Cavium today announced a software stack update that adds support for TD-LTE on its OCTEON Fusion family of SoCs (System-on-Chip).

Cavium’s TD-LTE software stack option allows small cell manufacturers to deliver both FDD and TDD-enabled products using the same OCTEON Fusion processors.

The development will benefit telecom operators such as China Mobile, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio Infocomm, China Telecom, etc. These operators, which use TDD spectrum, will target more than two billion combined potential mobile data consumers.

The OCTEON Fusion TD-LTE stack enhancement initially targets 3GPP Release 9, supports up to 128 simultaneous users and 20MHz channel bandwidth. This functionality aligns with the requirements specified for the dense urban deployment market segment, said Cavium.

Caroline Gabriel, research director, Maravedis-Rethink, said: “The availability of SoCs and reference designs are an important sign that the TD-LTE ecosystem is catching up with its FDD sibling. This is significant to operators with TDD only, such as China Mobile; those with both TDD and FDD, such as Vodafone and BT; and those with legacy WiMAX spectrum such as Clearwire – now Softbank.”

At the Mobile World Congress conference in February, Cavium announced UniFiRAN, a software solution that will enable a seamless RAN (Radio Access Network) architecture in 3G and 4G networks.

Meanwhile, Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM) will demonstrate its LTEsmall cell radio transceiver and Cavium’s integrated LTE small cell processors in live, over-the-air demonstrations during the Small Cells Asia conference in Singapore April 8 and 9, 2014.

AKM’s RF transceiver products enable LTE small cell manufacturers to provide mobile operators with industry-leading performance within the low power budgets they require. AKM has worked with Cavium to enable their small cell design with the AKM transceiver.

The AKM AK1589 is an FDD-LTETM/TD-LTETM/WCDMA/TD-SCDMA single-chip RF transceiver which provides low power consumption, 800mW at 10MHz bandwidth and 1W at 20MHz bandwidth, with 2Tx2Rx MIMO. It offers single ended transmitter outputs and independent sniffer ports permitting users to simplify the front end design. In addition, the AK1589 can also support TD-SCDMA and TD-LTETM applications

AK1587 will be sampling Q2 2014 with mass production planned in Q1 2015.

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