Mobility Phones - Mobile Phones

picoChip today announced the availability of the industry’s first LTE femtocell and picocell reference designs, the PC8608 Home eNodeB and PC8618 eNodeB respectively. Both PC86xx family small-cell LTE reference designs build on picoChip’s successes as the leader in femtocells. Both products can be combined with picoChip’s HSPA products and run on the same common hardware platform as the company’s industry-standard WiMAX reference designs.picoChip is the only company shipping femtocell silicon, with customers that include Ubiquisys, ipAccess and a number of Tier One OEMs. This, combined with the company’s extensive knowledge of WiMAX and OFDM-based systems enables cost-effective eNodeB solutions for manufacturers with accelerated development.

“LTE is the next market for us. picoChip is the only femtocell silicon vendor with operator commitment and it is crucial that we continue to leverage that at every stage. Simply put, the two-year experience lead that we have over the competition in femtocells, plus our industry-leading expertise in WiMAX, will continue our LTE customers’ edge: accelerating their programs, improving development efficiency and reducing cost,” said Guillaume d’Eyssautier president and CEO, picoChip.

LTE is the 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) 4G architecture and has been designed to improve the UMTS mobile phone standard to cope with future requirements. These include improving efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum opportunities, and better integration with other open standards. Although competing in the market, LTE has significant commonality with WiMAX which enables picoChip to offer a common platform design.

“We demonstrated LTE at Mobile World Congress in February — the industry’s only LTE reference design. Our customers have been engaged from an early stage to launch LTE products in 2009. This enables existing femtocell customers to upgrade to LTE, and for us to serve new customers with dual-mode WCDMA/LTE system,” added d’Eyssautier.

The PC86xx LTE design runs on the same picoChip hardware platforms as the company’s industry standard WiMAX basestation reference designs. As in WiMAX, the family includes PHY and MAC and offers 5MHz and 10MHz solutions. Both TDD and FDD modes are supported. The PHY runs on picoChip PC203 devices and includes OFDMA downlink and SC-FDMA uplink, with support for up to 2×2 MIMO and for AAS. The picoChip platform has been developed with partners mimoOn and Wintegra.

The picoChip LTE reference designs empower OEMs with faster time-to-market and lower development costs as they can focus their resources on adding value and differentiating their products. As a software-defined solution, it is future-proof and can be upgraded as the LTE standard is refined and updated. Finally, the common platform also supports WiMAX, with Wave 2 and MIMO available now, and future support for AAS, Release 1.5 (FDD) and 16m.

3G network sharing is set to sweep through developed markets, and will have profound implications for mobile operators, vendors and regulators, according to a new report, 3G Infrastructure Sharing: the future for mobile networks, published by Analysys, the global advisers on telecoms, IT and media.”Despite a number of announcements made around the time of 3G licence awards, the mobile industry was not ready to adopt extensive network sharing,” said Dr Alastair Brydon, co-author of the report.

“Early interest in infrastructure sharing evaporated, and mobile operators chose to build and operate their own dedicated 3G networks. However, network sharing is back on the agenda. Mobile operators face major expenses in the coming years, including investments in femtocells, LTE, broadcasting networks and fixed broadband. As a result, most operators will not be able to invest sufficient amounts quickly enough on their own to exploit 3G’s full potential.”

Key findings from the new report include:

* Recent announcements of network sharing agreements between major network operators, such as T-Mobile and 3 in the UK (in December 2007), indicate a change in attitude towards network sharing.

* Network sharing can have considerable cost benefits. For example, a network operator that aims to extend its 3G network to 13 000 sites can save USD1 billion in capital expense (by reducing the need for new base station equipment and sites) and USD1 billion in operational expense (by sharing the cost of operating sites) over ten years by sharing 3G networks. 2G network sharing could provide even greater cost savings.

* Network sharing can take different forms. At one extreme, two mobile operators might share physical resources, such as sites and masts, but not network equipment. At the other extreme, all mobile operators in a country could share the same radio access and core networks. Different forms of network sharing will present different challenges. Sharing of radio access networks will be the most common approach.

“3G network coverage must be at least as good as 2G network coverage if mobile users are to be encouraged to migrate to 3G services, as operators’ experience in Japan has demonstrated. Most 3G networks are nowhere near this,” says Dr Mark Heath. “Network sharing provides mobile operators with the means to accelerate 3G coverage roll-out dramatically. It has taken the UK operator 3 about four years to increase its number of 3G base stations from about 5000 to 7500, but its network sharing agreement with T-Mobile will enable it to increase this number to 13 000 within two years.”

