What is the Qualcomm Immersive Home Platform?
- Qualcomm Immersive Home Platforms offer four new solutions for Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers.
- The 210 series is a cheaper dual-band option.
- The 310 series offers Wi-Fi 6E support for less congestion on the network.
Between the rapid proliferation of connected home peripherals, increased data usage via streaming services, and higher internet speeds, a single router just isn’t right for most users.
Mesh routers have filled the void by promising to increase coverage and bandwidth for a larger number of devices. However, as more users access smart speakers or smart displays, existing Wi-Fi 5-based solutions can no longer prevent this entirely.
Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, on the other hand, offer a variety of enhancements to reduce network congestion and allow more concurrent users in addition to higher bandwidth. Qualcomm Immersive Home Platform is the company’s modular solution for the next generation of mesh routers.
What is the Qualcomm Immersive Home Platform?
As the next generation of Qualcomm’s mesh networking solution, the Immersive Home platform consists of four different platforms on two levels to cover a wide price range.
The Qualcomm Immersive Home 210 series is a dual band solution that enhances Qualcomm’s existing IPQ4 family of Wi-Fi 5-based options. The main focus here is on increasing the number of devices that can connect to the router at the same time, while improving throughput (the speed between connected device and router) and range. Qualcomm claims that the updated platform will deliver up to 2.5 times the throughput per watt compared to previous generation solutions, which helps keep the size small and also reduce costs.
Meanwhile, the Immersive Home 310 series is a far more significant overhaul. The tri-band Wi-Fi 6 solution uses a dedicated backhaul channel over Wi-Fi 6E instead of connecting over the existing 5 GHz channel to ensure the old 2.4 and 5 GHz -Channels do not lose speed or overload.
What is the difference between the four platforms?
| Qualcomm Immersive Home 214 | Qualcomm Immersive Home 216 | Qualcomm Immersive Home 316 | Qualcomm Immersive Home 318 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central processor | 1.0 GHz Dual-core Cortex A53 | 1.0 GHz Dual-core Cortex A53 | 1.0 GHz Dual-core Cortex A53 | 1.0 GHz Dual-core Cortex A53 |
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 6 Wi-Fi 5 802.11 a / b / g / n | Wi-Fi 6 Wi-Fi 5 802.11 a / b / g / n | Wi-Fi 6E Wi-Fi 6 Wi-Fi 5 802.11 a / b / g / n | Wi-Fi 6E Wi-Fi 6 Wi-Fi 5 802.11 a / b / g / n |
| Band support | 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz | 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz | 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz | 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz |
| Room flows | Up to 4 | Up to 6 | 6th | Up to 8 |
| Top speed | Up to 3.0 Gbit / s (maximum PHY rate) | Up to 5.4 Gbit / s (maximum PHY rate) | Up to 5.4 Gbit / s (maximum PHY rate) | Up to 7.8 Gbit / s (maximum PHY rate) |
| Bluetooth | 5.1 | 5.1 | 5.1 | 5.1 |
| characteristics | 160 MHz channel support, OFDMA, MU-MIMO, TxBF, TWT, Qualcomm Wi-Fi son, EasyMesh | 160 MHz channel support, OFDMA, MU-MIMO, TxBF, TWT, Qualcomm Wi-Fi son, EasyMesh | 160 MHz channel support, OFDMA, MU-MIMO, TxBF, TWT, Qualcomm Wi-Fi son, EasyMesh | 160 MHz channel support, OFDMA, MU-MIMO, TxBF, TWT, Qualcomm Wi-Fi son, EasyMesh |
Both the Immersive Home 214 and Immersive Home 216 are similar platforms in that they are based on a dual-band solution. The main difference between them is the support for additional spatial streams on the 216.
A spatial stream is a transmission technique that allows multiple data signals from each individual antenna. These two additional streams on the 216 allow a theoretical increase in speed from 3.0 Gbit / s to 5.4 Gbit / s. In practice, you can expect support for more devices and faster local data transfers or even 4K streaming to more screens simultaneously.
The differences become much more drastic when you switch from the 210 to the 310 platform. The Qualcomm Immersive Home 310 series brings Wi-Fi 6E into the mix. The latest expansion of the Wi-Fi 6 standard opens up access to the 6 GHz spectrum. In addition, data transmission between separate nodes or access points takes place over the 6 GHz spectrum, which is not only significantly faster, but also leaves the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz channels open without overloading the network
The additional wireless band opens up a bandwidth of 1,200 MHz, which is crucial for reducing congestion and enables use cases such as 8k streaming with real-world speeds of more than 1 Gbit / s as well as lower latency.
Again, the main difference between the Immersive Home 316 and 318 is in the spatial band support. While the 316 supports six bands, the 318 increases these to eight, which allows more simultaneous data streams and thus increases the theoretical data transfer speed to 7.8 Gbit / s.
What does this mean for buyers?
While the Immersive Home Platform is not Qualcomm’s first entry into Wi-Fi 6-based solutions, the wider range of options across all price segments should lead to more competition in the chipset space.
The segment already has options from Broadcom and Marvell. However, additional options and cheaper options should encourage a wider range of affordable mesh routers that support the latest standard.
