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Broadcom Introduces Industry’s First Wi-Fi 8 Silicon Ecosystem Powering the AI Era
New license option to help scale vibrant edge of smartphones, PCs, automotives and IoT devices in support of AI-first access devices.
www.broadcom.com
Broadcom announced the industry’s first Wi-Fi 8 silicon solutions for the broadband wireless edge ecosystem including residential gateways, enterprise access points, and smart mobile clients. Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 solutions are purpose-built to address the stringent performance, reliability, intelligence, and efficiency demands of AI-era edge networks. Recognizing the need for rapid industry-wide deployment of AI-first wireless connectivity for the edge, Broadcom further announced the availability of its Wi-Fi 8 IP for license for Internet of Things (IoT), automotive, and mobile devices as a complement to the access ecosystem.
The new family of Wi-Fi 8 solutions include:
- BCM6718 designed for residential and operator access applications
- BCM43840 and BCM43820 are tailored for enterprise access applications
- BCM43109 for edge wireless clients such as smartphones, laptops, tablets and automotive
AI-Aware Broadband Edge
As AI moves from the cloud into the fabric of daily life at the edge, networks must be robust, resilient and ready to support the requirements of the next generation of experiences while meeting the increasing wireless demands within the home and enterprise. AI workloads demand robust low-latency symmetrical uplink-downlink capacity to handle continuous voice streams, high-resolution video uploads, and real-time device-to-cloud interactions. This necessitates that the wireless edge be equipped to handle everything from real-time voice dialogue with AI assistants, to connected devices streaming rich sensor data, to AI-driven applications requiring significantly more uplink bandwidth.
Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 silicon represents a critical leap forward in the support for this unprecedented demand for reliable, low-latency, high-data rate network. Combining advanced scheduling technology with Wi-Fi 8 capabilities, Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 solutions ensure faster speeds, longer range, optimized spectrum use, reduced contention, and predictable performance even in challenging operating environments and across diverse devices and applications. Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 silicon future-proofs the network with breakthroughs in ultra-low latency, intelligent traffic management, and multi-device performance management at scale.
AI-First from Connectivity to Intelligence
Delivering next-generation bandwidth and reliability is only part of the equation. To fully unlock AI-driven experiences, networks must become intelligent systems—capable of measuring performance, adapting in real-time, and enabling predictive insights
Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 access silicon includes a hardware-accelerated telemetry engine, a game-changer for AI-driven network optimization. This engine collects real-time data on network performance, device behavior, and environmental conditions, serving as a critical input for AI models. This telemetry can be leveraged by customers to train and run inference on the edge or in the cloud for use cases such as:
As AI moves from the cloud into the fabric of daily life at the edge, networks must be robust, resilient and ready to support the requirements of the next generation of experiences while meeting the increasing wireless demands within the home and enterprise. AI workloads demand robust low-latency symmetrical uplink-downlink capacity to handle continuous voice streams, high-resolution video uploads, and real-time device-to-cloud interactions. This necessitates that the wireless edge be equipped to handle everything from real-time voice dialogue with AI assistants, to connected devices streaming rich sensor data, to AI-driven applications requiring significantly more uplink bandwidth.
Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 silicon represents a critical leap forward in the support for this unprecedented demand for reliable, low-latency, high-data rate network. Combining advanced scheduling technology with Wi-Fi 8 capabilities, Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 solutions ensure faster speeds, longer range, optimized spectrum use, reduced contention, and predictable performance even in challenging operating environments and across diverse devices and applications. Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 silicon future-proofs the network with breakthroughs in ultra-low latency, intelligent traffic management, and multi-device performance management at scale.
AI-First from Connectivity to Intelligence
Delivering next-generation bandwidth and reliability is only part of the equation. To fully unlock AI-driven experiences, networks must become intelligent systems—capable of measuring performance, adapting in real-time, and enabling predictive insights
Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 access silicon includes a hardware-accelerated telemetry engine, a game-changer for AI-driven network optimization. This engine collects real-time data on network performance, device behavior, and environmental conditions, serving as a critical input for AI models. This telemetry can be leveraged by customers to train and run inference on the edge or in the cloud for use cases such as:
- Measuring and optimizing Quality of Experience (QoE)
- Strengthening Wi-Fi network security and anomaly detection
- Lowering total cost of ownership through predictive maintenance and automated optimization
By enabling access to fine-grained telemetry, Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 residential and enterprise silicon empower customers to design and deploy AI services tailored to their devices and end users.
