Wireless Basestation Design with Stratix IV GX and HardCopy IV GX SoC Solutions
The Radio Access Network is undergoing an architecture change to an all-IP flat network, reducing latency and enabling seamless mobility. These requirements have translated to packet processing and intelligence across multiple boxes being pushed now into the basestation or eNodeB. The basestation is now evolving to a super intelligent wireless router. Specifically the basestation or eNodeB now processes the entire PHY, MAC, Radio Link Control (RLC), Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), and Radio Resource Control (RRC).
While OFMDA-MIMO creates a technology convergence between 3G LTE and WiMAX 802.16e/m, standards migration and deployment is evolutionary. The desire to deliver a universal “soft” basestation supporting multiple standards and at the right price is highly desirable. Furthermore, basestation solutions must be highly scalable and able to span home basestations (femtocells), as well as picocells, microcells, and macrocells.
Figure 1 illustrates typical macro basestation architecture. OEM’s desire to re-use their basestation chassis, the high processing requirements for next-generation basestation architectures and the need to reduce overall system latency and address both flexibility and scalability is driving the need for higher integration. These market and technical requirements are driving the need for highly integrated system on a chip (SoC) solutions for both the channel card and RF card functionality.
Figure 1. Typical Basestation Block Diagram
Notes:
- A/D = analog-to-digital
- D/A = digital-to-analog
- DDC = digital downconverter
- DPD = digital predistortion
- DUC = digital upconverter
Stratix® IV FPGAs and HardCopy® III and HardCopy IV ASICs are designed to overcome these challenges for the wireless infrastructure equipment vendor. All the challenges are addressed with Altera's 40-nm product portfolio.
- Cost. HardCopy series ASICs combined with 40-nm technology enable you to gain access to the latest process technology, creating the complete FPGA and ASIC value proposition.
- Power. 40-nm technology allows you to build a “green basestation.” Taking full advantage of lower core voltage and next-generation Programmable Power Technology, vendors are able to process twice the number of user channels for a given thermal power footprint. Migration to Hardcopy series ASICs further reduces power to ASIC boundaries.
- Density. Stratix IV FPGA logic density is fully capable of integrating many discrete devices (including smaller FPGAs, digital signal processors, and ASICs) onto a single device, allowing SoC opportunities. Single chip solutions reduce cost, power, and footprint, and increase reliability.
- Scalability. Stratix IV FPGAs and HardCopy III and HardCopy IV ASICs allow maximum vertical and cross family migration, thus allowing scalability to be easily factored in up front without compromise. A design can easily migrate from a small pico-basestation to a full scale Super-Macro basestation using the same silicon family and the same set of intellectual property (IP) and solutions.
- Performance. Stratix IV FPGAs enable computationally complex functions and systems to be implemented in the FPGA efficiently (e.g., turbo decoder, OFDMA core, etc.). Built-in digital signal processing (DSP) blocks, TriMatrix memory architecture, highly optimized soft logic fabric, and high-speed I/O interconnects enable high-performance IP to be constructed and connected together.
- Productivity. Wireless equipment is constantly evolving and time-to-market is critical. Altera’s best-in-class Quartus® II design software and Altera’s extensive wireless-specific IP portfolio allows you to rapidly build systems, conduct design iterations, and perform in-field and in-system changes and upgrades to designs.
System Solutions
Altera provides enabling solutions, allowing OEMs to maximize their R&D investment by focusing on differentiating their products. These solutions targeted for both Stratix IV FPGAs and HardCopy III and HardCopy IV ASICs can be easily integrated using versatile tools such as SOPC Builder for an application-specific SoC. The ease of migration from a Stratix IV FPGA to a Hardcopy III or HardCopy IV ASIC further offers OEMs the lowest total cost of ownership.
With wireless infrastructure equipment including basestation, NodeB, eNB, Remote Radio Heads, and backhaul becoming ever more complex in functionality, Altera's FPGA and ASIC value proposition is unparalleled.
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