Broadcom Announces Industry's First 5 Gbps Chipset for Microwave Backhaul

IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today introduced two new system-on-chip (SoC) devices to provide mobile access carriers with industry-leading capacity and spectral efficiency to boost existing microwave backhaul infrastructure. The new SoCs are the first to deliver 5 gigabit per second (Gbps) speeds and deliver a 4X increase in spectral efficiency¹ of 48 bps/Hz. Broadcom will showcase its innovations for the mobile and carrier ecosystem at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, March 2-5. For more news, visit Broadcom's Newsroom.

Broadcom's two new SoCs are each designed to support the growing surge in data traffic over the wireless network. With more than six billion people communicating over cellular networks² and the growth of mobile services such as 5G and LTE, optimization and efficiency in the backhaul is essential and a more efficient technology can deliver greater capacity over the same spectrum.

"Broadcom continues to advance its merchant silicon solutions for the microwave backhaul infrastructure market to meet the growing data demands of mobile consumers," said Ran Soffer, Broadcom General Manager of Microwave. "Our newest offerings provide mobile access carriers an increase in capacity over the same spectrum band in a modular and flexible way."

Broadcom's BCM85650 features integrated cross-polarization interference cancellation (XPIC) and line-of-sight multiple-input and multiple-output (LoS-MIMO) functionalities to boost spectral efficiency. Innovative integrated LoS-MIMO technology significantly eases carrier deployments by supporting flexible antenna placement and reducing external connection and hardware requirements. The BCM85650 includes a dual-core wideband modem and supports advanced channel aggregation functionality for flexible and efficient capacity doubling. It also delivers 4K-QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation), the industry's highest modulation available today.

The Broadcom^® BCM85820 enables capacity and spectral efficiency gains through integrated support for XPIC, MIMO, 4K-QAM modulation, 112MHz channels and channel aggregation functionality. The BCM85820 employs advanced digital RF correction mechanisms, such as adaptive digital-pre-distortion (ADPD) functionary to achieve high system gain. The highly-integrated BCM85820 includes full transceiver as well as synthesizer components.

"Mobile operators must deliver an outstanding customer experience at the right price, in order to retain customers in a highly competitive market," said Michael Howard, Infonetics/IHS Principal Analyst. "Improving customer experience is dependent on satisfying growing mobile backhaul demands, and this requires new technology, such as higher spectral efficiency and flexible frequency bands—which achieve lower cost per bit when supporting more users at higher speeds. We expect that equipment manufacturers and mobile operators will appreciate Broadcom's latest SoCs deliver more capacity and coverage into the mobile network."

Broadcom's new offerings enable carriers and telecom equipment manufacturers to enjoy a modular and flexible system design with a "pay-as-grow" architecture, supporting capacity doubling with XPIC or carrier aggregation and capacity quadrupling with XPIC + carrier aggregation or XPIC + MIMO. 

Key Features

• 5 Gbps capacity
• 48bps/Hz spectral efficiency
• Integrated XPIC, LoS-MIMO and Advanced Channel Aggregation functionality
• Modulation up to 4K-QAM
• Wide channels up to 112 MHz
• High system gain using Digital RF correction (e.g. Adaptive DPD)
• Modular and flexible system architecture
• Highly integrated: dual-core, DSP, digital tuner, IF, MIMO, XPIC, full transceiver, synthesizers

Availability
Broadcom's BCM85650 and BCM85820 are currently sampling.

For ongoing Broadcom news visit our Newsroom, read our B-Connected Blog, or visit us on Facebook or Twitter. And to stay connected, subscribe to our RSS Feed.

Resources
¹ As compared to previous generation devices
² IHS 2014

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a FORTUNE 500® company, is a global leader and innovator in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom® products seamlessly deliver voice, video, data and multimedia connectivity in the home, office and mobile environments. With one of the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip solutions, Broadcom is changing the world by connecting everything®.  For more information, go to www.broadcom.com.

Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything^® and the Connecting everything logo are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Infrastructure

Related Links

http://www.broadcom.com