WiMAX SoC Fits Femto And Other Basestation Architectures

Nov 5, 2008 10:45 AM, By Louis E. Frenzel, Editor in Chief

Fujitsu’s latest WiMAX-compliant basestation system-on-a-chip (SoC) is a good fit for almost all new WiMAX basestation designs, including femtocells, picocells, and microcells. The chip is fully scalable, making it possible for system manufacturers to implement a single design that fits multiple basestation platforms.

Article Tools

The SoC incorporates all the physical-layer (PHY) and media-access controller (MAC) features along with all the analog and digital radio control and analog circuits required for Mobile WiMAX Wave 2 certification, including multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) support.

An on-chip dual-ARM926 processor handles all the functions of a femto basestation. But for larger basestations, an additional processor can be connected via a PCI host interface to deal with the heavier demands for more throughput. A MAC/PHY co-processor works with the orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) PHY.

Both analog and digital I/Q signals are provided. IPSec support includes AES-CCM, AES-CBC, and HMAC-SHA-1 for non-secure backhaul traffic applications. The SoC works with several of the available RF radio ICs.

Interfaces include a DDR2 and flash interface and an Etherent 10/100/1000 MAC as well as the PCI interface. Peripherals available on-chip include a UART, DMAC, timers, GPIO, SPI, and I2C. Low-speed analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and digital-to-analog converters (DACs) are also available. A network synchronization interface is provided for both GPS and IEEE 1588v2 timing solutions.

In femto applications, the chip handles up to 10 users with up to seven simultaneous flows. For picocells and microcells, the chip can provide support for up to 200 users with the added processing power. There is also Open Base Station Architecture Initiative (OBSAI) and Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) support for optical connections to remote radio heads.

The chip is made with Fujitsu 65-nm process technology. It consumes 2 W in a low-power femto solution. For a 2x2 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) basestation with 22-dBm power, the consumption is less than 10 W. A complete femto reference design kit that includes all hardware and software is available for ODMs and contract manufacturers who want to make a cost-effective product. For price and availability, contact Fujitsu.