AceAxis selects NetLogic's DFE processors for multimode LTE base stations

Mobile World Congress 2012, SANTA CLARA, USA: NetLogic Microsystems Inc., recently acquired by Broadcom Corp., announced that AceAxis Ltd, a leading innovator in Remote Radio Head (RRH) technology, has selected NetLogic Microsystems' industry-leading digital front-end (DFE) processors for AceAxis' RRH and Active Antenna Systems (AAS) for LTE common-platform base stations.

AceAxis' RRH and AAS solutions support a wide frequency band and have multimode, multiband, multicarrier capabilities. They are adopted and deployed by leading telecommunications OEMs and service providers for next-generation LTE services.

The exponential growth in mobile data traffic in the next decade, coupled with global spectrum scarcity, is forcing service providers and operators worldwide to push the limits on capacity and throughput for their limited spectrum. This is in turn driving a need for next-generation base stations that can support dramatically wider bandwidth, significantly more signal channels and more protocols (2G/3G/4G) in each band.

NetLogic Microsystems' best-in-class DFE processors are highly-differentiated and ideally suited to address these challenging LTE requirements. They deliver unparalleled performance of up to 5x increase in signal bandwidth and up to 9x increase in instantaneous bandwidth over available competing solutions, which dramatically improves 3G/4G LTE data rates. In addition, NetLogic Microsystems' breakthrough products enable the industry's highest spectrum efficiency through the simultaneous processing of multiple signal channels per frequency band, as well as the multi-mode co-existence of 4G LTE, 3G and 2G protocols.

"LTE is creating very stringent demands that require the most innovative Remote Radio Head and Active Antenna System technologies," said Steve Cooper, CTO at AceAxis. "We are pleased to partner with NetLogic Microsystems, whose DFE processors deliver a substantial improvement over anything else in the market. We believe NetLogic Microsystems' DFE processors will give us significant advantage, differentiation and flexibility to maximize signal bandwidth and spectral performance while minimizing power consumption and overall system cost."

AceAxis' high-performance LTE RRH and AAS solutions feature multiband capability across the full spectrum of LTE bandwidth and come in 2x2, 4x4 and 8x8 configurations. AceAxis' RRHs support carrier bandwidths across all common frequency bands, and because these software definable platforms are multimode, multiband, digital radios for OEM applications, they deliver the optimal cost, lowest power consumption and smallest size.

The AceAxis Adaptive Antenna System is the top of the range beamforming-enabled product configuration. Adaptive Antenna Systems provide a large increase in network capacity and are particularly suited to densely populated urban networks that can benefit from its multimode, multicarrier and multi-bandwidth capabilities. This beamforming solution allows wireless broadband operators to spatially reuse radio frequency spectrum and increase their network capacity. The Adaptive Antenna System flexibility also makes it the ideal solution for network operators that wish to run RAN sharing operations.

"We are pleased to have our industry-leading DFE processors selected by AceAxis for its state-of-the-art Remote Radio Heads and Active Antenna Systems," said Chris O'Reilly, senior director of marketing at Broadcom. "With the breakthrough innovations of our DFE processors, we are delivering the performance, bandwidth and efficiency that are not economically feasible in competing FPGA-based solutions."

NetLogic Microsystems' unique Universal DFE technology that is central to the DFE processor family enables base stations to support the broadest range of standards, protocols, frequency bands, and power amplifier architectures and technologies. It is ideally suited for SDR, singleRAN or GERAN transceiver deployments using Doherty, Asymmetric Doherty and Envelope-Tracking power amplifiers in LDMOS, GaN and GaAs technologies.

In addition, the Universal DFE technology enables intelligent, real-time calibration and adaptation to real-world environments and variations to ensure the highest performance and scalability for customer systems. Moreover, the best-in-class DFE processor family from NetLogic Microsystems delivers up to 80 percent better transmit power efficiency over competing solutions, which enables OEMs to achieve higher data rates at much lower transmit power levels.