AI-Ready Breakthrough Wi-Fi 8 Features in Broadcom’s Wi-Fi Silicon
Wi-Fi 8 marks a shift from chasing raw peak speed to redefining connectivity through Ultra High Reliability (UHR)—delivering consistent, predictable network performance even under challenging conditions. Key features include:
AI-Ready Breakthrough Wi-Fi 8 Features in Broadcom’s Wi-Fi Silicon
Wi-Fi 8 marks a shift from chasing raw peak speed to redefining connectivity through Ultra High Reliability (UHR)—delivering consistent, predictable network performance even under challenging conditions. Key features include:
- Inter-AP Coordination: Coordinated Spatial Reuse (Co-SR) and Coordinated Beamforming (Co-BF) where access points dynamically adjust transmit power and collaboratively direct signal beams to targeted devices to reduce latency and increase throughput.
- Congestion Avoidance: Dynamic Sub-Channel Operation (DSO), Non-Primary Channel Access (NPCA), and Dynamic Bandwidth Expansion (DBE) enable access to spectrum by avoiding congestion and providing real-time bandwidth allocation to improve throughput and reduce latency even in the most demanding environments.
- Range Enhancements: Extended Long Range (ELR) and Distributed Resource Units (dRu) to expand coverage and maintain strong connections in large homes, multi-level buildings, and outdoor IoT deployments—ensuring reliable performance at the edge.
- Seamless Roaming: Ensures uninterrupted experiences as devices move between access points, while maintaining ultra-low latency.
- Enhanced Modulation Coding Schemes (MCS): Provides higher throughput rates at typical signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), adding refined rate gradations, smoothing transitions, and improving overall connection stability.
Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 Silicon Family
Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 ecosystem product portfolio includes BCM6718, BCM43840, BCM43820, and BCM43109.
The BCM6718 is optimized for the residential Wi-Fi access point market. Key features include:
Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 ecosystem product portfolio includes BCM6718, BCM43840, BCM43820, and BCM43109.
The BCM6718 is optimized for the residential Wi-Fi access point market. Key features include:
- Four-stream Wi-Fi 8 radio
- 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 reducing peak power by 25%
- Full compliance to IEEE 802.11bn and WFA Wi-Fi 8 specifications
The BCM43840 and BCM43820 are optimized for the enterprise Wi-Fi access point market. Key features include:
- BCM43840 – four-stream Wi-Fi 8 radio
- BCM43820 – two-stream scanning and analytics Wi-Fi 8 radio
- 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 reducing peak power by 25%
- Full compliance to IEEE 802.11bn and WFA Wi-Fi 8 specifications
The BCM43109 is a highly integrated Wi-Fi 8, high-bandwidth Bluetooth, and 802.15.4 combo chip optimized for mobile handset applications. Key features include:
- Two-stream Wi-Fi 8 radio with 320 MHz channel support
- Enhanced Long Range (ELR) Wi-Fi
- Non-Primary Channel Access (NPCA) for latency reduction
- Improved Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) coding to extend gigabit coverage
- Bluetooth 6.0 high data throughput and higher bands support
- 802.15.4 support including Thread V1.4 and Zigbee Pro
- Sensing and secure ranging
- Full compliance to IEEE 802.11bn and WFA Wi-Fi 8 specifications
A Broader Commitment to the AI Edge
The AI edge requires a network that is open, scalable and power-efficient. Devices in the network must be AI-aware and work in tandem to unlock AI benefits for users and service providers alike. Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 solutions are not only standards-based but also reflect decades of architectural enhancements that result in smaller footprint and better battery-efficiency as compared to benchmark Wi-Fi 7 solutions in the market today. To enable the wireless edge to quickly scale for the AI era, Broadcom will also open its Wi-Fi 8 IP for other industry players to license, manufacture and use in edge client devices. This move is expected to quickly create a vibrant, AI-aware ecosystem of IoT, automotive and mobile devices that complement the AI-first Broadcom access points.
The AI edge requires a network that is open, scalable and power-efficient. Devices in the network must be AI-aware and work in tandem to unlock AI benefits for users and service providers alike. Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 solutions are not only standards-based but also reflect decades of architectural enhancements that result in smaller footprint and better battery-efficiency as compared to benchmark Wi-Fi 7 solutions in the market today. To enable the wireless edge to quickly scale for the AI era, Broadcom will also open its Wi-Fi 8 IP for other industry players to license, manufacture and use in edge client devices. This move is expected to quickly create a vibrant, AI-aware ecosystem of IoT, automotive and mobile devices that complement the AI-first Broadcom access points.
