Broadcom Inc. today debuted a trio of chips designed to power wireless access points based on the upcoming Wi-Fi 8 standard.

The current version of the networking technology, Wi-Fi 7, was developed mainly with performance in mind. It provides more than quadruple the peak throughput of the previous iteration. Wi-Fi 8, in contrast, will put the emphasis on improving connection reliability. That will make it more suitable for use in industrial environments such as plants. 

Factory robots often rely on a local Wi-Fi network to exchange data with one another. When a robot travels from one section of a facility to another, it moves outside the range of the Wi-Fi access point that it originally used to transmit data and moves into the range of a different access point. That switch, which is known as roaming, often causes connection issues.

Wi-Fi 8 avoids roaming-related Wi-Fi hiccups using a technology called SMD. Currently, wireless devices implement roaming by disconnecting from an access point when they move out of range and connecting to a new one. Wi-Fi 8’s SMD feature establishes a connection to the new access point before disconnecting from the previous one, which ensures a smooth switch. 

SMD and the other enhancements in Wi-Fi 8 are expected to reduce packet drops, or data traffic loss, by 25%. The technology is set to cut latency by the same amount.

The first new chip that Broadcom debuted today, the BCM4918, can be used as a Wi-Fi 8 access point’s main processor. It combines a central processing unit with a neural processing unit. According to Broadcom, the two computing modules can run network troubleshooting software that fixes Wi-Fi issues automatically. There’s also support for other applications such as performance monitoring tools.

The chip’s CPU and NPU are supported by several so-called networking engines, modules optimized to process packets. Broadcom says that they enable network traffic to bypass the CPU, which boosts Wi-Fi performance. A cryptography accelerator speeds up cybersecurity tasks such as encrypting packets.

The BCM4918 is designed to be used with two new radio chips, BCM6714 and BCM6719, that Broadcom debuted in conjunction. A Wi-Fi access point uses radio chips to send and receive the radio signals in which data traffic is encoded.

Access points rely on a component known as a power amplifier to strengthen the Wi-Fi signals they generate, which improves connection quality. Usually, the power amplifier is implemented as a standalone module. Broadcom’s new radio chips come with an integrated amplifier that reduces the need for external components.

The chips transmit data over the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, two of the three radio frequency ranges that Wi-Fi 8 uses to power connections. The former frequency range makes it possible to broadcast wireless signals over fairly long distances and through walls. The 5GHz band, in turn, trades off some range for increased bandwidth.

The integrated power amplifier in the BCM6714 and BCM6719 isn’t the only improvement introduced by the chips. According to Broadcom, some of their components use less power than its hardware. Meanwhile, a hardware-assisted telemetry engine collects technical data about the host device. Artificial intelligence models deployed at the end of the network can use that information to troubleshoot malfunctions.

Broadcom is currently sampling the BCM4918 processor and new radio chips to early customers.

Photo: Broadcom