3G Infrastructure Sharing: the future for mobile networks reviews a range of network sharing arrangements, from site sharing through to complete network sharing. It evaluates the potential cost savings and assesses the other benefits.

NEC Corporation today announced that NEC Europe, a subsidiary of NEC Corporation, is working with mobile operator Telefonica O2 Europe to deliver the UK’s first live femtocell trial.O2 has begun an initial period of live testing in February. If successful, the trial will be rolled out in greater numbers across the UK in the summer, with the view to a commercial launch by early 2009. NEC is providing O2 with its Femtocell Solution, which includes 3G Femtocell Access Point for direct subscriber use, Femtocell Gateway and Access Point Management and Provisioning System.

The demand for 3G mobile voice and data services is accelerating and up to 70-80% of these services are used indoors, but there remain issues with 3G radio penetrating buildings. Femtocell provides a cost-effective alternative to the macro network to improve the 3G coverage and capacity indoors. A Femtocell is a 3G access point which has been developed as a consumer device for use in buildings. Femtocells provides a low-cost dedicated 3G coverage and capacity indoor, enabling a user with an existing mobile phone to access high quality voice and high-speed data services thus enabling a true ubiquitous high speed mobile broadband experience. The European femtocell market will represent the largest global market, with 16.6 million units per annum in 2012 out of a total shipment volume of 36 million units and a market valuation of US$4.2billion, according to ABI Research.

Richard Hanscott, VP Network Solutions Division, NEC Europe, commented: “This trial marks a watershed in the industry, as the benefits of femtocell technology for both operators and subscribers will be tested and proven for everyone to see. O2 is taking a leading approach to trial this solution which will help meet subscriber demands, and will reap the benefits when the service is launched commercially. NEC is leading the development of the femtocell market, demonstrated by the fact that we currently have several further trials underway globally. NEC is also heavily involved in the femtocell standardisation activities and is board member of the Femto Forum which sets the agenda for femtocell deployment worldwide.”

picoChip today announced that it is collaborating with mimoOn to deliver the industry’s first complete LTE (Long Term Evolution) basestation reference design. The new PC86xx family of LTE reference designs cover the full range of eNode Bs from femtocells to multi-sector macrocells and is supported on the same common hardware platforms as picoChip’s WiMAX products. The system and its MIMO capabilities will be demonstrated at Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona, 11-14 February on the picoChip stand 1D56.LTE is the 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) 4G architecture and has been designed to improve the UMTS mobile phone standard to cope with future requirements. These include improving efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum opportunities, and better integration with other open standards. LTE has significant commonality with WiMAX, both being based on OFDMA in the downlink, all-IP architecture together with MIMO and adaptive antenna systems (AAS). The PC86xx builds on picoChip’s success as the industry-standard WiMAX reference design, and both standards run on the same common hardware (picoChip PHY plus Wintegra MAC) platforms.

“The cellular world playing field has opened up with the transition to 4G and the battle lines for suppliers have never been more complex. Cellular giants have accelerated LTE at breakneck speed to shut out competing OFDM formats,” said Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Research. “But WiMAX has shown how new entrants have become credible suppliers even to top tier operators. Some had believed LTE would be less open, but the introduction of such a reference design and common platform will enable many competitors. The industry aristocrats need be concerned - the revolution has begun.”

The PC86xx LTE design runs on the same picoChip and Wintegra hardware platforms as the companies’ industry standard WiMAX basestation reference designs. As in WiMAX, the family includes PHY and MAC and scales from single-chip femtocell access points (’Home eNode B’) to sophisticated multi-sector carrier macrocells from 1.25MHz to 20MHz. Both TDD and FDD modes are supported. The PHY runs on picoChip PC203 devices and includes OFDMA downlink and SC-FDMA uplink, with support for up to 4×4 MIMO and for AAS. The MAC, running on a Wintegra WinPath2 device includes PDCP, RLC, GTP, ROHC, ciphering / deciphering and RLC, including ARQ.

“mimoOn’s expertise enabled the development of this LTE basestation solution - we are proud to be partnering with them,” said Guillaume d’Eyssautier, president and CEO, picoChip. “It is crucial that we continue to provide our customers with the ability to develop systems on the latest wireless standards as they become available, to implement software upgrades as those standards are ratified, and to have the flexibility to improve them going forward. That is the picoChip chip advantage.”

