Qualcomm Wi-Fi 8 solutions – FastConnect 8800 Mobile Client and Qualcomm Dragonwing Networking Platforms

Qualcomm has unveiled its Wi-Fi 8 (802.11bn) portfolio, which includes the FastConnect 8800 “Mobile Connectivity System”, also integrating Bluetooth 7 wireless technology, Ultra Wideband (UWB), and Thread,  and five Dragonwing Networking platforms for access points and routers.

The Dragonwing NPro A8 Elite features a 5×5 Wi-Fi 8 radio system for high-performance enterprise access points and premium home routers, the Dragonwing FiberPro A8 Elite offers similar features but adds 10G fiber access (PON) for fiber-to-the-home gateways, the Dragonwing FWA Gen 5 Elite is designed for fixed wireless access using the Qualcomm X85 5G Modem-RF System, and the Qualcomm Dragonwing N8 and F8 platforms offer mainstream tier options for Ethernet and fiber broadband CPEs.

Qualcomm FastConnect 8800 Wi-Fi 8 mobile client

Qualcomm FastConnect 8800 (WCN885x) specifications:

• Wi-Fi 8 with advanced features like
• UWB, including  and RADAR
• Support for Snapdragon Sound™ Technology Suite, Bluetooth® High Data Throughput (HDT), and Qualcomm XPAN
• Proximity AI for direction and distance across the globe
• Wi-Fi connectivity
  • Peak Speed – 11.6 Gbps PHY rate
  • Generation – Wi-Fi 8, Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 6
  • Standards – IEEE 802.11bn, 802.11be, 802.11ax, 802.11ac, 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11a, 802.11b
  • Spectral Bands – 6 GHz, 5 GHz, 2.4 GHz
  • Channels – Up to 320 MHz
  • Peak QAM – 4K QAM
  • Features
    • High Band Simultaneous (HBS) Multi-Link
    • MU-MIMO (UL/DL)
    • OFDMA (UL/DL)
    • Target Wake Time (TWT)
    • Extended Long Range (ELR)
    • Passpoint, Wi-Fi Aware R, Wi-Fi Location, Wi-Fi Optimized Connectivity, Wi-Fi QoS Management, TDLS, Miracast, Voice-Enterprise
• Bluetooth connectivity – Bluetooth 7.0 with Channel Sounding and High Data Throughput (HDT) for speeds up to 7.5 Mbps
• Audio
  • Qualcomm aptX audio technology support
    Qualcomm aptX Audio, Qualcomm aptX Lossless, Qualcomm aptX Adaptive, Qualcomm aptX Voice
  • Audio Processing Technologies –  Qualcomm Immersive Audio, Snapdragon Sound technology, LE Audio, Low latency Gaming mode with Voice back-channel, Spatial Audio
• UWB
  • Standards – IEEE 802.15.4z, Fine Ranging (FiRa), Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC), CSA Aliro
  • Features – 1x Tx + 3x Rx chains with support for RADAR and NBA-MMS
• Process Node – 6 nm

Qualcomm claims the FastConnect 8800 is the world’s first mobile solution with a 4×4 Wi-Fi radio configuration, and delivers up to twice the performance and three times the gigabit wireless range compared to the previous-generation FastConnect 7900 WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and UWB chip. It also supports High Data Throughput (HDT) for faster Bluetooth speeds, going from 2 Mbps to 7.5 Mbps.

While it’s mainly designed for premium smartphones, Qualcomm says its WiFi 8 client platform will also benefit high-end tablets, laptops, robotics, and more.  A few more details may be found on the product page.

Qualcomm Dragonwing Wi-Fi 8 networking platforms

Qualcomm Dragonwing NPro A8 Elite (IPQ96) highlights:

