You’ve seen things, read stuff, and heard nonsense, but at the end of the day, more likely than not, you don’t know what the heck to think of 4G WiMAX. Here for you today is part two of our tour through the market – we take you to Clearwire, the provider of CLEAR service itself, and examine the hardware options it offers to those looking to buy into its service.
You’ve seen things, read stuff, and heard nonsense, but at the end of the day, more likely than not, you don’t know what the heck to think of 4G WiMAX. However, despite all the technical mumbo-jumbo choking way-too-savvy blogs and overenthused advertisements, we do believe it’s worth it to jump on the bandwagon and get it on the hottest new mobile trend to seize the grand ol’ US of A. Therefore, for your viewing pleasure (and poor, overworked brain), we’ve put together a shopping list to help you get your 4G fix, WiMAX-style, one hardware provider at a time.
Using conventional wisdom and keen powers of observation, your average enlightened follower of wireless trends may have long ago declared LTE the “royal highness” of 4G network technology standards on the European continent; But even with the region’s more developed nations opting for Long Term Evolution as their chief 4G format, Samsung isn’t quite ready to take part in that coronation ceremony.
The Korean mega-conglomerate is still holding strong to the belief that there’s plenty more fruit to be harvested from the WiMax technology tree. That fruit may not be plucked in wealthier countries like Sweden, Great Britain, and Germany; Samsung sees their fortunes rising where the sun does–in the east. Having struck two deals to provide 802.16e infrastructure for the rollouts of two national WiMax networks in Bulgaria and the Ukraine, they may be laying the foundation for even further success spreading and improving WiMax in the region for countries looking for a more cost-effective solution to improving their speed of their net access.
The devices at the center of these respective rollouts are Samsung’s U-RAS Smart CP base stations, which Ukraine’s Intellicom LLC will deploy to their top 4 markets by June 2011, hopefully making WiMax readily available to 20 million households by 2013. They’re not alone in trying to tackle that market though, as rival Ukraine High Technologies will be boxing them out for position for customers on a national level.
Bulgarian service provider, Max Telecom, will utilize the Smart base stations in an effort to upgrade its existing WiMax networks to best competing operators TransTelecom and Nexcom Bulgaria LLC. As a chief selling point of the new network Max will be boasting of their “high-quality VoIP” services that they hope will be available to the nation’s population of 7.6 million by 2012. Bulgaria’s WiMax users are expected to more than triple by 2015.
Though an investment for the further development of WiMax technology in a region where the 4G standard isn’t exactly “killing it” may seem risky for Ukrainian and Bulgarian providers alike; the U-RAS Smart CP Base Stations takes into account the potential shift of preference by supporting “a migration to WiMax 2 (802.16m) and TD-LTE, the alternative technology that can operate on the same spectrum as WiMax.” It’s better to be safe than sorry.… Read the rest
Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint are the companies leading the way for this new product. They exude confidence during technology fairs concluding that the 4G revolution is upon us. They’ve developed products to help connect to the network such as portable modems, usb drives, and sim cards. They’ve even entitled their networks; Sprint’s being WIMAX (World-wide Interoperability for Microwave Access) while Verizon and AT&T’s shall be called LTE (Long Term Evolution). However, perhaps their confidence is missed guided and their promise of debuting in 2013 is unrealistic.
WIMAX developed by the Sprint and Clear companies respectively, seems to be losing ground in the United States amidst their attempt to bring WIMAX success domestically. Though they’ve raised 3.2 billion dollars in investments to produce the network, Sprint and Clear may have underestimated how expensive it is to blanket the country in connectivity. Sprint, the lesser of the three major telecommunications distributors in the country, may not have enough currency to continue production if the 3.2 billion isn’t enough, and investors Google, Time Warner, and Intel may grow weary of waiting and pull their investments early. Also those dependent on their WIMAX’s success is far less than those who are dependent on LTE”s success due to the fact that Verizon and AT&T are far larger companies. … Read the rest
Gemtek and Beceem teamed up to launch Gemtek’s latest CPE and USB WiMAX modems. The technology utilizes Beceem’s BCSx350 WiMAX chip. The devices improve the uplink performance. It enhances the coverage area of an operator’s network. Beceem’s ‘Twin Turbo”, is a patented dual transmit uplink technology that provides up to 6dB of performance gain compared to Wave 2 uplink technology. The BCSx350 supports more than 40Mbps peak downlink throughput, more than 10Mbps faster than most WiMAX devices.