The LTE reference design empowers OEMs with faster time-to-market and lower development costs as they can focus their resources on adding value and differentiating their products. As a software-defined solution, it is future-proof and can be upgraded as the LTE standard is refined and updated. Finally, the common platform also supports WiMAX, with Wave 2 and MIMO available now, and upgrades for Release 1.x (FDD) and 16m.

“We are pleased to be partnering with picoChip on this next-generation wireless design. For such a powerful device, the picoArray is a dream to develop on,” commented Thomas Kaiser, CEO mimoOn. “Designing with such an efficient architecture represents a sheer step in the ease of software integration and product development. As such, we have been able to deliver a very versatile, very flexible LTE solution to meet the needs of manufacturers.”

Nokia Siemens Networks has signed an agreement with Ubiquisys Ltd, developer of the ZoneGate intelligent 3G femtocell, to provide femtocell solutions that offer greatly improved 3G network coverage and quality of mobile services at home.Under the agreement, Nokia Siemens Networks and Ubiquisys will cooperate in the marketing and sales of the joint solution to mobile operators worldwide. The widely-recognized ZoneGate femtocell supports industry standard interfaces and conforms to Nokia Siemens Networks’ Femto Gateway’s open architecture.

Nokia Siemens Networks Femto Home Access Solution offers reliable indoor connections for voice and data calls, allowing mobile phone users to enjoy high transmission speeds and quality of service for data applications like browsing, email, music or video downloads.

“We are pleased with our new cooperation with Ubiquisys. Together we can offer an excellent indoor solution for operators to serve their 3G customers. The solution benefits from Ubiquisys’ maturity in femtocell design and deployment, supports open standards and complements our open Femto ecosystem,” said Timo Hyppola, head of Indoor Radio Solutions Product Line, Nokia Siemens Networks.

“The femtocell market is moving at an astonishing speed and 2008 will undoubtedly prove to be ‘make-up-your-mind’ time for many operators. We are currently involved in 10 trials and expect several to expand into larger deployments later this year,” said Chris Gilbert, CEO of Ubiquisys. “We decided long ago to concentrate on the device and then partner with leading SI vendors who share our vision on the femtocell industry ��������� in Nokia Siemens Networks we have found a perfect ally.”

The Ubiquisys femtocell is a small ‘zero-touch’ plug-and-play 3G access point that uses a mobile subscriber���������s broadband connection to transport voice and data calls to the 3G core network using a range of standards based interfaces. In June 2007 ABI Research rated Ubiquisys as the number one femtocell vendor in a survey of the top ten players in the sector, based on product innovation and implementation.

Launched in July 2007, the Femto Home Access Solution from Nokia Siemens Networks introduces open interfaces, boosting the femtocell ecosystem and enabling operators to further enhance their 3G service offering and coverage.

HSL (Hay Systems Ltd), an independent mobile network operator and provider of mobile services, today announced that they have commenced a major project to deliver a GSM/GPRS/EDGE femtocell primarily suited for consumer use in a residential setting.HSL plans to market the HSL 2.75G Femtocell to existing BTS vendors, directly to mobile network operators and additionally licensing hardware and software intellectual property. The femtocell will also be used in HSL’s own network in the UK. Software running on the femtocell and the associated Base Station Controller (BSC) is being developed by HSL with the hardware and lower layer software being designed by a 3rd party specialist.

The femtocell is expected to ship Q3 2008. Further details will be announced during the GSMA Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, 11th - 14th February 2008.

The Femto Forum, the independent industry association that supports femtocell deployment worldwide, has launched a programme to help harmonise the integration of femtocells into mobile core networks. Operator demand to launch femtocells quickly has led to the development of many different methods for integrating potentially millions of femtocells into the network core. Although this is not holding up the commercial deployment of femtocells, this programme will help unite these different approaches in the longer term and set the stage for the development of future standards.At the Femto Forum’s next plenary in March 2008, a variety of approaches to femtocell network integration will be put forward by members. Synergies between the approaches will be identified and the Femto Forum will provide a framework within which consensus can be built around similar approaches.

This will enable vendors to respond quickly to operator demands for interoperability, and will provide a platform from which members can advance the best approaches into the relevant standards bodies — the Femto Forum is not itself a standards making body.

The Forum has already agreed a reference architecture which will be used to provide a consistent basis for comparison between the different network integration options. A set of ‘hot topics’ - criteria that any integration method must meet in order to satisfy operator requirements - has also been agreed, including scalability and multi-vendor support.

