The Broadcom BCM56440 Ethernet switch SoC should shorten time-to-market and lower costs and power consumption in new, faster backhaul equipment for mobile networks.

With smart-phone growth expected to double during the next four years, tablet sales forecast to exceed 100 million units in 2015, and laptop network connections growing, the packet data load is only going to get worse. Wireless carriers are responding by rolling out Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMAX 4G networks and upgrading 3G networks with HSPA+.

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The biggest bottlenecks in this expansion are the backhaul connections that previously used legacy T1 time domain multiplexing (TDM) lines. Updates to fiber and microwave Internet protocol (IP) solutions with Carrier Ethernet are underway, and Broadcom is helping this conversion with a new Ethernet switch that promises to reduce costs, power consumption, and size for backhaul equipment (see the figure).

As part of Broadcom’s StrataXGS family, the BCM56440 combines up to seven other ICs into a single 40-nm system-on-a-chip (SoC). It should lower the bill-of-materials (BOM) cost and capital expenditures (CAPEX) of backhaul equipment by up to 50%. It also encapsulates all the necessary Ethernet components, eliminating network processing units (NPUs) and FPGAs.

Designed for low-power consumption with Energy Efficient Ethernet, the BCM56440’s non-blocking architecture enables line-rate operation for all packet sizes. The chip also features an integrated traffic manager, an on-chip 2-Mbyte packet buffer with interface to an external DDR3 SDRAM, and support for all Carrier Ethernet protocols. It supports OA&M and IEEE 802.1ag as well as IEEE 1588v2 time synchronization hardware.

Furthermore, the BCM56440 features L2 switching, L3 routing, metro virtual private network (VPN) tunneling, and access control lists. Interfaces include 24 Gigabit Ethernet (1GE) ports and four 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GE) XAUI ports. Legacy T1 ports are included to provide an easy transition from TDM to Ethernet. The BCM56440 is available in samples now, and full production is expected in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Broadcom Corp.
www.broadcom.com