6GHz spectrum unlocked with a WiFi 6E Tri-Band chipset

NXP is introducing a WiFi 6E device that will make use of this 6GHz band and extend WiFi capacity by bringing higher throughout, increased capacity, reliability, and improved latency.

Designed for access points and service provider gateways, the CW641 unlocks increased speeds of over 4Gbps and multi-user performance in the new 6GHz band, providing greater capacity and lower latency, which dramatically improves the WiFi user experience. Adding 6GHz capabilities to gateway platforms gives service providers options to efficiently partition available bandwidth across devices to ensure optimum user experience for a wide range of applications.

Mission critical, high bandwidth, low latency applications like mesh back haul and cloud gaming are ideal for migration to 6GHz, freeing up the 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands for other lower bandwidth applications.

NXP’s new WiFi 6E Tri-Band SoC makes it possible to take full advantage of the transformative 6GHz spectrum to boost the performance of in-home mesh networks, streaming high-resolution music and videos, online gaming, video calling, digital downloads, data-heavy web content, and numerous other use cases. Beyond access point applications, the CW641 SoC sets the stage for high performance WiFi 6E applications across consumer, automotive, industrial, and Internet of Things (IoT).

Key features of CW641 include:

• 4x4 WiFi device with 4-spatial streams
• Supports 6GHz, 5GHz and 2.4GHz operation
• 160/80/40/20MHz channel bandwidth
• Peak PHY rate of 4.8Gbps
• Uplink and downlink OFDMA
• Uplink and downlink MU-MIMO

Larry Olivas, Head of Marketing for NXP’s Wireless Connectivity Solutions, said: “NXP’s WiFi 6E chipset combines multi-gigabyte data rates, low latency, and higher multi-user performance to deliver on customer demands for 6GHz products that address the decade-long need for the greater capacity required in today’s wireless networking applications.

“As our first WiFi 6E SoC to support the 6GHz spectrum, the CW641 enhances the overall WiFi experience by making less congested airwaves available to routers and gateways for multi-device, data-intensive applications. Our new chipset makes it possible to take advantage of this new uncongested bandwidth, which will provide increased performance with less interference for devices on the WiFi 6E network.”

Andrew Zignani, Principal Analyst at ABI Research, added: “The increased availability of unlicensed 6 GHz spectrum for WiFi is the most exciting and transformative change to the WiFi landscape in recent times, bringing about much higher throughput, greater capacity, increased reliability, and improved quality of service, all of which will help enable new wireless services while addressing key challenges currently facing the technology.

“However, in order to realise this potential, the WiFi industry requires new WiFi 6E chipsets that can effectively address the varied demands of the market. Solutions such as NXP’s latest CW641 WiFi 6E chipset will play a fundamental role in enabling the 6 GHz infrastructure rollout, allowing a varied ecosystem of end devices, applications and services to take advantage of this enormous new opportunity for WiFi.”

The CW641 WiFi 6E Tri-Band SoC is sampling now.