HSDPA Ready Picocell Demo'd

picoChip has successfully demonstrated its HSDPA-ready 3G picocell basestation. The PC8212 is the only complete commercial reference design solution available, and the only one designed for HSDPA; it includes radio, flexible baseband, control and backhaul. picoChip supply a reference design, the PC8212 WCDMA picocell, which a manufacturer will "productise" to deliver a 'laptop-size' product that is easy to deploy and install. Operating expense ("OpEx") could further be reduced by implementing DSL for backhaul or by integrating picoChip's WiMAX PHY.

The picoChip system is fully 3GPP-compliant, has a range of 300m, capacity for 32 users and caters for any combination of voice and data. The upgrade supports HSDPA (with full 15 HS-PDSCH), with an integrated high performance MAC-hs scheduler. Future versions of software will implement new releases of the standard - or allow for a "multi-lingual" basestation with different standards on the same hardware.

The higher frequency, capacity/coverage nature of CDMA, and the commercial importance of high-speed data access all mean that picocells and hotspot coverage are far more important for WCDMA than they were for GSM. This is further fuelled by HSDPA, which is most effective at shorter ranges, the difficulty of site acquisition for large basestations and the growing need for in-building coverage to capture the business of high-value corporate users - critically important for carriers in a saturating market."

Posted to the site on 29th April 2004