Product category:
Communications ICs (Wired)
News Release from: Agere Systems | Subject: TrueAdvantage Wireless Access Solutions
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 03 May 2005
Wireless solution marries 2G and 3G
infrastructure
Agere Systems has unveiled its TrueAdvantage Wireless Access Solutions, featuring new technology that allows current and future wireless systems to be simultaneously supported over a single network.
Agere Systems has unveiled its TrueAdvantage Wireless Access Solutions, featuring new technology that allows current and future wireless systems, commonly referred to as second-generation (2G) and third-generation (3G), to be simultaneously supported over a single network The solutions also potentially save wireless service providers worldwide up to $300 million per year in T1/E1, Sonet/SDH and Ethernet leased line backhaul costs
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 8 Mar 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Agere has also revealed that NEC has selected its TrueAdvantage solution, including Advanced PayloadPlus (APP) network processor chips, for use in its wireless access equipment.
The TrueAdvantage solutions consist of a broad family of feature-rich networking chips such as APP network processors, LLP (link layer processor), TADM, Ultramapper, and Hypermapper framing and mapping devices.
Additionally, the solutions offer turnkey software packages, reference designs, and hardware development systems that allow telecom equipment manufacturers to quickly and efficiently build lower-cost, higher-performance wireless access network equipment.
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As wireless carriers add support for emerging data applications, which require higher bandwidth than voice services, the network transition from slower 2/2.5G data services to faster 3G data services is already taking place.
Wireless carriers are increasing the revenue-generating potential of their networks while simultaneously striving to reduce their costs and make better use of their backhaul transport bandwidth.
Focused specifically on the mobile wireless space, the TrueAdvantage Wireless Access Solutions efficiently address these needs and help usher in a new era of lower-cost, higher performance, and more reliable wireless communications.
Agere's platform supports a variety of protocols required for 2/2.5G and 3G networks on a single, dynamically programmable device.
Agere enables the convergence of 2/2.5G and 3G network applications into a single solution by integrating legacy 2/2.5G protocols, such as transcoder rate adapter unit (TRAU), frame relay and AAL1 circuit emulation, into a solution which also provides 3G protocol support.
By integrating required 2/2.5G protocols such as TRAU, along with the flexible protocol processing needed for more complex 3G ATM and IP networks, Agere is able to offer, for the first time in the industry, all the functionality needed to support 2G/3G converged equipment within a single device.
The benefits of this integration are analogous to merging what used to be three distinct media players (a VCR, compact disk, and digital video disk player) into a single consumer product.
By combining these player formats into one, customers now enjoy either technology without worrying about the media type or making space for three times the number of consoles in their home entertainment centres.
Before the availability of the Agere solution, the cost of simultaneously supporting 2/2.5G and 3G networks forced wireless service providers to consume precious real estate with separate equipment for each wireless network.
Agere's novel approach allows the wireless carriers to converge these networks onto a single platform, reducing equipment cost and operational expenses, improving scalability, and ultimately providing the ability to lower the cost of consumer services.
Accelerating wireless network convergence allows carriers to cut costs by reducing the number of T1/E1, Sonet/SDH and Ethernet backhaul links they must deploy.
Additional backhaul savings can be achieved by improving the efficiency of T1/E1 backhaul links with the flexible protocol processing of the TrueAdvantage Wireless Solutions.
By handling a mix of traffic types and providing support for header compression and multiplexing protocols such as PPP mux (point-to-point multiplexing) and cUDP (compress user datagram protocol), backhaul efficiency is improved by as much as 35%.
This offers wireless carriers a potential global savings of $300 million per year as fewer T1/E1 leased lines will be required to cover a service area.
All these capabilities are delivered to wireless equipment manufacturers in conjunction with the new production-ready TrueAdvantage Wireless Access Functional Programming Interface (FPI) software that runs on Agere's APP300 and APP500 network processor product families.
The FPI can be used as a black box, which can easily integrate into targeted wireless applications such as Node B, BTS, RNC and BSC wireless equipment.
In addition, equipment manufacturers can easily modify the source code to incorporate proprietary features and create differentiated systems.
As with all solutions built on the TrueAdvantage platform and Agere's network processors, the data plane software requires up to 30 times fewer lines of code for a given function than competing processors.
These development alternatives combined translate to reduced product development costs and defects and improved reliability and scalability.
Using the FPI software, manufacturers can avoid several time-consuming tasks such as learning device-specific details, programming the data plane code, and developing several hundred thousand lines of control plane code.
The FPI Software solution is estimated to save more than 8 to 10 staff years of development.
These savings are critical as 70-80% of the lifetime cost of a programmable system is in software development.
NEC has selected the APP500 network processor for use in its wireless access equipment.
Equipment makers, such as NEC, carefully consider the network processor selection as it represents a critical element within wireless equipment.
The complete Agere wireless solution supports the broad diversity of wireless protocols and interworking required.
The solution architecture offers a high level of hardware and software flexibility, as well as scalability, which in turn offers Agere's customers substantial development savings.
"Converging and saving costs of backhaul wireless links are major and related industry trends", said Allen Nogee, analyst with In-Stat.
"Agere's TrueAdvantage Wireless Access Solution, with its unprecedented integration of 2G and 3G systems onto a single network, economical software for use with network processors, and scalability for use in a wide range of wireless equipment and multiple protocols and standards, amount to key catalysts for driving this market growth".
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