Readers, ITEXPO 2024 is a fast-approaching tech extravaganza, and our team is gearing up for all of the event’s activities as we speak. Part of the #TECHSUPERSHOW experience, this expo will take place from February 13-15 at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida – and my word, there’ll be a lot to see. Attendees will be able to try out brand-new tech innovations being demoed at the show’s massive exhibit hall, and plenty of panel discussions and keynote presentations will be happening throughout. Folks gathering together will be coming from a variety of industries; MSPs, IoT developers, IT executives, service providers and carrier engineers, industry suppliers, and many more. (Additional show information can be found here.)
Ahead of this year’s ITEXPO, I penned an Industrial Internet of Things-specific piece – it detailed IIoT strategies, specific organizations creating huge industry waves, and so on. (Basically, important information consumers should rightly know about.)
In that vein (and while talking about IIoT in general and the “of Things” lifeblood, a.k.a. connectivity), we have a story to share about another organization making waves: Ceva.
Ceva is made up of teams with deep passions when it comes to the smart edge, seamless wireless communications, innovative silicon and software IP solutions (to name a handful here) that enable IIoT products to connect, sense, and infer data efficiently and reliably. After all, Ceva powers more than 17 billion – yes, with a “b” – smart edge products, ranging from AI-infused smartwatches to autonomous vehicle technologies, to other IoT devices and wearables.
Recently, Ceva also announced the general release of its next-gen RivieraWaves Wi-Fi 7 IP platform, further expanding its widely licensed portfolio of connectivity IP, targeting high-end consumer and industrial applications (including gateways, TVs, set-top-boxes, streaming media devices, AR/VR headsets, personal computing and smartphones). The RivieraWaves Wi-Fi 7 IP leverages advanced features of the IEEE 802.11be standard to deliver a premium high-performance, cost-effective and power-optimized Wi-Fi solution for integration into the next wave of Wi-Fi Access Point (AP) and Station (STA) products.
This release comes at a great time, too; according to global technology intelligence firm ABI Research, “annual Wi-Fi enabled chipset shipments will exceed 5.1 billion by 2028, with more than 1.7 billion of these chipsets supporting the Wi-Fi 7 standard.” Thus, as Wi-Fi-enabled device shipments continue along their respective growth trajectories, increasing numbers of semiconductor companies, OEMs and others are actively choosing to integrate Wi-Fi connectivity into their IIoT chip designs – so, they need access to high-quality Wi-Fi IP to reduce sizable development costs and risks alike. Given Ceva has long since established itself when it comes to reliable Wi-Fi IP licensing (serving a wide range of end markets and applications), the company introducing the RivieraWaves Wi-Fi 7 IP provides a comprehensive 802.11be MAC and PHY solution for integration into the next generation of impactful Wi-Fi SoC products.
Furthermore (and having spoken about ABI Research), its Senior Research Director Andrew Zignani commented on this news:
“Ceva's wireless connectivity IPs play an integral role in the proliferation of connectivity standards in the broad IoT markets, as is evident from their customer's success in shipping more than 1 billion connectivity chips annually,” Zignani said. “With the introduction of their RivieraWaves Wi-Fi 7 IP platform, semiconductor companies and OEMs have a trusted partner to develop differentiated, high-performance Wi-Fi 7 chipsets for their connectivity roadmaps, with lower risk and a lower cost of ownership."
According to the official announcement, other notable technical features of this solution include:
- Hallmark features of Wi-Fi 7, including 4K QAM modulation, Multi Link Operation (MLO) and Multi Resource Units (MRU)
- 2x2 MU-OFDM(A) transmitter and receiver supporting 802.11be, up to MCS13-2SS
- 2x2 MU-MIMO (i.e. multi-user, multiple-input, multiple-output technology) for client-dense environments
- Beamforming to maximize link budget in multi-antenna systems
- Full MAC software stack, supporting the latest security standards including WPA3 and China's WAPI security standard
- Compatible with the EasyMesh standard for interconnectivity between different APs
- Advanced Packet Traffic Arbiter (PTA) functionality for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity coexistence
- Flexible RF interface that enables integration with radio circuitry from multiple Ceva partners or licensees who own radio technology.
- Full backwards compatibility with previous Wi-Fi generations (i.e. Wi-Fi 4/5/6/6E)
“The relentless expansion of Wi-Fi usage has pushed the Wi-Fi 7 standard to offer enhanced data throughput, improved latency and support more spectrum in the face of mounting network congestion,” added Tal Shalev, Vice President and General Manger of Wireless IoT BU at Ceva. “Achieving this requires highly complex, cutting-edge functionalities like 4K QAM modulation, Multi Link Operation and Multi Resource Unit to optimize link efficiency across the available bands. Our RivieraWaves Wi-Fi 7 IP platform incorporates all the features of this latest-generation, wireless standard, dramatically simplifying development and time-to-market for companies looking to add Wi-Fi 7 connectivity to their products."
For more information about the availability of the RivieraWaves Wi-Fi 7 IP platform, read here.
Edited by
Greg Tavarez