“Our Twin Turbo solution offers significant uplink performance improvements over traditional WiMAX modems. Operators are very sensitive to the uplink capabilities of the devices in their network, since the uplink has direct impact on network spending and quality,” said James Chen, senior director of marketing for Beceem Communications. “The up to 6dB of extra gain provided by the Twin Turbo will make Gemtek’s new CPE and USB modems the clear performance Benchmark in the industry.”
The BCSx350 comes in two different models, the BCSM350 for mobile or embedded WiMAX devices and BCS5350 for CPEs that support data, voice and WiFi on a single chip.
Accton Wireless Broadband has also enlisted Beceem for their release of AWB’s new CPE platform. It’s based on the BCS5350 chip. AWB will make and market different CPEs from the basic modem to a series of devices that supports multiple voice and data connection plus integrated WiFi. Using one chip means that development and costs are reduced. The platform supports full data throughput along with support of two VoIP lines and WiFi AP stack.
“AWB is well known for its WiMAX modems, and the BCS5350 — with its Twin Turbo and integrated VoIP support — offers a combination of increased performance with a significantly reduced bill of materials,” said Aditya Agrawal, senior director of marketing for Beceem Communications.
These deals show that Beceem provides some of the better chip sets on the WiMAX market. They seem committed to providing the leading WiMAX products. They’ve also expanded, looking to get 110 million dollars.… Read the rest
Leading 4G chip provider, Beceem Communications, announced today the launch of its BCSx350 chip, the company’s sixth-generation WiMAX chip. It includes a patented “Twin-Turbo” dual transmit uplink technology, providing up to 6dB of performance gain compared to traditional Wave 2 uplink technology. It is the most advanced 4G-WiMAX platform ever designed.
“Performance and market leadership are the hallmarks of our 4G products,” said Lars Johnsson, vice president of marketing and business for Beceem Communications. “We continue to invest heavily in improving the performance of WiMAX networks and devices, and our new BCSx350 chip is by far the most capable 4G-WiMAX chip given its further increased uplink performance and continuously reduced power consumption.”
The new BCSx350 comes in two models – the BCSM350 for mobile/embedded devices and the BCS5350 for high-performance, low-cost CPE that simultaneously support data, voice, and WiFi in a single chip. It is expected to go into mass production Q2/2010.… Read the rest
Beceem Communications unveiled its latest chip. The BCS500 will help bridge the gap between two competing 4G technologies, with customers given the choice between WiMax and LTE.
The BCS500 supports the 802.16 IEEE and the 3GPP-LTE standard’s Release 8 specifications.
The chip will be available for sampling in the fourth quarter of this year with mass production expected in the second quarter of 2011.
Photo Courtesy of Chantal Wagner via Flickr… Read the rest
Sequans Communications has released mimoMAX 2.0. It’s an improved version of their patented technology leading the way in its new WiMax semiconductor solutions. mimoMAX combines maximum likelihood MIMO decoder on the downlink with dual independent transmit channels on the uplink.
The two uplink channels can combine the output power of the two transmitters and immediately realize a 3 dB gain, improving signal range and throughput. mimoMAX 2.0 adds a 2Tx Closed Loop Diversity that improves the uplink performance. It accomplishes this through adding diversity gains of up to 2.5dB for an 5.5 dB overall gain.