“Femtocells have got off to a flying start and more deployments will take place in the near future but it is crucial that all the players in the market begin to plan together for the longer term. Operators have been vocal about their desire for a more unified approach to femtocell network integration as the scale of deployments increases. This programme represents the first time the femtocell community has come together to forge a future technology path through consensus,” said Simon Saunders, Chairman of the Femto Forum. “This conjoined approach will not only encourage interoperability and increase economies of scale thereby helping keep costs low, but it will also help to support far-reaching new femtocell applications.”

In other news the forum also welcomes new members who are already active in the working groups, these include: Acme Packet, AudioCodes, BT, Cellcom Israel Ltd, Cisco, Ericsson, GENBAND, Huawei, KTL, mobilkom austria AG, NewStep Networks, NXP Semiconductors, Samsung, SaskTel, SOFTBANK MOBILE, Telecom Italia and Vodafone. This brings the forum’s membership to 58 companies which include many of the world’s largest telecoms companies as well as the smaller innovative players in the femtocell sector. A full list of members is available on the Femto Forum website - (http://www.femtoforum.org/femto/membership.php).

Two significant announcements from Vodafone and Cisco demonstrate that heavyweight players are taking the market for indoor base stations (femtocells) seriously.Vodafone is taking some very practical and tangible steps to address poor indoor coverage and the potential revenue opportunity.

Principal Analyst Andrew Parkin-White believes that Vodafone’s femtocell trials “will help to resolve the technical issues associated with large scale femtocell deployment, and allow the operator to evaluate a number of commercial options for femtocells.”

Cisco has acquired an equity stake in UK-based femtocell specialist, ip.access, building on Cisco’s recent investments in Linksys and set-top-box manufacturer Scientific Atlanta.

“This is an interesting move from Cisco, allowing it to leverage and integrate its IP networking capability into the wireless environment,” says Parkin-White, co-author of the latest Analysys report 3G Network Evolution from 2007 to 2012: HSPA+, LTE, WiMAX and femtocells. In contrast to current wisdom, this report concludes that HSPA+ (combined with femtocells and a broadcasting network) has greater potential than LTE over the next five years.

“If there is a time to take a serious look at femtocells in the context of an overall evolving 3G architecture, that time is now,” Parkin-White says.

In 2007, Analysys Research conducted extensive analysis into the potential market for femtocells, and found that they have the potential to become a disruptive technology in the mobile world.

“MNOs are finally considering how femtocells fit into their overall technical approach. Femtocells appear to offer the possibility of a lower-cost strategy for cellular network architecture and build. Furthermore, they may offer the potential to unlock new sources of revenue, by allowing an operator to launch a range of innovative services for the business and consumer markets,” says Parkin-White.

On the other hand, Parkin-White urges MNOs to ignore the hype and speculation, and take a balanced view of the potential of femtocell services in these markets.

“There is no guarantee of success without a carefully developed business plan that puts forward a practical and profitable approach to the deployment of femtocells,” says Parkin-White.

“Wireless carrier Vodafone Group is testing femtocell technology, which uses mini base stations in homes and small offices to improve indoor 3G coverage.”

ip.access, the award-winning market leader in femtocell and picocell technologies, today announced that Cisco has made an investment in the company. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.Already cash-positive with its existing 2G picocell business, ip.access has secured funding from an impressive array of industry supporters for its breakthrough Oyster 3GTM femtocell, which is currently in trials with major mobile network operators globally. Existing ip.access investors include Scottish Equity Partners, Rothschild Gestion, Intel Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, ADC and Motorola Ventures.

Building on ip.access’ unique experience in cellular-over-IP technology, the Oyster 3G femtocell is a low-power wireless access point which plugs into a residential broadband DSL or cable connection to deliver a 3G mobile phone signal indoors. With operators increasingly seeking to exploit the benefits of all-IP networks, femtocells are a natural choice for delivering cost-effective 3G coverage and high-speed data capacity to mobile phone users at home. Analysts are predicting a huge market for femtocells: a recent report from IDATE forecasts that 10 million UMTS femtocells will ship worldwide in 2010, rising to 18 million in 2011.

Operators plan to integrate femtocell technology within residential gateways and set-top boxes, such as those offered by Cisco’s consumer products business. These integrated products will help enable fixed broadband and mobile services to be bundled together. They will also ultimately help enable mobile phones to better communicate with PCs, TVs and other devices in the ‘Connected Home’ - for example, a slideshow of photos captured on a camera phone could be displayed on a TV set.

