picoChip unveils ultra-low-cost 3G picocell basestation

April 29, 2004

picoChip successfully demonstrated its ultra-low-cost HSDPA-ready 3G picocell basestation at The Commodity Basestation conference in Bath, UK. The PC8212 is the only complete commercial reference design solution available, and the only one designed for HSDPA; it includes radio, flexible baseband, control and backhaul. It enables manufacturers to quickly develop and release fully 3GPP-compliant systems, reducing development cost and time-to-market. Picocells are the 3G equivalent of WiFi access points and are essential for cost-effective deployment of high-speed data (14Mbps) and voice services to "hot spot" areas and for corporate in-building service.

Speaking at the Commodity Basestation Conference, Rupert Baines, vice president of marketing at picoChip commented, "As 3G moves beyond simple coverage, the industry needs cost-effective picocells and HSDPA. There is a real requirement for speedy entry to market and product differentiation to meet carrier demand. 3G access points are being developed by existing suppliers - but interestingly we are seeing new competitors crossing over from WiFi."

picoChip supply a reference design, the PC8212 WCDMA picocell, which a manufacturer will "productise" to deliver a 'laptop-size' product that is easy to deploy and install. Operating expense ("OpEx") could further be reduced by implementing DSL for backhaul or by integrating picoChip's WiMAX PHY.

Rupert Baines continues, "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. New entrants can take this solution to instantly obtain a carrier-class product; while major manufactures can use it as a basis for accelerating development while still leveraging their unique IP."

The picoChip system is fully 3GPP-compliant, has a range of 300m, capacity for 32 users and caters for any combination of voice and data. The upgrade supports HSDPA (with full 15 HS-PDSCH), with an integrated high performance MAC-hs scheduler. Future versions of software will implement new releases of the standard - or allow for a "multi-lingual" basestation with different standards on the same hardware.

The higher frequency, capacity/coverage nature of CDMA, and the commercial importance of high-speed data access all mean that picocells and hotspot coverage are far more important for WCDMA than they were for GSM. This is further fuelled by HSDPA, which is most effective at shorter ranges, the difficulty of site acquisition for large basestations and the growing need for in-building coverage to capture the business of high-value corporate users - critically important for carriers in a saturating market.

The picoChip demonstration showed: calls to the PSTN (public network), illustrating complete, end-to-end network compatibility; high speed data with 384Kbps (increasing with the HSDPA software update); verified interoperability and compatibility with standard, off-the-shelf commercial phones.

The PC8212 WCDMA picocell reference design is available now from picoChip, and is shipped with software for the baseband and control, a radio reference design and circuit board layouts. It currently supports Release 4 and will be upgraded to HSDPA when interoperability testing is complete. This complements the company's existing reference designs for WCDMA and upgradeable WiMAX (IEEE 802.16d and e) PHY library.