Qualcomm 6900 and Dual Band Simultaneous - how to use it?

[donzoomik]

I have a laptop with Qualcomm 6900 chipset that supposedly supports this "Dual Band Simultaneous" that sounds like Pre-MLO. Even the adapter advertises itself as "Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 Wi-Fi 6E Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) WiFiCx Network Adapter".
There's a thread here that discusses it a bit (https://www.snbforums.com/threads/wi-fi-6-release-2-revealed.76608/) but no details how it is supposed to work in practice.

Now, I have no idea how to make it work in practice., in Windows 11 settings I only ever see one frequency used. I have a WiFi 7 AP (previously WiFi 6) with all frequencies having the same SSID and parameters but I can't see any way to make it connect.

Windows can apparently see the secondary interface but it just sits there:

netsh wlan show interfaces

There are 2 interfaces on the system:

    Name                   : Wi-Fi
    Description            : Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 Wi-Fi 6E Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) WiFiCx Network Adapter
    GUID                   : c6d244da-6fd3-4634-9ed1-46f98a704d18
    Physical address       : 8c:3b:4a:55:da:f8
    Interface type         : Primary
    State                  : connected
    SSID                   : Zmk-W7
    AP BSSID               : 60:cf:84:4d:ef:d9
         Colocated APs:    : 9
            MldID : 0, LinkID: 1, BSSID: 60:cf:84:4d:ef:d4,  Band: 5 GHz,  Channel: 36
            MldID : 1, LinkID: 1, BSSID: 72:cf:84:4d:ef:d5,  Band: 5 GHz,  Channel: 36
            MldID : 0, LinkID: 2, BSSID: 60:cf:84:4d:ef:d0,  Band: 2.4 GHz,  Channel: 13
            MldID : 1, LinkID: 2, BSSID: ca:cf:84:4d:ef:d1,  Band: 2.4 GHz,  Channel: 13
            MldID : 1, LinkID: 0, BSSID: 72:cf:84:4d:ef:d6,  Band: 5 GHz,  Channel: 36
            MldID : 1, LinkID: 0, BSSID: ca:cf:84:4d:ef:d3,  Band: 2.4 GHz,  Channel: 13
            MldID : 1, LinkID: 0, BSSID: ca:cf:84:4d:ef:d2,  Band: 2.4 GHz,  Channel: 13
            MldID : 1, LinkID: 0, BSSID: 60:cf:84:4d:ef:d8,  Band: 6 GHz,  Channel: 37
            MldID : 1, LinkID: 0, BSSID: 60:cf:84:4d:ef:da,  Band: 6 GHz,  Channel: 37
    Band                   : 6 GHz
    Channel                : 37
    Connected Akm-cipher   : [ akm = 00-0f-ac:08, cipher =  00-0f-ac:04 ]
    Network type           : Infrastructure
    Radio type             : 802.11ax
    Authentication         : WPA3-Personal  (H2E)
    Cipher                 : CCMP
    Connection mode        : Auto Connect
    Receive rate (Mbps)    : 2401.9
    Transmit rate (Mbps)   : 2401.9
    Signal                 : 100%
    Profile                : Zmk-W7
    QoS MSCS Configured         : 0
    QoS Map Configured          : 0
    QoS Map Allowed by Policy   : 0

    Name                   : Wi-Fi 3
    Description            : Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 Wi-Fi 6E Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) WiFiCx Network Adapter #3
    GUID                   : 0071bc08-6d54-4e62-9615-33cc63c08bde
    Physical address       : 8e:3b:4a:55:da:f8
    Interface type         : Secondary
    Primary interface      : Wi-Fi
    State                  : disconnected
    Radio status           : Hardware On
                             Software On

Manual connect options do not work:

netsh wlan connect name=Zmk-W7 ssid=Zmk-W7 interface="Wi-Fi 3"
There is no such wireless interface on the system.

netsh wlan connect name=Zmk-W7 ssid=Zmk-W7 interface="Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 Wi-Fi 6E Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) WiFiCx Network Adapter #3"
There is no such wireless interface on the system.

Any idea how to make it work?

 

[sfx2000]

I have a laptop with Qualcomm 6900 chipset that supposedly supports this "Dual Band Simultaneous" that sounds like Pre-MLO. Even the adapter advertises itself as "Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 Wi-Fi 6E Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) WiFiCx Network Adapter".
There's a thread here that discusses it a bit (https://www.snbforums.com/threads/wi-fi-6-release-2-revealed.76608/) but no details how it is supposed to work in practice.

Now, I have no idea how to make it work in practice., in Windows 11 settings I only ever see one frequency used. I have a WiFi 7 AP (previously WiFi 6) with all frequencies having the same SSID and parameters but I can't see any way to make it connect.

It's a proprietary implementation, pre-11be MLO, but similar - it's entirely client based, so it should work with any vendor AP's...

It configures two independent connections - each has its own IP and Connection ID (on the AP side)

i have not personally observed these cards in Windows, but in Android they do tend to work pretty well...

For Windows - you may not have everything you need - it's more than just a device driver...

According to my contact over at QC, there SW that is needed outside of the basic Windows WiFi connector - the OEM should have downloads for the package - it's not available for public download from Qualcomm without NDA and a business agreement.

hope this helps

 

[donzoomik]

That's intereting. My OEM Lenovo has no sign of such utility. I also went over driver packages for Dell and HP as well and there's only the driver, no extra utilities.
When I was researching the topic, I read about Intel AX411's similar functionality that had to be licensed by OEM. I wonder if DBS is similarly licensed but no OEM has done it...