“We are delighted to have Cisco as an investor,” said Stephen Mallinson, CEO of ip.access. “As the worldwide leader in Internet Protocol-based networks, Cisco brings complementary skills and experience to address the needs of operator and consumer customers.”

ip.access’ 2G picocells are already deployed in more than 30 live networks around the world. The company was recently selected as a Red Herring 100 Global Award winner. It also won numerous awards during 2007 for its Oyster 3G femtocell technology, including a Global Mobile award for ‘Best Radio Access Product’, Light Reading’s ‘Leading Light’ Award for ‘Best New Product from a Private Company’, and a World Communication Award for ‘Best Technology Foresight’.

ip.access will be demonstrating the capabilities of the Oyster 3G femtocell at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, 11-14 February 2008. About ip.access

Based in Cambridge, UK, ip.access ltd is a leading manufacturer of cost-effective picocell and femtocell infrastructure solutions for GSM, GPRS, EDGE and 3G. These solutions bring IP and cellular technologies together and solve in-building access problems for mobile operators, opening up new revenue streams while defending existing business.

ip.access is the company behind the Oyster 3GTM femtocell, winner of numerous industry awards including the Best Radio Access Product at the 2007 Global Mobile Awards. The Oyster 3G dramatically increases 3G cell capacity and coverage; improves quality of experience; and drives down costs. Oyster 3G is ready for today’s mobile networks and tomorrow’s IMS infrastructure.

The ip.access nanoGSM is the world’s most deployed picocell solution for cellular networks. It provides GSM, GPRS and EDGE coverage and capacity for offices, shops and using satellite backhaul passenger aircraft, ships and in remote rural areas.

With more than 30 live networks around the world and many more being deployed, ip.access is the partner of choice for operators competing in the new converged marketplace.

ip.access counts Scottish Equity Partners, Rothschild Gestion, Intel Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, ADC, Cisco and Motorola Ventures among its shareholders.

picoChip announced today the PC8808 TD-SCDMA femtocell reference design, the first to support this standard. Femtocells (or 3G access points) are low-cost basestations optimized for deployment inside buildings to improve coverage and data rates. The new design was developed in China at picoChip’s Beijing design center. TD-SCDMA is the third major 3G standard, and is expected to launch in the Olympic cities this summer.Mr. Yang Hua, the secretary general of TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance, said, “Femtocells are an important part of the TD-SCDMA ecosystem, and an essential part of operator strategy, particularly as we evolve to TD-SCDMA LTE. picoChip’s achievement significantly pushes the TD-SCDMA industry forward.”

Stuart Carlaw, Research Director ABI Research, added, “Femtocells help carriers solve problems of both coverage and capacity which are applicable to all standards, including TD-SCDMA. Given how good coverage already is in China for mobile services, consumers will expect excellent indoor services too: something that is particularly important for data, which is already in high use in the region. For both these reasons, I’d expect TD-SCDMA femtocells to be later in deployment, but to ramp as fast if not faster than those for WCDMA. picoChip is the leading provider of femtocell chips, and once more demonstrates this position of leadership with its software-defined architecture.”

With this introduction picoChip now supports all three 3G standards families: WCDMA (HSPA) through the picoChip PC8208/8209, cdma2000 via GWT partnership, and now TD-SCDMA with the PC8808. picoChip also supports WiMAX Waves 1 and 2 with its PC6530 and PC6532 single chip reference designs respectively.

“picoChip clearly recognises the benefits of exploiting the globalised business world. The exciting new products were developed by picoChip jointly in Bath and Beijing, but are in high demand from customers world-wide,” said Andrew Cahn, chief executive of UK Trade & Investment. “picoChip’s joint ventures with its Chinese partners, and also with the Olympics later this year, demonstrate the real opportunities that exist in China for British businesses.”

The PC8808 TD-SCDMA femtocell reference design supports HSDPA and is the industry’s lowest cost complete solution. The picoChip single-chip platform can integrate both Node B and protocol stack, and can easily integrate back into the core network using a number of different architectures including SIP, UMA or Iu.