“Every WiMAX device has two antennas and you must have two transmit channels on the uplink to fully exploit this, said Georges Karam, Sequans CEO. “Sequans was the first and is still the only chipmaker providing this capability, and now with our new 2T CLD algorithm we have enhanced it. 2T CLD dynamically selects the best diversity for a given channel environment—switched diversity or full diversity – delivering link budget gains well beyond the primitive single Tx solutions available today. The gains enabled by this technology can dramatically improve indoor penetration, cell-edge and network entry performance, and throughput. This translates into significantly improved operator economics and end-user satisfaction.”
mimoMAX 2.0 optimizes 2Tx through channel condition information from the downlink, perfecting the use of dual transmit antennas on a tone-by-tone and frame-by-frame basis. It guarantees the best possible uplink performance at every sub-carrier frequency in the channel. Combining the output power of the two channels, it increases the uplink transmit power of WiMax devices.
Sequans’ SQN1200 series of Mobile WiMAX semiconductor solutions are the most advanced and most highly integrated chips in the industry. Along with mimoMAX 2.0, they deliver baseband and triple band RF integrated in a single, 65 nm die, delivering ultra low power consumption and high throughput at a very low cost.
Sequans announced a recent partnership with
Photo Courtesy of quinn.anya via Flickr… Read the rest
Sumitomo Electric Networks will use Sequans Communications’ Mobile WiMax semiconductor to develop an ultra small CPE. The device will be called the SWiM WS2000/2001 and is targeted towards home security, M2M and automotive markets. It will be used for video, remote controlled cameras, home controllers and tracking devices as well as in-car navigation, remote diagnostics and security for vehicles.
“Sequans’ technology has enabled us to build a state-of-the art solution with very high performance, providing unique value for our particular applications,” said Takashi Suzuki, director, Suminet. “Sequans offers the most advanced and powerful WiMAX chip solutions available today.”
The SWiM WS2000 is an embedded device that measures 2.7 cm-by-4.3cm-by-0.6 cm. The SWiM WS20001 is a standalone module measuring 10.8cm-by-4.0cm-by2.6cm. Both CPEs include an Ethernet PHY and USB interface along with a complete network software suite.
Sequans unveiled its newest generation of 65 nm chips integrating baseband and triple band RF in a single day. The chips deliver the highest level of integration achieved while reducing costs and power consumption. The integrated RF covers all three global WiMax bands and supports TDD and H-FDD.
Photo Courtesy rsepulveda via Flickr… Read the rest
Sequans Communications has licensed the CEVA-X1641 DSP core to power its next generation LTE and WiMax baseband processors. The X1641 DSP core will offer flexibility for Sequans’ next chips, while continuing the chips’ industry-leading low power rating.
“As the wireless industry continues to adopt a two-pronged approach towards 4G networks, it is critical that our next-generation product lines can support both LTE and WiMAX standards in a cost-efficient and flexible manner,” said Bertrand Debray, Sequans VP of engineering. “The high-performance CEVA-X1641 DSP provides us with a programmable architecture with low cost of deployment, addressing the major challenges facing 4G chipset solutions for high-volume markets. Also, with significant legacy software, the high efficiency of the CEVA-X1641 compiler was an important criterion in our decision to adopt a new DSP architecture.”
CEVA’s DSP cores power many of the world’s leading baseband handset solutions, with a broad customer base including Infineon, ST-Ericsson, Broadcom, Samsung, Mediatek, Spreadtrum and VIA Telecom. It recently announced its partnership program with telecommunications companies as well. CEVA shipped more than 600 million handsets.
The CEVA-X1641 and CEVA-XC DSP have been designed to overcome the stringent power consumption, time-to-market and cost constraints associated with developing high-performance WiMax, LTE and software definable radio wireless communications processors. CEVA has multiple licensees developing LTE handset and infrastructure solutions based on CEVA DSP cores.
Photo Courtesy of mtlin via Flickr
… Read the rest
