SCIENCE

Ixia has announced that Mindspeed Technologies has selected Ixia's test solution to validate the performance of its Transcede system-on-chip (SoC) baseband processor for 4G/long-term evolution (LTE) base stations. Ixia's test solution helps the company optimize the Transcede performance to meet the demand for low latency, high data rates, and improved subscriber capacity required by 4G wireless video and data applications.

Mindspeed's Transcede series of purpose-built SoC processors enables equipment manufacturers to fully support the complete processing needs of single- and multi-sector base stations. Mindspeed's processors have substantial headroom for value-added software features that developers can readily port to other Transcede-based platforms. The Transcede series can be leveraged for picocells, enterprise femtocells, and the largest macrocell implementations.

A new class of high-performance silicon is emerging to address the increase in base station diversity and the tremendous computational complexity caused by the mobile Internet's migration from a voice-centric 2G/3G mobile network to a data centric 3G+/4G network. The requirements for increased data rates and reduced network latency are growing as mobile operators prepare for the shift to video traffic as the dominant traffic type on mobile networks. Enterprise femtocells, picocells and microcells must complement macrocell base stations to provide operators with improved capacity and coverage. Purpose-built SoCs are a fundamental step in realizing low-cost, low-power, and high-performance base stations in a variety of cell sizes.

Ixia offers the industry's most comprehensive 4G/LTE testing solution, measuring all aspects of 4G/LTE radio base station functionality, capacity, and performance. Ixia's wireless testing solutions accelerate the deployment and quality of mobile data services -- from the wireless access, through the mobile backhaul, to the Internet core. By using real-world mobile subscriber modeling customers can perform service quality validation and measure subscriber quality of experience (QoE).

Key Facts:

--  Mindspeed's Transcede 4000 integrates an unprecedented 26 programmable processors into a single device, including two ARM Cortex A9(R) multi-core symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) reduced instruction set computer (RISC) processors, 10 CEVA DSPs, and 10 DSP accelerators.

--  Ixia's wireless test solutions offer complete end-to-end performance testing of 3G and 4G wireless networks with a unique focus on subscriber modeling, QoE metrics, and multi-dimensional tests for capacity planning.

--  Ixia tests all LTE eNode B variants, from femtocell access points to macrocell base stations, by emulating all surrounding nodes

--Including thousands of UEs/mobile subscribers, adjacent eNodeBs, the mobility management entity (MME), and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC).

Supporting Quotes:

--  "New infrastructure will be required in the 4G era as the explosion of mobile data use continues to tax wireless networks. With popular video-centric applications requiring low jitter, latency, and loss, the industry's base station designers are looking for advanced solutions such as Mindspeed's Transcede processor to support the computational complexity and processing requirements for next generation equipment," said Alan Taylor, marketing director for Mindspeed's communications convergence processing (CCP) business unit.

"Ixia's wireless test solutions for LTE base stations are ideal for subscriber modeling, rich video traffic generation, and quality of experience measurements."

--  "LTE is about the massive increase of video and data traffic, requiring high throughput and low latency for real-time services. Current deployments will need new equipment and creative solutions to handle the exponential performance demands," said Joe Zeto, senior manager, market development at Ixia. "This joint effort with Mindspeed highlights Ixia's leadership in testing LTE and also demonstrates Ixia's proactive stance in helping equipment manufacturers and service providers guarantee that their devices and networks are prepared to handle the coming data tsunami."