picoChip, a provider of femtocell technology, has launched two new picoXcell system-on-chip (SoC) devices, PC313 and PC323 chips, and an integrated suite of HSPA+ femtocell access point (FAP) software.
The PC323 has been designed to accommodate up to 24 simultaneous users for enterprise, campus, rural and metro femtocell usage scenarios with a cell radius of up to 2km. Two cascaded devices can be used to power systems with 48 users.
According to picoChip, both devices incorporate a 600MHz ARM11 subsystem optimised for low power computing, providing the processing for the RNC stack; and can support 3GPP luh or SIP/IMS. The devices also include hardware support for security features for authentication, location, detection, encryption and code protection.
In addition, the new femtocell pin-out standard enables manufacturers to develop products that extend from four-user residential product through eight- and 16-user femtocells, up to fully featured 48-user enterprise, metro-femto, the company said.
picoChip said that the PC2200 FAP software provides all of the core components of a 3GPP standards-defined Home NodeB, and offers software modules required to realise a complete 3GPP Home NodeB. It consists of six components, the PC2209 RNC stack, PC2252 network synchronisation module, PC2256 security module, PC2257 operations and maintenance module, PC2258 self-organising network module, and PC2259 radio resource manager module.
Nigel Toon, CEO of picoChip, said: “Just as importantly, we also have the most complete range of products. Operators already value the ability to deliver perfect ‘five bar’ coverage to domestic users: but the next generation of femtocells will do more than that, changing operator revenue models, enabling new services, and fundamentally revolutionizing the way carriers build networks.”
