New Fujitsu Integrated Flexible WiMAX SoC Supports Femto Base Stations, and Can Scale to Pico and Micro Base Station Architectures

WiMAX World 2008, Chicago, October 1, 2008 — Fujitsu Microelectronics America, Inc. (FMA), a global leader in WiMAX-compliant broadband wireless technology, today announced a new Fujitsu mobile WiMAX base station SoC, a highly integrated, flexible device built using the leading-edge Fujitsu 65nm process technology.

Designed to meet the cost requirements of a femto base station architecture, the scalable WiMAX SoC can support pico and micro base station architectures, enabling system manufacturers to implement a single solution across multiple, small base-station platforms.

The new SoC incorporates all the PHY and MAC features along with the analog and digital radio control, and analog circuits required for base station products to pass Mobile WiMAX Wave 2 certification requirements. An on-chip processing unit delivers the power needed to handle all functions of a femto base station. For larger base station applications, an additional processor can be connected by means of a PCI host interface to handle larger demands for more throughput and a bigger user base.

The SoC also provides a full range of commonly used interfaces. The power requirements are approximately 2W, typically enabling a full femto base station to operate on less than 10W.

“There is growing demand for small base-station platforms that have significantly lower capital and operating costs compared with macro base stations,” said George Wu, director of the Fujitsu Wireless Solutions Business Group. “The use of many smaller base stations can provide coverage and increase capacity, while reducing user churn because of disappointing performance. Our new mobile WiMAX base station SoC is designed with the flexibility to meet those requirements, with all the features and performance to assure system certification.”

“The femtocell value proposition is fairly straightforward: all the benefits of WiFi-based FMC without the need to force users into choosing from a limited supply of dual-mode devices,” said Peter Jarich, research director with Current Analysis. “From a commercial perspective, however, the promise of low-cost home base stations that end-users and operators can afford has transformed the WiMAX femtocell from an abstract concept into a business model that operators are actively investigating and planning for.”

The Fujitsu femto solution supports up to 10 users with seven simultaneous flows, each with enhanced support for self-organizing networks and on-chip IPSec support for non-secure, back-haul traffic applications. The new SoC can be designed into femto base stations for indoor applications; into pico stations for indoor or outdoor applications by service providers or enterprise networks; and into micro base stations for outdoor use by service providers.

To help meet the cost target anticipated for consumer-grade femto devices, Fujitsu has developed a femto base station reference design kit that includes all required software and hardware for ODMs or contract manufacturers to build a cost-effective system solution.

The new SoC continues Fujitsu’s leadership in WiMAX technology, which began in April 2005 with the release of the MB87M3400, a highly integrated WiMAX system-on-chip that complies with the 802.16-2004 standard.

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