From January's CES to February's summit of cooperation, from the lead of 5G technology to the vision of the Internet of Things era, it is obvious that under the multiple background of 5G development, approaching shareholders' meeting in March and malicious acquisition of Broadcom At one point, Qualcomm is concentrating its efforts on unlocking the creative dynamism of the present and future as well as the industry.
5G key elements ready
Nowadays, the global 5G development is at a crucial point. 5G network deployment is a step-by-step process. Meanwhile, 4G is also evolving and new capabilities are constantly emerging, such as VoLTE, Gigabit LTE, Delay and so on, and in the wisdom of cities and industrial Internet of things have also achieved good support, etc., which makes a certain period of time, the two will complement each other, work together, the entire network also showed a hierarchical structure.
As a result, Qualcomm's Snapdragon X24, an LTE modem that offers more connectivity today and beyond, is designed to enhance its edge 4G capabilities, solidify the gigabit LTE base, and support 5G new air interface multimode networks.
In fact, gigabit LTE bandwidth has been greatly improved every year, from 1Gbps to 1.2Gbps. The X24 released today can already support the downlink speed of 2Gbps. In addition, the 7-nanometer process, the 14-nanometer RF chip and the 7-carrier Polymerization also hit a number of industry first.
According to Qualcomm's plan, the initial deployment of 5G, such as the deployment below 6GHz, will start in some leading countries and regions around 2019 and 2020, and will provide 5G coverage at several Gbps and support 1-2Gbps with existing LTE Covering a wide range of network support.While concentrated in some of the most dense urban core areas such as CBD, gathering a highly demanding dense user base, 5G-based millimeter-wave deployment will provide 10Gbps or even more than 10Gbps ultra-high bandwidth .
'2Gbps has been close to the initial 5G network speed, leaving the highest 5G coverage area, if you can have Gbps LTE coverage, can largely ensure the operator's service quality and user experience continuity.' Qualcomm product market Shen Lei, senior director said.
Shen Lei said the first commercial terminals expected to adopt Qualcomm Snapdragon X24 LTE modem will be introduced by the end of 2018.
X24 brings Qualcomm's capabilities in gigabit LTE to new heights, while Qualcomm and ZTE completed the world's first 5GHz new air interface interoperable data link at 6GHz starting in November 2017, and Ericsson completed the world premiere in December A millimeter wave 5G new air interface interoperability data connection, at the beginning of this month, with Nokia to complete multi-band 5G new air interface interoperability test.
In addition, with the previously announced Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G chipset, including 18 communications carriers and 19 OEMs announced support for Snapdragon X50 5G modem support 2018 5G new air port mobile test and 2019 mobile terminal release.
According to set micro-network reporter learned that Qualcomm recently completed a demonstration based on the Snapdragon X50 chip and millimeter wave spectrum, the Snapdragon X50 baseband and RF front-end and antenna module is concentrated in a reference design that is close to the size of the phone, very close to the commercial Real system, has achieved 4.5Gbps data transfer rate.
At the same time, according to the reporter, at 2018MWC, Qualcomm will also demonstrate the next phase of 5G new air interface development plan to drive the evolution and expansion of 5G air interface in 3GPP Release-16 and its future, including 5G new air interface spectrum sharing and industrial IoT's proprietary 5G new air interface network supporting URLLC, and the new 5G C-V2X for autonomous driving.
In Qualcomm's opinion, all the key elements of 5G ready to go, and all of these will effectively support its completion in 2019 5G puzzle.
New Challenges in the Internet of Things
5G will bring far-reaching impact on the communications industry and other industries.Different from the previous communication technology only serves a vertical area that is the mobile phone industry, more to serve the connection between people in the 5G era, computing power and The level of intelligence is also moving from the centralized cloud to the edge of the network. The 5G will provide a wider range of connectivity features with ultra-high speed, low latency and high area access density. Further contribute to the realization of the Internet of things, thus providing support for the entire economic development.
The development of the Internet of Things is one of the reasons for the above trend, and this is why Qualcomm executives have emphasized on many occasions that 5G has the same resource attributes of power as social development and can give birth to the reasons for the revolutionary change.
The increased speed and reduced latency of 5G networks will allow this technology to deliver explosive growth in critical applications in vertical industries such as industrial automation, robotics, or autonomous driving.
Shen Lei told reporters that 5G attractive place is that it can be extended to various industries, gave birth to previously completely unthinkable terminals, services and business models.
With the smart edge to continue, Qualcomm's vision in the 5G is to serve all smart devices other than mobile phones, to benefit all verticals in all areas of economic and social activities, and Qualcomm's idea is to be in the field of wireless communications thirty Years of accumulated innovation advantages, extended to the broader field of things, to open up a new dimension Snapdragon platform.
Qualcomm is now diversifying into areas beyond handsets, seeing Qualcomm working extensively with automotive, IoT and traditional PC makers to establish scale operations in these areas and expect that by 2020, Car, Internet of Things and mobile computing) will reach $ 66 billion.
