The explosive growth of the Internet over the last decade has led to an increasing demand for high-speed, ubiquitous Internet access. Broadband mobile wireless access fills this growing need by offering anytime, anywhere Internet access to the home and office. There are many wireless applications that satisfy vastly different needs for continuous, convenient, and flexible access to up-to-date information via the web.
Mobile cellular communication has evolved from the traditional analog system to today's 4G digital system based on orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO). For high-speed data services, 3G+ standards have been deployed that can achieve significantly higher peak data rates compared to 3G technologies such as W-CDMA and cdma2000. For example, high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) and high-speed uplink packet access (HSUPA) technologies increase the downlink and uplink data rates of W-CDMA to 14.4 Mbps and 5.6 Mbps, respectively. Next-generation networks based on the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) long-term evolution (LTE) standard are currently being prototyped and prepared for field trials.
Figure 1 shows the mobility and data rate of different wireless applications.
Figure 1. Wireless Applications
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is gaining popularity as a broadband wireless access technology with significant market potential. WiMAX 802.16e-2005 supports mobile high-speed Internet access within a metropolitan area network (MAN), and uses advanced signal processing schemes such as orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) and multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technology. WiMAX 802.16e-2005 will play a key role in green-field deployments and the emerging markets as a fixed wireless technology.
With advancements in semiconductor technology and signal processing techniques, wireless standards and systems are continually evolving. A hardware platform that can provide high processing bandwidth, flexibility, and a time-to-market advantage is needed to meet these demands. With a complete portfolio of high-performance, low-cost FPGAs and a risk-free migration path to low-cost HardCopy® ASIC technology, Altera® programmable logic devices (PLDs) deliver the processing bandwidth and flexibility required for wireless infrastructure designs. To accelerate the time-to-market, Altera also provides a wide array of intellectual property (IP), reference designs, and complete off-the-shelf partner solutions via the Altera wireless ecosystem. Altera’s 40-nm silicon leadership, supporting tools, and solutions now enable highly integrated system on a chip (SoC) for wireless infrastructure platforms.
