Broadcom has recently revealed its first WiFi 8 (802.11bn) chips with the BCM43109 for wireless clients such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, and automotive devices, the BCM6718 designed for residential and operator access applications, and the BCM43840 and BCM43820 made for enterprise access applications.
Broadcom BCM43109 WiFi 8, Bluetooth 6.0, and 802.15.4 client chip
Specifications:
- IEEE 802.11bn compliant
- Dual-stream spatial multiplexing data rate of up to 5 Gbps during single-band operation and 5.25 Gbps in RSDB mode
- Up to 320 MHz channels for the 2×2 5 GHz and 6 GHz radio, and 20 MHz channels for the 2×2 2.4 GHz radio
- STR MLO and EMLSR support
- Scan radio enhances 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz channel performance
- Dual-core Bluetooth 6.0 with 2G, higher band SDB with HDT, and support for future Bluetooth versions
- IEEE 802.15.4 supporting OpenThread, ZBOSS, etc.
- Host interface
- PCIe Gen3 x1 for WiFi
- UART for Bluetooth
- PCM and I2S for audio data over Bluetooth
The product page currently has limited information.
Broadcom BCM6718 WiFi 8 access point chip
Highlights:
- Four-stream (4×4) Wi-Fi 8 radio up to 320 MHz bandwidth, up to 4K-QAM modulation, 11.5 Gbps peak link rate
- Tri-band operation: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz
- BroadStream wireless telemetry engine for AI training/inference
- BroadStream intelligent packet scheduler maximizing QoE
- Receiver sensitivity enhancements enabling faster uploads
- Advanced eco modes resulting in up to 30% greater energy efficiency
- Third-generation digital pre-distortion reduces peak power by 25%
- Full compliance with IEEE 802.11bn and WFA Wi-Fi 8 specifications
- Features
- Increased capacity – Dynamic Sub-band Operation, Non-Primary Channel Access, Inter-AP Coordination, Dynamic Bandwidth Expansion
- Higher throughput and range – Unequal Modulation as well as UHR new rates MCS17 / MSC19 / MCS20 / MCS23, extended range (Extended Long Range, Distributed Resource Units)
- Reliability and QoS – Seamless roaming, low-latency indication
- Security – WPA, WPA2, WPA3 (with 192-bit Suite B encryption), AES encryption/decryption, TKIP, and IEEE 802.1X support
- Temperature Range – 0°C to 70°C
For additional information, please visit the product page.
Broadcom BCM43840 / BCM43820 for Wi-Fi 8 enterprise-grade access points
Highlights:
- BCM43840 – Four-stream (4×4) Wi-Fi 8 radio up to 320 MHz bandwidth, up to 4K-QAM modulation, 11.5 Gbps peak link rate
- BCM43820 – Two-stream (2×2) scanning and analytics Wi-Fi 8 radio up to 320 MHz bandwidth, up to 4K-QAM modulation, 5.76 Gbps peak link rate
- Tri-band operation: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz
- BroadStream wireless telemetry engine for AI training/inference
- Advanced location tracking capability
- Advanced eco modes resulting in 30% greater energy efficiency
- Third-generation digital pre-distortion reduces peak power by 25%
- Full compliance with IEEE 802.11bn and WFA Wi-Fi 8 specifications
- Features
- Increased capacity – Dynamic Sub-band Operation, Non-Primary Channel Access, Inter-AP Coordination, Dynamic Bandwidth Expansion
- Higher throughput and range – Unequal Modulation as well as UHR new rates MCS17 / MSC19 / MCS20 / MCS23, extended range (Extended Long Range, Distributed Resource Units)
- Reliability and QoS – Seamless roaming, low-latency indication
- Security – WPA, WPA2, WPA3 (with 192-bit Suite B encryption), AES encryption/decryption, TKIP and IEEE 802.1X support
- Temperature Range – Commercial: 0°C to 70°C; industrial: -40°C to 85°C
I’m struggling to see any obvious difference between BCM43840 and BCM6718, except that the former is also available in the industrial temperature range. The BCM43840 and BCM43820 are supposed to be used in the same router, with the latter adding (indoor) location tracking capabilities.
Further details can be found on the product page.
As a reminder, WiFi 8 does not focus on improving the link rate of WiFi 7, but instead brings various reliability and efficiency improvements that should lead to a better user experience. That’s why it’s also called WiFI 8 UHR (Ultra High Reliability).
Broadcom BCM43109, BCM6718, BCM43840, and BCM43820 Wi-Fi 8 chips are currently sampling to “select partners”, and the IP is also available for licensing. The press release may have a few more tidbits of information. I’d expect the first WiFi 8-ccpable smartphones, laptops, and routers to show up sometime in the latter part of 2026.
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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Is there a story behind releasing 802.11bn hardware two years before the scheduled ratification?
It’s pretty common to introduce hardware based on the draft WiFi specifications. That’s what they did in the past. I shortly mentioned it in the WiFi 8 article.
That is a crazy number of BGA pins for what is essentially a modem with a couple of I/O signals.
[ yes (~1k?), but that’s for 5-10Gbps bandwidth range (multi-link) (PCIe 3 (x1) interface, USB3.0, DDR4 32bit memory interface) (thx) ]
Modem? Most routers don’t function as a modem of any kind, they are routers, which is not at all the same thing. Unless it’s a cable modem router combo, or a 4G/5G router, there’s no modem to be found.
Also, as pointed out, these things are having a lot of highspeed interfaces, which requires a lot more pins.
To be pedantic there is a digital “modem” (modulator/demodulator) in the RF subsystem for the QAM. It is not fundamentally different from the cable based modem you use for the normal internet connection. They both even use QAM. One is just upconverted and used for transmitting RF wirelessly, the other stays around baseband and is transmitted over coax.
A router doesn’t have to have an RF subystem though.
Cable modems aren’t that common in most of the world outside of North America.
Wifi standards will continue to evolve, and I wonder when people will notice that we don’t need those speeds in 99,9% of the cases. Maybe we will reach the Tb/s before they do lol.
outside top western countries we still use 2.4/5ghz in our routers …
What does that even mean? I live in a western country and my router doesn’t have a 6 GHz radio in it. As far as if it’s allowed or not, more and more countries have approved the 6 GHz spectrum to be used for Wi-Fi, including large parts of South America and APAC.
Clear your frustration.
I live in Europe, and outside of shopping centers, offices, and public places, very few people have wireless routers that operate above 5 GHz such as Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 models.
These devices are still relatively expensive, both in terms of purchase price and operating costs.
In addition, they usually need to be installed behind the ISP’s router or gateway, since most of them are designed primarily as wireless access points and are not capable of handling the specific requirements of a home network.
What? I think you’re confused, most ISPs in Europe don’t even provide a router, it’s bring your own router kind of thing, so no need to hook up your new router behind some 10 year old junk from your ISP.
And routers aren’t expensive to operate, the only cost is electricity, but yeah, more radios use more electricity.