its groundbreaking feature, Qualcomm Service Defined Wi-Fi technology.

The company said this platform marks a better era of home connectivity, offering service providers new opportunities to deliver superior performance and innovative subscriber services.

The problem with mixing great broadband connections to your home with a great Wi-Fi system is that it isn’t often a great user experience.

The reason is the highly managed network of a broadband service provider has never, until now, actually been able to be extended past the gateway, the black box (so to speak) in the home.

Qualcomm is opening up that box for service providers with Qualcomm Service Defined Wi-Fi, a technology that allows classification by traffic type and orchestration of Wi-Fi tools to match the application characteristics — and when you pair that with 10G Fiber and the advanced tools Wi-Fi 7 offers, your broadband gateways have a much better speed, stability and freedom from interaction delays (latency).

How it works

The majority of broadband subscribers rely on Wi-Fi to access their internet services. However, the management of the access network and Wi-Fi within the home is typically separate, resulting in challenges in maintaining consistent quality of service across the entire network.

To address this issue, Qualcomm has developed the Service Defined Wi-Fi technology, which provides a unified data flow management architecture from the cloud to the device. This technology enables orchestration, classification, scheduling, and insights to ensure optimal performance for 10G Fiber connections, adapting to user activities such as gaming, streaming, video conferencing, and content sharing.

Rahul Patel, senior vice president at Qualcomm, said in a statement, “Qualcomm Technologies has positioned itself to lead a revolution in connectivity. By adding 10G Fiber to our technology portfolio, along with 5G and Wi-Fi 7, we now offer a compelling mix of solutions to help service providers drive revenue growth, service innovations, and deliver more immersive, and engaged subscriber experiences.”

Andrew Spivey, senior analyst at ABI Research, said in a statement that Qualcomm’s advances in home gateways is important in the context of the rapid deployment of fiber-optic cable.

“Qualcomm’s latest advancements in home gateways will help accelerate the ongoing transformation of home Wi-Fi networks” said Spivey. “Given the rapid deployment of fiber-optic cable, alongside the concurrent decline of legacy cable and DSL technologies, the new platform is timely, and combined with
Qualcomm’s Wi-Fi 7 technology will prove indispensable in delivering the advanced speeds modern homes require. We are also confident that Qualcomm’s Service-Defined Wi-Fi Technology will help underpin the home networking revolution through the enablement of guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) for consumers.”

The Qualcomm 10G Fiber Gateway Platform offers 10Gbps connectivity to and within the home. Its software-defined architecture combines 10G Passive Optical Network (PON) technology with multi-Gigabit Wi-Fi 7 connectivity to ensure high-speed and low-latency access throughout the home. The platform incorporates the Qualcomm Service Defined Wi-Fi technology, providing service providers with orchestration capabilities and insights to enhance subscriber experiences.

The application-type orchestration enabled by Qualcomm’s Service Defined Wi-Fi technology allows service providers to create differentiated experiences optimized for specific applications such as gaming, streaming, and work-from-home services. This empowers providers to offer a new level of user experience based on reliable and fast end-to-end connectivity.

The Qualcomm 10G Fiber Gateway Platform and Qualcomm Service Defined Wi-Fi technology are set to be commercially available by the summer of 2024.