This terrestrial connectivity system aims to improve the speed, efficiency and quality of Internet connectivity around the world at only a fraction of the cost of fibre deployments. Qualcomm Technologies will integrate its QCA6438 and QCA6428 family of pre-802.11ay chipsets with Facebook's Terragraph technology.
The hope is that this will help enable manufacturers to build 60GHz mmWave solutions using the unlicensed 60GHz spectrum and provide Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) to offer consumers in urban areas access to high-speed broadband connections.
Facebook’s Terragraph technology supports broadband connectivity through a network based on mmWave wireless backhaul. It is based on the pre-802.11ay standard, with enhancements provided by the Qualcomm Technologies’ chipset and the integrated software between Facebook and Qualcomm Technologies to support efficient outdoor operation and avoid interference in dense environments.
Qualcomm Technologies says it has optimised its solution for outdoor backhaul by introducing a number of enhancements such as TDMA-based protocol, time synchronised nodes, channel bonding and massive antenna array among others, to overcome large obstacles in dense urban environments, deliver high-capacity coverage, and the potential to reduce costs and time to market.
The duo expects to begin trials of the integrated solution mid-2019.