• CPU – Penta-core processor clocked at up to 2.0 GHz
• NPU – Qualcomm Hexagon for “agentic AI at the edge”
• Memory – 32-bit DDR4, DDR5
• Storage – eMMC, NAND, and NOR flash
• Wi-Fi
  • Peak PHY Rate – Up to 33 Gbps
  • Generation – Wi-Fi 8, Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 4
  • Standards – 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax, 802.11be, 802.11bn, 802.11i, 802.11w, 802.11d, 802.11h, 802.11u, 802.11r, 802.11k, 802.11v, 802.11mc, 802.11az, 802.11bf
  • Spectral Bands – 6 GHz, 5 GHz, 2.4 GHz, 4.9 GHz
  • Maximum Band Configuration – Penta-band
  • Channels – Up to 320 MHz
  • Peak QAM – 4K QAM
  • Encryption – AES-CCMP, AES-GCMP
  • Security – WPA3 Enhanced Open, WPS, WPA2, TKIP, PRNG, WAPI2, WAPI1, 802.11i security, WPA3 Personal, WPA3 Enterprise, WPA3 Easy Connect
  • Features
    • Up to 1500 users
    • Up to 16-user OFDMA (UL/DL), up to 4-user MU-MIMO (UL/DL)
    • Advanced Scan Radio, Intermediate Modulation and Coding Schemes (MCS), Improved Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC), Distributed RU (DRU), Multi-Primary Operation (DSO/NPCA), Device Unavailability Operation (DUO), AP Periodic Unavailability Operation (PUO), Low Latency, Low Loss, Scalable Throughput (L4S), Coordinated Time Division Multiple Access (Co-TDMA), Coordinated Restricted Target Wake Time (Co-RTWT), Coordinated Spatial Reuse (Co-SR), Coordinated Beamforming (Co-BF), Single Mobility Domain (SMD) Roaming, Dynamic Bandwidth Expansion (DBE)
• Ethernet – 2x 25GbE, 4x 2.5GbE
• Supported interfaces
  • 1x USXGMII-M (10 Gbps)
  • 2x USXGMII (2x 25 Gbps)
  • 1x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0
  • 3x 2-lane PCIe 3.0, 2x 1-lane PCIe 3.0
  • PCM, UART, SPI, I²C, SDIO, GPIO
• Platform Extensions – 4G/5G FWA, 802.15.4, Bluetooth

The Qualcomm Dragonwing FiberPro A8 Elite (also listed with IPQ96 part number) has exactly the same specifications as the Dragonwing NPro A8 Elite, except it adds Passive Optical Network (PON) support:

• Deployment types – ITU-T G.984.3 GPON, G.987.3 XG-PON, ITU-T G.9807.1 XGS-PON
• Peak Downstream Rate – 10 GB/s
• Peak Upstream Rate – 10 GB/s

Qualcomm Dragonwing FWA Gen 5 Elite specifications:

Qualcomm Dragonwing N8/N7 (IPQ52) specifications:

• CPU – Quad-core processor up to 1.4 GHz
• Memory – 16-bit DDR3L, DDR4
• Storage – eMMC, NAND, and NOR flash
• Wi-Fi
  • Peak PHY Rate – Up to 23 Gbps
  • Generation – Wi-Fi 8, Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 4
  • Standards – 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax, 802.11be, 802.11bn
  • Spectral Bands – 6 GHz, 5 GHz, 2.4 GHz
  • Maximum Band Configuration – Tri-band
  • Channels – Up to 320 MHz
  • Peak QAM – 4K QAM
  • Encryption – AES-CCMP, AES-GCMP
  • Security – WPA3 Enhanced Open, WPS, WPA2, WEP, TKIP, PRNG, WAPI2, WAPI1, 802.11i security, WPA3 Personal, WPA3 Enterprise, WPA3 Easy Connect
  • Features
    • Up to 750 users
    • MU-MIMO (UL/DL), OFDMA (UL/DL), Advanced Scan Radio, Intermediate Modulation and Coding Schemes (MCS), Improved Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC), Distributed RU (DRU), Unequal Modulation (UEQM), Enhanced Long Range (ELR), Multi-Primary Operation (DSO/NPCA), Device Unavailability Operation (DUO), AP Periodic Unavailability Operation (PUO), Low Latency, Low Loss, Scalable Throughput (L4S), Coordinated Time Division Multiple Access (Co-TDMA), Coordinated Restricted Target Wake Time (Co-RTWT), Coordinated Spatial Reuse (Co-SR), Coordinated Beamforming (Co-BF), Single Mobility Domain (SMD) Roaming, Dynamic Bandwidth Expansion (DBE)
• Ethernet – 2x 10GbE, 4x 2.5GbE
• Supported Interfaces
  • 1x 10Gbps USXGMII-M
  • 2x 10Gbps USXGMII
  • 2-lane PCIe 3.0, 1-lane PCIe 3.0
  • USB 3.0
  • SLIC PCM, UART, SPI, Slave I²C, GPIO
• Platform Extensions – 4G/5G FWA, 802.15.4, Bluetooth
• F8 only – Passive Optical Network (PON)
  • Deployment types – ITU-T G.984.3 GPON, G.987.3 XG-PON, ITU-T G.9807.1 XGS-PON
  • Peak Downstream Rate – 10 GB/s
  • Peak Upstream Rate – 10 GB/s

As a reminder, Wi-Fi 8 (802.11bn) is also named “Ultra High Reliability (UHR)” Wi-Fi, and it does not provide much benefit over Wi-Fi 7 when using a couple of clients, since the maximum PHY rate is the same. However, it improves Wi-Fi reliability, network efficiency, and power consumption in IoT use cases, which should end up improving the overall WLAN performance when many nodes are connected.  Other companies that introduced or teased WiFi 8 chips for clients and access points include Broadcom and MediaTek.

Additional information about the new Qualcomm Dragonwing Wi-Fi 8 networking platforms can be found on the Qualcomm website and the press release.

Thanks to TLS for the tip.

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.

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