Microwave Engineering Europe - May 2008 - (Page 11)

By JP Joosting, Microwave Engineering Europe NEWS 11 First silicon success for single chip multistandard transceiver Following the successful launch of its 2 to 4 GHz MicroTCA transceiver platform at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February this year, Lime Microsystems has successfully achieved “ﬁrst silicon” for its single chip multi-band multistandard reconﬁgurable transceiver IC. The ﬁrst test chips back from the foundry have been tested and meet the original requirement for a transceiver IC operating from 375 MHz to 4 GHz. Sending and receiving data has been demonstrated successfully in each of the vital frequency bands required for WiMAX, 3G and LTE operation, paving the way for the adoption of Lime’s multi-standard transceiver architecture in small cell base stations. The transceiver and its associated reference design can be digitally conﬁgured to operate the required frequency bands, with 16 user-selectable bandwidths from 1.5 MHz to 28 MHz. This enables the transceiver to transmit and receive data across all WiMAX bands (including those used in different geographical areas), as well as those used for W-CDMA and HSPA, and those that are planned for LTE. Further, it removes the need for individual transceiver chips for each of the different bands, and allows a small cell base station to be reconﬁgured rapidly and simply. The resulting reduction in bill of materials minimises costs and inventory for OEMs. The transceiver IC is presently undergoing an evaluation phase, where selected key customers are consulted for feedback on the speciﬁcation of the design. The ﬁnal chip design can then be ﬁne-tuned to incorporate their speciﬁc requirements, before ramping up to full production quantities. www.mwee.com/207100187 IN BRIEF Ericsson inks $1.5 bn mobile deals in China Wireless infrastructure specialist Ericsson has won two major deals with Chinese operators — China Mobile and China Unicom — in total worth nearly $1.5 bn to the Swedish group. Separately, Ericsson has also signed a GSM expansion framework agreement with China Mobile valued at $1.3 bn and another with China Unicom valued at around $140 million The expansion projects are set to be completed in 2008. Under the framework deal with China Mobile, Ericsson will be one of the main suppliers of core and radio network equipment, along with related technical support and services, to expand GSM/GPRS coverage and capacity in 19 regions across China. www.mwee.com/207401123 Ruckus Wireless teams 802.11n with meshing technology to cut deployment costs Ruckus Wireless’s SmartMesh Wi-Fi meshing technology for 802.11n delivers three times the performance of typical WLANs and cuts deployment costs by eliminating cabling to access points (APs) and RF planning. SmartMesh is a software upgrade for the Ruckus ZoneDirector family of WLAN controllers. Its meshing technology enabes 802.11n WLANs to self-organize, self-optimize, and self-heal. Early adopters have halved deployment time and cost, according to a company spokesperson. In addition to SmartMesh, Ruckus Wireless also introduced: — ZoneDirector 3000, a line of scalable, easy-to-use enterprise WLAN controllers for Ruckus ZoneFlex APs, and; — Ruckus FlexMaster remote Wi-Fi management system for centralized management of ZoneFlex APs and/or WLANs over a wide area IP network. Selina Lo, president and CEO of Ruckus Wireless, said the company’s new product addresses three missing ingredients that have stymied the deployment of wireless meshing within the enterprise: 1) scalable capability, 2) easy deployment and 3) low maintenance. Ruckus SmartMesh is based on intelligent beam-steering technology pioneered by Ruckus Wireless called Smart Wi-Fi, which controls the form and direction of Wi-Fi signals, adapting them in real-time to the changing RF environment due to interference, distance and physical obstructions. Beam steering extends signal range and minimizes the number of mesh nodes needed for a given coverage area. This in turn reduces the associated “hop” delay that can reduce client throughput by 50 percent or more per hop. Automatic interference avoidance and optimum path selection enables the SmartMesh to deliver consistent high performance. As a result, the company claims that Ruckus 802.11n SmartMesh AP is capable of delivering higher throughput than a standard 802.11g wired AP even across two mesh hops. The use of Smart Wi-Fi antennas also minimizes neighbor node interference within the mesh — unlike omni-directional antennas that radiate signals in all directions all the time, Smart Wi-Fi signals are directed speciﬁcally to the receiver only for the duration of a transmission. SmartMesh optimizes network topology by continually determining the best path to clients as well as among mesh backhaul nodes. Self-healing around RF problems and autorecovery in the event of an AP failure ensure high availability. www.mwee.com/207401125 Nitronex and Nujira work on WiMAX PAs Nitronex and Nujira announced that they are working together to design a power ampliﬁer (PA) reference design for WiMAX basestations delivering over 45 percent efﬁciency using GaN devices and high accuracy tracking technology. Using a 4-channel WCDMA waveform the companies report that they have been able to realize more than +44 dBm of linear power with 45 percent efﬁciency at a linearity of -55 dBc using conventional DPD (digital pre-distortion) techniques. In addition, the companies claim that the same devices achieved +43.2 dBm of linear power with 43 percent efﬁciency under a WiMAX waveform with 20 MHz video bandwidth and 8.2 dB PAR. Samples of the NPT25100, simulation models and standard evaluation boards are available immediately from Nitronex. Samples of the ampliﬁer pallet optimized for high accuracy tracking integrated with Nujira’s power modulator enabling customers to develop ampliﬁers using their own DPD systems will be available in 3Q08. www.mwee.com/207401800 Microwave Engineering ● May 2008 ● www.mwee.com http://www.mwee.com/207100187 http://www.mwee.com/207401123 http://www.mwee.com/207401125 http://www.mwee.com/207401800 http://www.mwee.com

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Microwave Engineering Europe - May 2008 News Contents Comment Cover Feature: How to Succeed as a GaAs Foundry Wireless Networking: Wireless Coverage Where Everybody WINS Wireless Networking: Achieving Good Coexistence in the 2.4 GHz ISM Band GPS and Satellite: GPS developments: Galileo Moves Forward with Successful Giove-B Satellite Launch — Broadcom Targets AGPS in Mobile Phones and Devices Raising the Bar for the Radio: Making 802.11n Work Reducing Power Consumption in Ultrawideband Chips WiMax Catches Second Test Wave Products Calendar

Microwave Engineering Europe - May 2008

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