“This announcement is a further example of picoChip’s continuing commitment to the Chinese market and this is the first product to be wholly developed locally at our Beijing Design Center. It follows hot-on-the-heels of the recent partnership announcement with Xinwei for the implementation of its McWILL network, to be deployed for the Olympics,” said Guillaume d’Eyssautier, president and CEO picoChip, recently named to GSA EMEA Leadership council. “We aim to continue this momentum as we further support Chinese wireless development.”

The single-chip PC202-based design is software defined and delivers baseband complete with upper layer software stacks included. It is based on the same architecture as the PC8208/HSDPA and 8208/HSUPA platforms.

picoChip is the leading supplier of multi-core DSP delivering extremely high performance at competitive cost points. It offers a powerful platform to develop products for emerging global wireless communications markets such as WiMAX, LTE, McWILL, TD-SCDMA and 4G. picoChip’s products scale from femtocell access points to sophisticated multi-sector carrier macrocells.

In addition to TD-SCDMA femtocells, picoChip is recognized as the leading silicon supplier in WCDMA/HSPA femtocells, and is involved in most of the current operator field trials. Customers include ipAccess, Ubiquisys and other undisclosed leading manufacturers. picoChip is a founding member, and is on the executive board, of the Femto Forum.

picoChip is attending the China Business Summit in Beijing organised by UKTI on 18 January 2008.

“Femtocells sounds like the next big thing in biology, but it actually could shake up wireless phone services.”

Mobile operators are considering widespread deployment of indoor base stations — called femtocells — as early as 2008. A large-scale roll-out of femtocells carries considerable risk and many early business cases are not commercially viable, according to a new report, Femtocells in the Consumer Market: business case and marketing plan, published by Analysys, the global advisers on telecoms, IT and media.”Femtocells are progressing rapidly from being an interesting emerging technology to being ready for mobile operators to deploy,” says report co-author, Dr Alastair Brydon. “Engineering departments within mobile operators have generally led the evaluation of femtocells but the next critical step is to define a profitable business case, based on clearly targeted and compelling customer propositions.”

Key findings include:

* A number of service and customer scenarios in which operators propose to use femtocells do not make sound commercial sense and may cannibalise existing ARPU.

* Widespread use of femtocells solely to provide low-priced voice telephony in the home, although stimulating fixed-mobile substitution, could lead to disaster, as the revenue benefits are highly uncertain. Mobile operators that focus on voice telephony must target key market segments and resist very low pricing. For example, in a multi-person household with poor existing cellular coverage, operators can recoup the cost of femtocells within four months, provided a significant price premium is maintained over fixed calls.

* A strategy underpinned by a range of multimedia service propositions will result in a much stronger business case for femtocells, bringing the potential to increase revenue and save substantial costs, and offering operators the chance to recoup their investment within one to eight months, depending upon the scenario modelled. Applications such as mobile TV, video and audio services will significantly broaden the consumer appeal of femtocells.

“Mobile TV could be a critical component of a successful femtocell business case, providing substantial cost savings as well as revenue enhancement,” says co-author Dr Mark Heath. “Trials have shown heavy usage of mobile TV at home, and mobile operators could save USD10 per household per year by avoiding the need to build dense DVB-H networks in order to provide mobile TV services indoors.”

picoChip announced today the PC6532 Wave 2 femtocell, the next version of its industry-standard WiMAX basestation reference design. Femtocell access points are optimized for deployment inside buildings to improve coverage and data rates. The new PC6532 WiMAX femtocell is the industry’s only single-chip (PHY + MAC) reference design to support WiMAX Wave 2 and full IO-MIMO in both downlink and uplink.Like its predecessor, the Wave 1 PC6530, the new reference design integrates full PHY and MAC into a single picoArray-based PC205 processor. The PC6532 offers the lowest cost solution for a complete WiMAX Wave 2 femtocell, with seamless software upgrade for existing picoChip PC6530 Wave 1 designs.

The PC6532 supports Wave 2 and full IO-MIMO, with Matrix A and Matrix B downlink, and both MRC and UL-CSM uplink. Wave 2 is the latest version of the WiMAX standard, adding increased support for mobility, while MIMO (Multi Input Multi Output) increases data-rate and reliability by simultaneously sending and receiving data via multiple antennas.

“Once more, picoChip demonstrates the power of its software-defined architecture, and we are delighted to be working as partners,” commented Paul Senior, CTO of Airspan. “The efficiency of the single-chip solution is attractive, furthermore the ability to seamlessly upgrade our current Wave 1 designs to Wave 2 and full MIMO in both uplink and downlink, gives us a significant advance in performance and capability over alternative solutions.”

