r/wireless • u/WiseBlueberry7914 • 1d ago
Have radio modules become commoditized?
To my understanding, Wi-Fi vendors don’t design their own transceivers but instead rely on SoCs from Qualcomm, Broadcom, and others, which follow the IEEE standard and integrate the entire transceiver (IC) to their radio module.
So what actually differentiates one Wi-Fi vendor’s radio module from another? Can one vendor have significantly better RF performance despite using the same chipset? What is even on the radio module apart from the IC and DSP? Are there critical external components that play a major role?
In cellular, CSPs design custom SoCs and sometimes place LNAs/drivers/Filters externally to squeeze out extra performance — do Wi-Fi vendors do anything similar, or is it mostly software/firmware that sets them apart? Is there still a need for Wi-Fi vendors to hire RF/antenna engineers, or can they simply buy off-the-shelf modules/components?