ip.access selects Freescale’s QorIQ Qonverge small cell SoC technology for first LTE picocell base station

AUSTIN, USA: The newest small cell base station from market-leading wireless infrastructure provider ip.access is powered by Freescale Semiconductor’s QorIQ Qonverge PSC9132 processor. Launched today, ip.access’ E-100 Access Point targets the Enterprise space, supports simultaneous 3G and LTE transmission and is the first LTE product from the company.

“ip.access embodies the state-of-the-art in small cell network infrastructure equipment,” said Scott Aylor, GM of Freescale’s Wireless Access Division. “This design win underscores the strong market adoption our QorIQ Qonverge products have experienced since their introduction last year.”

The QorIQ Qonverge PSC9132 processor provides data speeds of up to 150 Mbps for LTE users and 42 Mbps speeds for 3G users. Building on these capabilities, the E-100 AP is designed to let mobile network operators provide high-speed data and high-quality voice services to their subscribers in offices, shops, hotels and other hard-to-reach indoor locations.

“After an extensive RFQ process, it was clear that Freescale is the ideal partner to supply the defining processor for our dual-mode 3G/LTE AP products,” said Dr. Nick Johnson, CTO for ip.access. “Freescale’s QorIQ Qonverge line offers unmatched scalability, performance and multimode capability in a highly advanced system-on-chip solution.”

ip.access provides end-to-end small cell infrastructure solutions that solve mobile network coverage issues and increase network capacity for home, business or public use. The company’s nanoGSM and nano3G picocell solutions provide 2G and 3G coverage and capacity for offices, shops, stations, remote rural areas and even passenger aircraft and ships, with live installations in more than 60 networks worldwide including AT&T, T-Mobile, Telefónica O2, TeliaSonera and Bharti Airtel.

In 2011, ip.access passed the milestone of 500,000 3G small cells deployed, and is the company behind the Oyster 3G femtocell technology inside AT&T’s 3G MicroCell, the world’s largest consumer small cell deployment.

QorIQ Qonverge base station-on-chip products are based on a common architecture and integrate communications processing, digital signal processing and wireless acceleration technologies into a single system-on-chip in various configurations optimized for next-generation femtocell, picocell, metrocell and macrocell base stations. Advanced process technology and exceptional integration allow the convergence on a single device of multiple functions traditionally performed on separate FPGAs, ASICs, DSPs and processors. This integration reduces the part count, power consumption, cost and footprint for base stations. The common architecture spanning from femtocells to macrocells helps optimize R&D investments and software reuse.

Freescale leveraged its broad R&D scale, deep application knowledge of the wireless space and extensive IP portfolio to develop the QorIQ Qonverge product family. The processors combine multiple Power Architecture cores and high-performance StarCore DSPs with a MAPLE multimode baseband accelerator, packet processing acceleration engines, interconnect fabric and next-node process technology. The portfolio’s products support multiple standards, including GSM, LTE – FDD & TDD, LTE-Advanced, HSPA+, TD-SCDMA and WiMAX. In addition, the portfolio’s flexible architecture allows support for evolving standards with software upgrades.