Chips Enable 19 Mbps transfer rate on 3G Networks
October 16, 2002
Lucent Technologies' Chips Poised to Bring "BLAST"
Multiple Input/Multiple Output Technology to Laptops, PDAs and
Other Mobile Devices
Lucent Technologies today announced that Bell Labs, its research
and development arm, has designed two prototype chips for mobile
devices that implement its multiple input/multiple output (MIMO)
wireless network technology, called Bell Labs Layered Space-Time
(BLAST).
These chips, which conform to industry standards for size and power
consumption, demonstrate that BLAST technology can be deployed in
mobile devices commercially. In initial lab testing, the chips lived
up to theoretical predictions, receiving data in a third-generation
(3G) mobile network at a blazing 19.2 Megabits per second (Mbps).
By comparison, today's fastest 3G networks, offer maximum speeds
of roughly 2.5 Mbps.
BLAST uses multiple antennas at the terminal and base station to
send and receive wireless signals at ultra-high speeds. When utilized
in base station equipment and mobile devices, it permits higher-speed
mobile data connections for notebook PCs and handheld data devices
such as personal digital assistants (PDAs). This will enable mobile
operators to provide higher-quality, higher-speed data services
to a substantially greater number of subscribers than is possible
with the best 3G network technology available today, increasing
the value of their 3G investment dramatically.
"There has been a scramble around the world to put MIMO in silicon,"
said Ran Yan, vice president, Wireless Research at Bell Labs. "We
believe ours are the world's first chips that can be used in handsets
with four antennas, and therefore the first capable of such high
transmission speeds. Not only have we proven the commercial feasibility
of BLAST, but we've also verified the performance figures our researchers
predicted when they first theorized that it might be possible to
exploit interference to achieve faster and more efficient communications."
Lucent is also working to speed the commercial introduction of
MIMO technology by making its family of Flexent® OneBTS™ base stations
MIMO-ready. By doing so, a base station purchased today will provide
mobile operators with a cost effective and seamless way to support
this technology in the future when MIMO-enabled mobile devices become
commercially available.
"The development of these chips offers tremendous promise as a
key element of our effort to help our customers extend the value
of their existing infrastructure investments," said Paul Mankiewich,
chief technical officer of Lucent's Mobility Solutions Group. "This
technology has the potential to greatly enhance the coverage, capacity
and speed of 3G networks."
A Bell Labs research team in Sydney, Australia, designed the chips
in collaboration with researchers at Bell Labs' Crawford Hill facility
in New Jersey where BLAST was originally invented. The two chips
have been tested successfully in four-antenna terminal configuration
that also uses four transmit antennas at the base station. These
chips, one for detecting BLAST signals and the other for decoding
them, are small enough and consume so little power that they could
be used in cell phones or laptop computers with minimal impact on
battery life.
Lucent plans to license the chips' designs to mobile handset, PC
card and other device manufacturers that may be interested in integrating
MIMO into future products. The company is also working with 3G wireless
standards groups to ensure that emerging MIMO standards support
BLAST. Building on its success to date, the Bell Labs team also
plans to use different modulation schemes and antenna configurations
to achieve even higher data rates for future generations of BLAST
chips.
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3G Motorola A920
