Targeting the market for multimode small cells, Freescale Semiconductor added WCDMA/HSPA+ multimode capability to its LTE L1 software, which runs on its QorIQ Qonverge BSC9132 system on chip (SoC). The chip vendor claims it is one of the first companies to bring both multimode-capable hardware and software to market.
Freescale's QorIQ Qonverge BSC9132 SoC targets evolving microcell/metrocell, outdoor picocell, enterprise picocell and femtocell base station applications. The processor supports a 20 MHz single sector LTE-FDD/TDD with 150 Mbps downlink and 75 Mbps uplink rates, and HSPA+ with 42 Mbps downlink and 11.5 Mbps uplink rates. It also supports the WiMAX air interface.
"Freescale is helping accelerate the ability of small cell manufacturers to deliver multimode picocell solutions that work together seamlessly and meet the requirements of wireless network operators," said Stephen Turnbull, wireless marketing manager for Freescale's digital networking business.
At an industry conference this past spring, Bill Smith, president of network operations at AT&T (NYSE:T), said AT&T is planning to include WCDMA, Wi-Fi and LTE in each small cell it deploys.
In addition, Mobile Experts has predicted that more than 5 million carrier-grade small cells will ship in 2017, and each one will have an average of 2.2 licensed frequency bands built in. "Multimode operation (HSPA, LTE, and Wi-Fi running simultaneously) will be standard," said Joe Madden, Mobile Experts principal analyst.
For more:
- see this Freescale release
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