picoChip and Airspan announce strategic partnership for delivery of the first fully upgradeable WiMAX basestation reference design
BOCA RATON, FL and BATH, ENGLAND - October 25, 2004 -- Airspan Networks, Inc., (NASDAQ: AIRN) and picoChip today announced a strategic partnership to deliver the first fully upgradeable reference designs for WiMAX basestations. The product, known as SoftMAX, implements the current 802.16-2004 WiMAX standard with future support for mobility.
SoftMAX is a complete, end-to-end software-defined radio solution based on picoChip's massively parallel digital signal processing technology and Airspan's system design, software and hardware expertise. This technology is being used in Airspan's commercial basestations. The companies have entered into an exclusive development and marketing agreement for the new product.
Telecommunications equipment manufacturers entering the emerging WiMAX infrastructure market can reduce cost and time to market by adopting SoftMAX. It provides a standards-compliant, interoperable solution including support for such additional features as diversity, space-time coding, a variety of profiles, adaptive antenna systems and MIMO.
The initial product is based on the 802.16-2004 standard for fixed and nomadic broadband wireless access systems. The software-defined architecture allows for a completely flexible upgrade path to future versions of the standards: in particular to the 802.16e version for mobile broadband access. This flexibility is especially important given that the 802.16e standard is not yet frozen and the critical need for interoperability testing.
Operators will also benefit from this architecture as it will allow them to undertake field software upgrades as the standards develop, avoiding the need for expensive hardware upgrade or replacement programs.
Caroline Gabriel, Research Director at Rethink Research Associates, commented: "Combining Airspan's depth of 'real-world' field experience and systems software understanding with picoChip's upgradeable architecture will deliver a very solid product. Until now, any WiMAX products have been CPE-focused, ignoring the distinct needs of infrastructure OEMs. This combination is the first true reference design for the basestation and as such is very important. SoftMAX will meet the needs of manufacturers working on systems today, dramatically accelerating time-to-market and interoperability -- while the flexibility and commitment to future-proofing make it especially important for those looking ahead to 802.16e."
Airspan developed the MAC and higher layer software, while picoChip is responsible for the PHY, the baseband processor and customer support. Additional software available from Airspan extends well beyond the MAC into services and network management. SoftMAX also includes a hardware reference design and schematics, needing only to be connected to a radio.
Eric Stonestrom, Airspan's president and chief executive officer, stated, "Airspans's goal is to expedite the WiMAX reality and bring the most compelling solution to our customers, and this partnership helps us to do just that. Reference designs and interoperability are two of the most significant issues for the WiMAX community, so standards-based solutions can replace the existing proprietary systems. Reference designs create synergy between implementers and accelerated development cycles - fast tracking the creation of very competitive and sophisticated products. Furthermore, access to both companies' partners and markets generate an instant head start towards interoperability across the industry."
Peter Claydon, co-founder and CEO of picoChip, added, "This partnership between two leaders in WiMAX technology clearly demonstrates the power of a seamlessly integrated WiMAX platform. OEMs and operators need a reference design; together we help implement a complete, upgradeable and interoperable WiMAX basestation saving millions of dollars and years of time-to market."
The two companies are leaders in wireless communication infrastructure: with more than 200 customers in more than 70 countries, Airspan has proven expertise in fixed wireless; while picoChip has rich expertise in PHY development for both cellular and OFDM. This unique combination of world-class expertise provides a robust system that will meet and exceed the requirements of not just the standard but "real world" deployment conditions.
picoChip provides solutions to the key challenges of cost, development time and flexibility for next generation of wireless systems. The company's latest, second generation processor, the PC102 picoArrayTM, delivers world-beating price / performance for reconfigurable wireless signal processing and has achieved design wins with major companies developing wireless infrastructure. Uniquely, the company also delivers complete, standard compliant reference designs for UMTS (including HSDPA) and WiMAX. The also team has man-decades of high-quality, long-range OFDM PHY development experience.