In a bid to provide high-speed wireless services in crowded cities, Facebook has partnered with chipmaker Qualcomm to develop its Terragraph WiFi technology. The technology, which was first unveiled back in 2016, is a millimeter-wavelength, 60GHz wireless system which can transmit internet through buildings in urban areas.
The Terragraph technology has been based on the 802.11ay WLAN standard, which makes use of the 60GHz frequency and offers transmission rates of up to 20-40 Gbps over 300-500 meters. Qualcomm and Facebook have further tweaked the technology with enhancements like massive antenna arrays, channel bonding, time synchronized notes and TDMA protocols, to allow the signal to go through urban obstacles and reduce the upfront costs.
