Eager to capture a piece of an estimated $2 billion equipment market, Texas Instruments Inc. is plunging into the WiMAX infrastructure business. The company today introduced a number of components it said comprise an end-to-end solution that gives carriers and infrastructure vendors the ability to deploy WiMAX networks faster, while being flexible enough to allow customers to customize their own solutions.
WiMAX crosses both the wireless and fixed broadband space-as do TI products, said John Smrstik, TI’s wireless infrastructure DSP marketing manager. TI plans to leverage its expertise in wireless, where it supplies technology to original equipment manufacturers that build base stations, with its experience in broadband applications. Indeed, the chipmaker says it is the leader in DSL with 100 million ports shipped.
Often referred to as Wi-Fi on steroids, WiMAX is broadband wireless technology based on the 802.16 standard. The mobile “e” standard was finally approved by the IEEE in December, and certified products and services are expected to be deployed by next year. Indeed, a number of heavy-hitting vendors like Intel Corp., Nortel Networks Ltd., Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. are investing heavily in the technology, as are a significant number of startup companies.
Proponents contend WiMAX is a cheaper way to offer wireless broadband access. Depending on an individual carrier’s needs, WiMAX technology can be used for cellular backhaul, rural deployments, greenfield applications, portable mobility and last-mile connectivity.
Texas Instruments said one of the benefits of its technology is that carriers can future-proof their networks. “Because our solutions are based on programmable DSPs, our customers can reuse their hardware and software to support other emerging OFDM standards,” said Sandeep Kumar, TI’s wireless infrastructure strategic marketing manager. Also, some of the products can be used in third-generation cellular networks.
Among Texas Instruments’ product introductions:
- The company released a 1 GHz DSP-based 802.16e base-station solution. The company said the DSP will enable its customers to develop custom high-performance WiMAX systems. The solution includes the TMS320TCI6482 DSP, optimized baseband software and development tools. Further, it supports fixed and mobile applications across various frequency bands. WiMAX networks in the United States are mainly expected to use the 2.5 GHz band, while internationally the 3.5 GHz band will house licensed WiMAX solutions. The 5.8 GHz band and others also are mentioned as appropriate frequencies for the WiMAX protocol.
- TI also said it is teaming with ArrayComm to combine that company’s smart-antenna technology with TI’s DSPs. “Compared with existing systems, this combined solution provides operators with four-fold improvements in wireless system coverage, data rates more than doubled and a capacity increase as much as 10 times, all with better coverage quality for 802.16 WiMAX and W-CDMA/HSDPA networks,” TI said.
- TI also introduced the TRF3703 modulator to support WiMAX solutions, as well as second- and third-generation CDMA and GSM networks. The high-performance, low-noise in-phase quadrature modulator supports RF transmissions up to 4 GHz.
- The company said it will work with Mercury Computer systems Inc. to develop the Mercury MTI-203 advanced mezzanine card for WiMAX digital baseband applications.
- Finally, TI said it joined the WiMAX Forum.
