MWC 2011

14 Feb 2011 - 17 Feb 2011, Fira, Barcelona

At this year's Mobile World Congress Picochip unveiled the technology that will enable the creation of 3G basestations as small as a USB dongle. The PC3008 basestation-on-a-chip is the world's smallest 3G basestation.

We also announced that our technology has been chosen for use in the industry's first LTE picocell - the AirSynergy from Airspan.

AirSynergy was one of 25 customer products on-show on the booth. These included products for residential enterprise and public access use, such as metropolitan femtocells from Alcatel-Lucent and BelAir Systems. There were also operator branded products, including a data cell used by Korea’s SK Telecom for capacity offload.

BBC Click covered the show extensively in a video report.

Download the expert view

Our booth featured a program of 30-minute open presentations by Picochip subject matter experts.

You can download PDF copies of the presentations by clicking on the links below (if you haven't done so already you may need to enter your name and a valid email address before the download starts).

Dr Doug Pulley: The CTO's Guide to Self-Organizing Networks

Dr Pulley provides a thumbnail sketch of the world of self-organizing networks, considerations for SON in small cells and an illustrative example of SON in action.

Doug Morse: Enterprise, Metro and Rural Femtocells for 3G

What's the difference between a femtocell and a picocell? How are femtocells influencing small cell basestations? Find out from this presentation.

Paul Neil / Adnan Boustany: LTE Metro Femtocells

An LTE network that does not include high-density urban coverage will be a disappointment, but delivering that service with traditional basestations is horrifically uneconomic. This presentation explains how LTE metrocells deliver an affordable, easy to deploy solution.

Charles Louisson: Residential Femtocells - Cost-Optimized and High-Volume

Residential femtocells enable a whole lot more than coverage. This presentation looks at how, and gives details of the PC3008, the world's most advanced 3G basestation SoC.

Paul Neil / Adnan Boustany: Developing LTE Systems with Picochip

An outline on how to develop LTE eNodeB systems quickly and get first to market with Picochip technology and ecosystem integration expertise.

Paul Neil / Adnan Boustany: Making multi-mode a reality - LTE and HSPA+

The presentation establishes the need for dual-mode LTE / HSPA+ infrastructure, and outlines Picochip's roadmap to that goal.

LTE demonstrated

Picochip's multi-award-winning PC960x LTE basestation is the only optimized 'small cell' product available today.

The system was nominated (as a joint development between Picochip and Continuous Computing), for the Best Technology Breakthrough in the GSMA Global Awards.

At MWC Picochip showed the PC960x in a full end-to-end demonstration of video streaming via LTE.  You can find out more here, or see the full demonstration on YouTube by clicking here.

In video

Information Week's Fritz Nelson produced a video report on LTE picocells featuring the PC960x and upcoming PC500 single-device solution.

LightReading's Sarah Reedy reported from the show on the move from a simple coverage proposition to capacity enhancement and service delivery.

Picochip's VP of Marketing Rupert Baines can be seen here on YouTube talking to ARM's Lakshmi Mandyam about the future of femtocells.

Femtocells do more

Operators are increasingly realising that femtocells are not just for coverage.

Picochip's stand at MWC featured a demonstration of new service delivery, in co-operation with femtocell access point manufacturer Argela.

If you weren't able to join us at the show, you can watch Picochip's Matt Gilbert talk you through the demo in the video below.