In Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality News
October 27, 2020 – Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. has today unveiled the Qualcomm Immersive Home Platforms, a successor to the company’s mesh networking platforms. Designed to deploy Gigabit-speed wireless performance to every room in a home in form factors as small as the palm of the hand, the devices are “cost-effective enough to target low consumer price points,” according to Qualcomm. The Immersive Home Platforms are achieved through a modular architecture approach, advancements in network packet processing technology and an integration of next-generation Wi-Fi 6 and 6E.
Qualcomm noted that in the face of skyrocketing home data demand, its Immersive Home Platforms offer four distinct product tiers, which it states will grant design flexibility to manufacturers and broadband carriers motivated to embrace Wi-Fi 6 and 6E mesh architectures comprehensively across an entire product portfolio.
“We have launched the Qualcomm Immersive Home platforms, a fresh approach to home networking leveraging high powered Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, a fresh architectural design customized for home deployments, and advanced features designed to deliver Gigabit performance to every corner of the home,” said Nick Kucharewski, Vice President and General Manager of Wireless Infrastructure & Networking at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Today, as offices, classrooms, movie theatres, and everything in between move into the home, high performance Wi-Fi has transitioned from luxury to mission critical utility.”
Kevin Robinson, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Wi-Fi Alliance, commented: “Wi-Fi’s popularity has created increasingly diverse and densely populated Wi-Fi environments, including home networks which must now support many demanding applications simultaneously.” He added, “The capabilities of Wi-Fi 6E, such as gigabit speeds, low latency, and high capacity, will benefit users where they now need it most and allow Wi-Fi devices to operate efficiently in the most dynamic home connectivity settings.”
But what does this all mean for augmented, virtual and mixed reality (AR/VR/MR – collectively XR)..? Well, according to Qualcomm, with its Immersive Home Platform, networks will be prepared to support devices that run emerging 6GHz applications, including VR/XR, live video sharing/streaming, real-time gaming, and more.
Specifically, Qualcomm’s Immersive Home 310 Series offerings, which represents the company’s Tri-Band Wi-Fi 6 platforms within the portfolio, are designed to simultaneously leverage all three bands of spectrum to support IoT-class devices (2.4GHz), today’s legacy media devices (5GHz), and enable congestion-relieving migration of data traffic from 5GHz to the 6GHz band.
As a result, thanks to the ultra-low latency of Qualcomm Immersive Home Platforms, they will be able to support (in certain configurations with 6GHz operation) a new class of emerging latency-sensitive applications such as XR, through latency reduction up to 8x in congested environments and wireless VR-class latency of <3ms, according to the company.
For more information about Qualcomm’s Wi-Fi 6 and 6E products for the home, please visit https://www.qualcomm.com/mesh-networking.
Video credit: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
About the author
Sam Sprigg
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.
