CommAgility and AxisNT demonstrate interoperability for WiMAX and LTE wireless baseband applications

Demonstration system using AxisNT’s remote radio head and CommAgility’s signal processing board shown at LTE World Summit

18th November 2008

CommAgility and Axis Network Technology announced today that they are working together to develop solutions for WiMAX and LTE (Long Term Evolution of 3GPP) baseband processing for wireless base stations. At the LTE World Summit (www.lteconference.com) in London, the two companies are demonstrating the interoperability of AxisNT’s Remote Radio Head (RRH) with CommAgility’s AMC-3C87F signal processing board.

The fully-working demonstration system shows data being generated on the CommAgility board, passed to the AxisNT RRH over CPRI and then output as a OFDMA modulated RF signal. This RF signal is then displayed on a spectrum analyser to show 8W output power at 64QAM meeting the ETS 302 544 spectral mask and stringent EVM specifications.

CommAgility’s AMC-3C87F provides a mix of DSP and FPGA processing power together with flexible, high bandwidth I/O connectivity. It includes three Texas Instruments TCI6487 multi-core DSPs running at 1GHz and a Xilinx Virtex-5 SX95T FPGA It provides a complete three sector WiMAX/LTE PHY capability on a single-width Advanced Mezzanine Card (AdvancedMC).

AxisNT’s integrated remote radio heads (RRH) are available for a complete range of WiMAX and LTE applications. AxisNT’s patented Amplifier technology enables its RRHs to provide market-leading uplink and downlink performance, which improves network coverage and capacity for its customers. The convection-cooled RRHs use substantially less power than traditional basestations, and can reduce the site CAPEX and OPEX of a wireless network by as much as 90%. Axis Radio Remote Head technology is suitable for TDD and FDD mode.

“This engagement is an excellent example of how TI’s third-party ecosystem speeds development of a complete DSP-based wireless PHY implementation with off the shelf components,” said Dr. Arnon Friedmann, marketing director for TI’s wireless infrastructure group. “CommAgility and AxisNT have demonstrated their ability to provide solutions for WiMAX and LTE applications, based around TI’s high performance embedded processors.”

“WiMAX and LTE will provide true mobile broadband, but make high demands for signal processing performance,” said Edward Young, managing director of CommAgility. “By partnering with companies such as AxisNT, we are able to meet these requirements and enable our boards to be easily integrated into complete wireless broadband systems.”

“By working together to demonstrate interoperability, AxisNT and CommAgility have shown that we can provide the levels of performance that operators are demanding,” said Simon Mellor, CEO and co-founder of AxisNT. “The commercial success of Next Generation Networks will be crucially dependent on flexible radio systems that can deliver high power and high efficiency to minimise both OPEX and CAPEX.”



About Axis Network Technology:
Axis Network Technology (AxisNT) was founded in the UK by a team of highly experienced telecommunication executives, with the aim of developing and marketing the next generation of re-configurable digital radio platforms. One of the Company’s main strengths is that it combines expertise in RF technology with digital and baseband design experience, and this allows it to deliver fully operational end-to-end systems direct to the OEM.

Axis’ goal is to be the number one provider of compact digital radio platform technology and Radio Remote Heads for current and emerging wireless standards, delivering flexible, energy-efficient converged basestation systems for use with global broadband wireless standards – TD-SCDMA, UMTS, WiMAX, LTE and DVB – including triple-play and quad-play voice, video and data services.

The Company’s in-house design expertise in digital radios is combined with an established logistics chain that includes circuit manufacture via global EMS and strategic device technology partnerships. For more information see www.axisnt.com

Website: www.axisnt.com
Contact:
Tel: +44 (0)1296 768207

About CommAgility:
CommAgility is a leading manufacturer of signal processing AMC modules for wireless baseband applications, combining flexible CPRI/OBSAI antenna interfaces, the latest TI DSPs and Xilinx FPGAs, and high bandwidth on and off-card communications using Serial RapidIO and Ethernet. Customers around the world use CommAgility products to develop high performance applications in both wireless and non-wireless spaces, and recent designs include test equipment, trial systems and base stations for a wide range of wireless standards especially WiMAX and LTE.

Website: www.commagility.com
Contact:
Tel: +44 1509 228866


Press contact for Axis Network Technology:
Helen Duncan
Email:
Tel: +44 (0)1225 470000
Mobile: +44 (0)7966 581363

Press contact for CommAgility:
Nick Daines
Email:
Tel: +44 (0)115 8412109
Mobile: +44 (0)7958 534731

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