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5th April 2005

Simulation testbench gives green light for advanced WiMax system development

• subscriber transmission model supports launch of reference code for 802.16d/e PHY based on 100% software programmable receiver architecture
• parallel processing, MIMO, and a software-defined radio architecture, deliver radical performance for emerging broadband wireless access market

Cambridge Consultants has developed a WiMAX simulation testbench to support the launch of Aspex Semiconductor's innovative reference code for implementing multi-antenna basestations. The software simulates subscriber transmissions, providing an independent testing facility that can be used by developers alongside Aspex's radical 802.16d/e PHY baseband architecture in a familiar, PC-based software development environment.

Based on the Linedancer family of processors, Aspex's WiMAX PHY reference code delivers a software-defined radio architecture and support for multi-antenna techniques such as MIMO and beam-forming. This provides wireless OEMs with enormous performance and design flexibility.

Cambridge Consultants deployed a large team of engineers on the project, producing the simulator in just six weeks to support Aspex's WiMAX introduction. Written in MatLab, the model simulates WiMAX subscriber transmissions and channel noise, giving system developers the means to begin developing transceiver equipment, and to test and verify multi-antenna 802.16e design concepts in the lab.

"The simulator completes the development environment for this WiMAX baseband offering," says Tim Fowler of Cambridge Consultants. "OEMs can now start system development in confidence, using a platform that is inherently software upgradeable, and scaleable to accommodate any size of application."

"WiMAX represents an enormous business opportunity for communications OEMs, but as with all standards-based markets a fast time-to-launch is going to be vital in securing a critical share of the market," says Jacqui Adams, Product Manager with Aspex Semiconductor. "With the help of Cambridge Consultants, we have been able to prove the capabilities of the silicon and release a comprehensive solution early in the standard's lifecycle. This allows developers to start product development now, confident that their platform can evolve to support future changes in the 802.16 standards."

Aspex's fully software programmable Linedancer processor with its 4096 parallel processing elements is a key feature of the PHY reference code. The flexible front-end radio architecture allows vendors to deploy dynamically adaptable equipment that can modify its footprint as the subscriber base evolves. This creates a platform that may be software-upgraded with ease to support the evolving WiMAX family of standards, as well as the OEM's own ideas and IP for improved receiver architectures in areas such as antenna diversity.

The WiMAX subscriber model simulates an OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) transmitter. By creating simple scripts defining standard MAC messages, developers can simulate subscriber transmissions to exercise the basestation receiver.

Aspex recently launched its WiMAX Development Kit consisting of the Accelera PCI-X plug-in card, which implements the WiMAX basestation PHY in real-time, and the Cambridge Consultants Matlab testbench.

Cambridge Consultants won the design project from Aspex because of its extensive track record in wireless design. The consultancy has experience at all levels of radio technology from developing ICs and silicon IP including digital signal processors, through the design of mainstream wireless products such as mobile phone handsets, to high-end professional radio applications such as the software-defined radio used by the world's air traffic control network. Its expertise embraces many of the major wireless standards in use today including GSM, DECT, Bluetooth and ZigBee.

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