Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

[Mindy]

picoChip demos HSDPA-ready picocell ref design
By John Walko

CommsDesign.com
Apr 28, 2004

http://www.commsdesign.com/news/tech_beat/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=19201902

Bath, England — picoChip has unveiled and demonstrated a complete HSDPA-ready 3G picocell basestation at The Commodity Basestation conference that started here Wednesday (April 28th). The design, includes radio, flexible baseband, control and backhaul capabilities.

"We have been working with a couple of major, international operators on this, which is the first such design specifically targeting really high data rate, short range links for lots of users and to meet the needs of 3G hotspots in crowded areas like airports and railway stations as well as for corporate in-building users", Rupert Baines, vice president of marketing at picoChip told CommsDesign.com.

Baines said the reference design would allow manufacturers to quickly develop and release fully 3GPP-compliant systems, reducing development cost and time-to-market.


He said some operators are pushing hard to have cost effective picocells and HSDPA. "The wideband CDMA reference design is ready, but it is hard and difficult stuff. The test equipment and interoperability have still to be completed, and it will clearly take time to deploy, but one carrier, Japanese group NTT DoCoMo, has stated it plans to offer HSDPA next year. Others will follow starting from 2006".

picoChip has been using test equipment from UbiNetics, a key partner with DoCoMo in pushing HSDPA, though Baines would not say whether the Japanese carrier is one of those the company has been working with. He also said a main priority must be to push ahead with handsets capable of the high speed data rates HSDPA offer " a theoretical maximum of 14Mbit/s " as well as devising the necessary compliance test suites.

At the Conference, picoChip also demonstrated its picocell basestation technology, with calls made to commercial handsets, primarily a Nokia 6650.

Though not an engineering build, the set up was fully interoperable with standard phones and demonstrating complete end-to-end network compatibility at up to 384kbit/s, increasing to significantly higher data rates with the HSDPA software update.

"Carriers are very much demanding these products from existing suppliers but interestingly we are seeing new players crossing over from WiFi to develop 3G access points. There is a real need for speedy entry to market and product differentiation," Baines said at the Conference.

"Our picocell design fits this industry shift perfectly: it is a complete 'ready-to-roll kit-of-parts' at a sensible cost and HSDPA ready too; if you want it, it's all there - on the other hand customize it as you will," he continued

Baines said traditional manufacturers would deploy the reference design to gain time to market advantage — he suggested they could save 12 months in development time — while new entrants can use the design to quickly develop a carrier-class product.

He said picoChip is talking with several access point equipment makers about custom designs. "Cisco, Trapeze Networks, Nortel and Aruba are all thinking " why should we not be providing this for hotspot coverage."