The picoChip WiMAX architecture is scaleable from femtocell access points to sophisticated multi-sector carrier macrocells with full support for IO-MIMO and beamforming. Both reference designs run on a single processor: the PC205 integrates an ARM processor for MAC functionality, and picoArray multi-core DSP for software defined PHY.

Stuart Carlaw of ABI Research, added, “It is clear that femtocells are an essential part of operator strategy going forward. Carriers are making it clear that this is even more true for WiMAX and LTE than it is for older standards. picoChip is a leading provider of femtocell chips and this announcement reinforces its extremely strong position.”

“The problem of good in-building coverage, and the opportunity for femtocells to address it, is becoming increasingly widely recognised,” commented Simon Saunders, Chairman of the Femto Forum. “With use of 2.5GHz and the business case for ubiquitous high-speed data this is even more important for WiMAX. The Femto Forum seeks to promote femtocells across all technologies and we are delighted our members are supporting these air-interfaces.”

The PC6532 is based on picoChip’s industry-standard WiMAX platform that has demonstrated the widest range of interoperability with third-party terminals through active participation at the WiMAX Forum Public Mobile WiMAX Plugfest for Interoperability events. AT4 Wireless (formerly known as CETECOM) is the WiMAX Forum’s approved testing authority for the certification of WiMAX products and uses the picoChip WiMAX reference design as the core in its protocol conformance tester.

The PC6530 Wave 1 WiMAX reference design is available now and has already passed IOT testing. The seamless software upgrade to the PC6532 Wave 2 WiMAX femtocell reference design will be available in Q2 2008.

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and Sagem Communications (SAFRAN Group) today announced that the two companies are collaborating on the commercial development of a femto cell base station platform that enables mobile operators to provide consumers and enterprises with third-generation (3G) UMTS/HSPA network coverage in their homes or business locations. The Base Station Router (BSR) Femto can help mobile operators improve indoor coverage, reduce operating and capital expenditures by simplifying network architectures and easing installation, and noticeably improve subscribers’ quality of experience for mobile broadband and voice services.ADVERTISEMENT click here Based on Alcatel-Lucent’s revolutionary “flat IP (Internet Protocol)” architecture, the UMTS/HSPA BSR Femto flattens the mobile network by integrating and collapsing the UMTS/HSPA radio access network elements, including the base station and radio network controller (RNC), into a single, small unit about the size of a TV set-top box. This innovative approach enables operators to deploy and optimize smaller form-factor, stand-alone base stations without creating an overwhelming network management challenge and overtaxing existing radio network controllers.

“The UMTS/HSPA BSR Femto offers significant advantages over competing solutions due to the fact that it combines all radio access functions into a single, compact device, eliminating the need to deploy additional RNCs,” said Alain Biston, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s W-CDMA activities. “The BSR Femto is an ideal solution to help mobile operators address the demand for high- quality mobile broadband and voice services in the home.”

“By taking advantage of Sagem Communications’ expertise in the development of consumer electronics products to help package and manufacture the BSR Femto for mass market consumption, we will realize significant time to market and cost benefits,” Biston added.

As Europe’s number one manufacturer of DSL residential gateways as well as digital terrestrial and IP TV set top boxes, Sagem Communications was perfectly positioned to design BSR Femto in collaboration with Alcatel-Lucent. Sagem Communications’ extensive capabilities and experience in marketing DSL equipment for the home, which is supporting triple play services today, will contribute its expertise to transition the BSR Femto into a mass market device.

Through this collaboration, Alcatel-Lucent and Sagem Communications have already achieved significant milestones in the BSR Femto development effort, including the completion of voice and data calls, lab demonstrations with key customers and the establishment of a program of field trials (to be conducted in the fourth quarter of this year). These achievements have been made possible by leveraging the respective strengths of the two companies.

“The Alcatel-Lucent flat-IP architecture and the BSR Femto are a win-win for mobile operators and their subscribers,” said Patrick Sevian, CEO of Sagem Communications. “Our consumer electronics expertise and experience with home- networking applications, combined with Alcatel-Lucent’s deep knowledge of mobile networking, is an ideal combination.”

Under the collaboration agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will provide its flat IP and UMTS/HSPA expertise, networking equipment and software and end-to-end integration and support for the development of the BSR Femto. Sagem Communications will lend its enhanced home networking capabilities and expertise in developing IP, VoIP and DSL solutions for the mass market.

