GSM PHY Reference Design

Objective

While new service demands are driving mobile products towards high-speed broadband wireless technologies including HSPA+ and LTE, there remain some 3 Billion 2G GSM subscribers who can benefit from low cost infrastructure whether it be indoor Femtos or low-cost macro/micro base stations.  And importantly, the next billion mobile subscribers are more likely to be 2G than 3G or later.  But 2G standards are not supported on the low-cost technology that has been developed for the Femto market. 

Based on our experience in the Femto market we decided that the lack of low-cost 2G PHY implementations was an opportunity; we decided to develop our own reference design.

Approach

We approached this development as we do for all such projects.  We start with a complete BS and MS model, built in our SDR Framework. This provides the design reference for the PHY.  We have extended our SDR Framework to incorporate the simulation tools from picoChip.  By applying the significant level of expertise we have built up on the many projects we have performed targeting the picoArray from picoChip we have designed and implemented picoArray software that delivers against that reference model.  Together they provide a complete reference design, implementation and regression test suite. 

Result

The result is Centaur, a comprehensive GSM/GPRS/EDGE/E-EDGE physical layer (PHY) reference design, enabling the next generation of low-cost cellular base-stations and femtocells to incorporate mass-market 2G and 2.75G capabilities.

Benefit

The majority of femtocell development to date has focused on 3G and 4G technologies, but this reference design from Cambridge Consultants’ dramatically extends that, enabling low-cost base-stations and femtocells for the high-volume GSM market, and providing exactly the flexibility and low-cost point our clients need in order to exploit the hardware platforms they’ve invested in.

Rupert Baines, VP of Marketing at picoChip