But in the meantime, Qualcomm still has to face challenges from the new era of everything in the world, including new terminals and application scenarios, new deployment networks and business models, new ecosystems, etc., which also make Qualcomm itself to make Adapt and change.
In Shen Lei's opinion, the ecosystem of mobile phones is relatively simple. Chip vendors deliver mobile phones to OEMs and ODMs. These vendors directly sell mobile phones to consumers via operator channels or open channels. Only two or three levels and one Cell phone life cycle is also very short, which makes the chip manufacturers for the use of the product cycle control, in the manufacture of mobile phones can be precisely defined.
However, the ecosystem of IoT includes all aspects of industry, city and economy. The form of equipment is incalculable. In addition to chip makers, there are module manufacturers, equipment manufacturers and IoT service providers, which require a long period of time - more than 10 years) operational management, continuous service interaction, the equivalent of operating a network.
In addition, the business model will change as a result, mainly due to different requirements of the front-end and back-end, such as modules, subsystems, equipment manufacturers, the main purpose is to reduce costs as much as possible to make the product competitive, The back-end enterprises are more concerned about the security, controllability, continuous service and scalability brought by the long period of IoT devices, therefore, the entire IoT business model and the current sales of chips or modules Installation, and the way to re-iterate in the short term is quite different.
Business model evolution to become industry enablers
Over the past 30 years, Qualcomm's technological invention has driven innovation in the entire wireless communications industry, but in the new era, as connectivity technologies expand to more industries and continue to drive patent-driven development of the industry, it will face different past Happening.
Qualcomm needs to reorient its technology and modes in the coming era of the Internet of Things and the All-Know-How, after Qualcomm has also met on many occasions to meet the demands of the new era and Qualcomm's traditional licensing business is evolving.
For example, in the field of Internet of Things, the initial cost should be weighed against the cost of using the entire equipment. The front-end equipment is cost-effective for short-term commercial use. The back-end needs to be replaced after deployment to achieve upgrades, remote diagnostics, Therefore, there is a need for innovative and revolutionary changes in the control of business models and functions of the chip.
In fact, Qualcomm's role in the new era is precisely the connection, balancer, and enabler of the cloud and the terminal.
That is why Qualcomm has introduced the Internet of Things (IoT) wireless edge solution to deliver trusted chipset services to enterprise and IoT cloud providers.
The Qualcomm Wireless Edge Services are designed to be geared toward and will be used in multiple segments, initially delivered via the Qualcomm MDM9206 LTE modem supporting Industrial Internet of Things products, the MDM9628 LTE modem for automotive products, and the QCA4020 for home networking products, Extreme Reliable connectivity and security requirements The chipset's initial support for Qualcomm Wireless Edge Services is expected to begin in the second half of 2018.
Based on the previously released IoT chip MDM9206, Qualcomm introduced the LTE IoT SDK for MDM9206, which is open to the SDKs for hardware communication capabilities, CPU capabilities and GPS capabilities, making it easy for device vendors, application developers and cloud service providers At the same time, mainstreaming the support of IoT cloud service providers into the software organically, which enables the MDM9206 to have both computing power and software capabilities to connect to various cloud service providers.
The LTE IoT SDK is designed to help developers further extend existing support and develop support for other major IoT cloud service providers through the use of the hardware module of the MDM9206 LTE IoT modem and the new LTE IoT SDK that will help OEMs and Developers respond to a large number of existing and emerging cellular and Internet-based business use cases such as smart meters, smart gateways and asset tracking.
In short, QUALCOMM's wireless terminal solutions bring cost-effectiveness through hardware and software integration, reducing the complexity of secondary development of chips and software, and equipment deployment.
At the same time, Shen Lei said that the current focus of work is in the entire equipment life cycle, how to improve product safety, upgrade and enhance resilience, as well as provide uninterrupted support. At the same time also reduce power consumption and improve computing Ability and ability to adjust to changes in temperature, industry and other complex environments.
According to Shen Lei introduction, Qualcomm will set up a small cloud, cloud service providers can see the security and capability of the chips that have been sold and deployed, through which you can grasp the operation of each device has been deployed, and adjust its capabilities as needed .
According to the micro-grid reporter learned that if the cloud service provider to follow up the need to upgrade product capabilities may be involved in the resignation of the contract, which is different from Qualcomm in the field of mobile phones one-time fee model, and become a continuous mode of service charges.
At present, Qualcomm's wireless edge service has obtained the favorable support of the ecosystem and has cooperated with many enterprises such as Ali and Baidu.
Shen Lei stressed that Qualcomm will not provide cloud services, customer data will not have to operate, but only to help industrial chain partners, especially platform providers and cloud service providers to further improve and enhance the ability of these partners to help them Long-term management cycle, reduce operating costs management cycle, so that services have a stronger adaptability.
'We are enabling partners and industries, not to do this business,' Shen Lei said.