Most people know Qualcomm primarily for its powerful chipsets. However, the company is a major player in the wireless telecommunications segment as well. The firm designs its own modems for mobile devices and laptops with outstanding performance and efficiency. Now, Qualcomm has teased the advances in AI-powered wireless telecommunications tech that it will bring to the upcoming MWC Barcelona 2025.
MWC 2025 is just days away, and big tech companies are already offering sneak peeks of the announcements they will make during the event. In this case, Qualcomm has revealed some of its key advances regarding the implementation of artificial intelligence to improve the performance of wireless telecommunications. The company has been working alongside Nokia Bell Labs to make these developments a reality.
Qualcomm and Nokia working on AI-powered sequential learning technique
In 2024, Qualcomm and Nokia jointly introduced a new technique called sequential learning. Designed for telecommunications, it boosts the performance of channel state feedback through AI integration. The technique also allows companies to keep their interoperable AI models secure by not exposing certain key proprietary details, sharing input/output model datasets instead.
Both companies have continued to work on the technique to demonstrate its viability. To do so, they conducted performance tests in different scenarios. The tests involved comparing the performance of a common AI model trained with various datasets against hyperlocal models that were trained at specific locations.
At one of the indoor locations, the common AI model showed comparable performance to hyperlocal models. At another indoor location, tests were conducted throughout at four different locations indoors. The result of these tests showed that the general AI common model is sufficiently scalable and adaptable to prove robust against new and challenging scenarios.
The implementation of AI-enhanced channel state feedback also boosts network performance. More specifically, we are talking about performance gains of between 15% and 95%. The variable factor was the location of the moving user. The technology allows for improved mobile signal strength thanks to a more precise beam pattern. In turn, it reduces interference and increases data throughput compared to grid-of-beam-based feedback (3GPP Type I) technology.
More AI wireless tech advances that Qualcomm will bring to Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona
Qualcomm has more wireless tech advances to bring to MWC. The company will focus on improving two key aspects in telecommunications: coverage and capacity.
Regarding capacity, the company has new MIMO system designs ready. These are capable of supporting new spectrum in the upper midband that can deliver ~400 MHz of new wide-area bandwidth. The tests showed a “significant throughput gain,” as well as coverage comparable to sub-7 GHz bands.
Qualcomm will also show advances in the use of lower-band spectrum. This covers bands that operate below 1 GHz and between 1-2 GHz, being quite useful to try to solve the intrinsic bandwidth limitations of this frequency spectrum before the arrival of 6G. The firm will show improvements to its 5G satellite tech as well.
Additionally, Qualcomm teased the implementation of techniques such as digital twins and technologies such as artificial intelligence to optimize wireless interoperability. This will allow to overcome the current limits in wireless telecommunications. AI can be implemented for the so-called “wireless adaptive intelligence.” Basically, the company wants the networks of the future to be self-adaptive to the conditions. In other words, they must be able to modify their parameters in real time, even drastically, to always offer the best performance.
On the other hand, the “digital twins” technique allows the optimization of the “end-to-end system performance and operational efficiency.”
The North American company has also thought about the potential XR boom. So, it is working to facilitate the implementation of immersive and connected spatial computing experiences. Lastly, it seems that Qualcomm will show an interesting wireless technology for object and movement detection.