The BSR Femto uses a DSL connection in a home or office building to backhaul voice and data traffic onto an operator’s existing UMTS/HSPA network, enabling operators to offload traffic from the macro-network. It supports circuit-switched voice and data applications, packet-switched data applications, HSPA and IP-Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)-based networks. It also works with all 3GPP-compliant UMTS/HSPA handsets.

Two versions of the BSR Femto are planned for UMTS/HSPA networks — a standalone 3G unit with Ethernet connectivity to a DSL modem and an integrated unit that supports UMTS/HSPA, DSL and WiFi. Alcatel-Lucent is also developing a CDMA/EV-DO based BSR Femto.

SEQUANS Communications and PMC-Sierra, Inc. have joined forces to provide Mobile WiMAX equipment manufacturers with an all-in-one solution for the development of Mobile WiMAX femtocells. The solution is a single, integrated reference design that combines Sequans’ new SQN2130 base station ASIC with PMC-Sierra’s new PM8800 WiZIRD(TM) 2Tx/2Rx RF IC.Sequans’ SQN2130 is the industry’s first chip optimized for Mobile WiMAX base stations. It is a full MAC and PHY baseband solution and is WiMAX Forum(TM) Wave 2-ready. It features 2X2 MIMO (2Tx and 2Rx) and high throughput with low power consumption in TDD or FDD mode. The SQN2130 is designed to support the manufacture of any size base station — femto, pico, micro, or multi-sector macro — and can serve multiple thousands of simultaneous users.

PMC-Sierra’s PM8800 WiZIRD 2Tx/2Rx is the industry’s highest density WiMAX RF IC solution integrating full 2Tx/2Rx MIMO capability, multi-band support, direct-conversion ZIF RF transceiver, analog and digital converters, and an industry-standard JEDEC JESD207 compliant baseband digital interface in a single device. The dual-radio path PM8800 WiZIRD 2Tx/2Rx eliminates the need for multiple radio devices and provides programmability to support multiple frequency bands for worldwide WiMAX roaming. The device supports 64QAM modulation for both Tx paths at 0dBm output power level with an EVM performance that addresses a spectrum of WiMAX solutions from base station applications to mobile subscriber solutions.

“PMC-Sierra delivers the only RFIC with the features needed for femtocell applications,” said Bernard Aboussouan, vice president of marketing and business development for Sequans. “These include support for higher modulation, higher output power, 2Tx/2Rx configuration, and multiple frequency bands. Our collaboration delivers a high-performance solution with an overall hard-to-beat bill of materials that is of paramount importance in the success of global WiMAX deployment.”

“Our combined solution provides tremendous value to WiMAX OEMs and ODMs who can now address multiple territories with a single, cost-effective design, and to WiMAX operators who can extend coverage and minimize capital investment,” said Tom Sun, vice president and general manager for PMC-Sierra’s Broadband Wireless Division.

The Sequans/PMC-Sierra femtocell reference design includes support for network synchronization, a key requirement for applications such as SOHO deployments, which can be performed using either GPS or over the network via IEEE 1588v2.

Sequans and PMC-Sierra are also collaborating on multi-band CPE and will deliver reference designs featuring Sequans SQN1130 baseband and PMC-Sierra’s PM8800 WiZIRD RFIC.

Complete Sequans and PMC-Sierra femtocell and subscriber equipment designs will be on display at WiMAX World USA, McCormick Place, September 26-27, in Sequans’ booth, number 814, and PMC-Sierra’s booth, number 732.

The worldwide wireless market in the developed world is approaching saturation, with carriers offering little compelling differentiation except for price points and, to a limited degree, signal quality, reports In-Stat (http://www.in-stat.com). Mobile triple-play services (voice, video, and Internet) revenue opportunities are the most likely solution to this situation, but only when cell operators first solve signal coverage and capacity issues in the indoor home environment, the high-tech market research firm says.”Femtocells (small cellular base stations designed for use in residential and small business environments that provide enhanced coverage at the edge of the wireless network) are a practical, near-term cure for these problems, with no practical limitations,” says Allen Nogee, In-Stat analyst. “Femtocell technology is unlikely to be superseded by another technology in the foreseeable future.”

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

* Worldwide femtocell subscriptions (installed devices) are expected to grow to 40.6 million by 2011.

* Femtocell end-users will reach 101.5 million over the next five years.

* Femtocell device/service pricing will be a major short-term challenge, likely requiring operator subsidization.