“Elite” Wi-Fi 7 with AI support: Qualcomm introduced the Pro A7 Elite network platform

Qualcomm announced the release of the new Pro A7 Elite all-in-one wireless networking platform with support for the Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) wireless standard and XGS-PON. The platform is designed to be deployed at the edge and is equipped with a wide range of state-of-the-art networking capabilities, complemented by AI functions.

Image Source: Qualcomm

The heart of the new product is a quad-core processor, the type and model of which Qualcomm does not disclose, it is only known that it is based on a 14-nm process technology, and the cores operate at a frequency of 1.8 GHz. The processor is paired with DDR3L/DDR4 memory; NOR, NAND or eMMC flash memory can be used as a storage device.

But the part responsible for AI is well known – this is one of the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU variants with a declared performance of 40 Tops (INT8). Its goal is to improve Wi-Fi performance, including the implementation of smart traffic classifier functions, intelligent control of wireless signal amplification, error detection, etc.

The platform boasts a developed network subsystem: firstly, it supports XGS-PON connections, allowing operation as a gateway/terminal HGS/ONT or SFU/SFU+ ONU. At the same time, speeds of 10 Gbit/s are supported in both upstream and downstream streams. The wired Ethernet part is represented by two 2.5GbE ports and one 10GbE (USXGMII/SGMII+).

The Wi-Fi portion of the Pro A7 Elite offers peak aggregated link speeds of up to 33 Gbps. There is support for Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) and Wi-Fi 6/6E (802.11ax), as well as compatibility with Wi-Fi 5/4. The radio part can serve four bands simultaneously (6/5/2.4 GHz) and 16 spatial streams. The maximum channel width is 320 MHz. To improve the quality and speed of connections, Qualcomm Automatic Frequency Coordination (AFC) Service, Simultaneous & Alternating Multi Link and Adaptive Interference Puncturing technologies are implemented. WPA3 Personal/Enterprise/Easy Connect supported.

Optionally, support for 4G/5G FWA, 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Thread) and Bluetooth is available, implemented through separate modules. Additionally, there are four PCIe 3.0 ports, USB 2.0/3.0 ports, as well as I²C, I²S, PTA Coex, SPI and UART interfaces. The SoC is compatible with popular open source software: OpenWRT, RDK, TiP OpenWiFi, prplOS and OpenSync. Qualcomm is already shipping samples of the Pro A7 Elite.