PicoChip Develops LTE Femtocell Development Kit

picoChip ­has launched a LTE development system for base stations that will cover particularly small cell sizes. Many analysts and operators believe that LTE will require a dense network of small cells optimized for high-capacity data services to deliver on its full potential. The PC9608/9 is optimized for this 'metrozone' architecture (also called 'LTE femto').

"LTE network trials using traditional macro-basestations are already under way in the US, Japan and Europe," said Aditya Kaul, senior analyst, mobile networks at ABI. "While LTE will most likely be deployed from the macro layer first, operators realize that simply providing LTE coverage will not be enough. They will need to soon complement the macro network with targeted metro, enterprise and residential femtocell deployments. We forecast that by 2014 shipments for LTE femtocells will reach 20 million annually, with most LTE femtocells supporting 3G in multimode."

The core of the product is a software-defined LTE modem that is compliant with 3GPP standards and can be rapidly optimized and customized via an API. Based on picoChip's established PC203 picoArray silicon, the system supports both TDD and FDD versions of LTE, and a variety of 3GPP-defined frequencies and bandwidth specifications within the standard.

The hardware is integrated into a single chassis based on the industry-standard MicroTCA (µTCA) architecture.

Posted to the site on 11th September 2009