Wavesat announces partnership with picoChip for LTE demos and testing

SAN MATEO, USA: UK-based picoChip and Wavesat have signed a MoU to conduct end-to-end LTE interoperability testing, leading to the availability of fully-proven 4G network solutions.

This co-operation combines picoChip’s expertise in developing scalable, multi-processor base station and femtocell baseband LTE chipsets and Wavesat’s high-performance, low-power LTE UE silicon. LTE network operators, systems integrators and OEM/ODM system manufacturers will benefit from the availability of the combined, tested technologies.

“We are enthused to be working with Wavesat in this way. At picoChip we firmly believe that LTE will be a disruptive technology, offering new opportunities for network operators and for OEMs. That inevitably means we must support interoperability testing with UE technology partners such as Wavesat, in order to supply ‘ready to ship’ eNodeB,” said picoChip’s LTE Product Manager Paul Neil. “Wavesat is one of the first companies to have an LTE UE reference design commercially available and we are delighted to be working together.”

The initial focus of this forthcoming cooperation is to demonstrate over the air interoperability between picoChip eNodeB and Wavesat UE with both TDD and FDD modes of operation on a range of E-UTRA bands. In addition to the interoperability testing, Wavesat and picoChip will engage in joint market development activities and customer engagements and plan to deploy their combined solutions in customer LTE trials, with an estimated start date of 3Q 2010.

“Wavesat and picoChip have a long history of collaboration around 4G wireless technology,” stated Anil Barot, VP of Marketing & Business Development at Wavesat. “We believe our common experience with IP-based network technologies, now including LTE, and our respective focus on base station and UE baseband chipsets, will allow our mutual customers to deploy with a high degree of confidence.”

This creation of a dynamic testing arrangement signals that the Wavesat/PicoChip venture will lead to increasingly innovative development opportunities for both companies.