Texas Instruments has sponsored the following story
Maximizing the Radio Spectrum for Heterogeneous Networks
It began as a dream, turned into a desire, morphed into a demand, and is now practically a birthright: every device we own must interact with the internet.
This translates to a lot of heterogeneous networks (HetNet), models, and operating systems communicating together. This increase in network traffic is a modern-day Tower of Babel. In such an environment, maximizing the radio spectrum is critical.
In heterogeneous radio networks, the cells of different sizes and power, are referred to as macro-, micro-, pico- and femto-cells. Small cells, however, are primarily added to increase capacity in locations with high user demand, or to fill areas not covered by the macro network. Therefore, mobile heterogeneous networks are a combination of large and small cells.
Based on Texas Instrument's Keystone II architecture, the TCI6630K2L small cell system on chip (SoC) provides complete eNodeB functionality including, stack and physical layer processing, a built-in Ethernet switch and a Digital Radio Front End. It also utilizes TI's optimized Base Station SoftwarePac. This makes the SoC optimal to develop small cell solutions that enable macro parity features and provide the highest levels of user quality of experience (QoE).
TI Solutions for HetNet Design
A high degree of integration is needed to combine the TCI6630K2L SoCs discrete digital and analog components onto a single SoC. The chip is optimized for die area, cost, and power budget. TI promises that this will reduce the small cell's equipment footprint and enable energy-efficient operations.
The TCI6630K2L SoC supports multiple network standards from 2G/3G, 4G LTE to LTE-A. The integrated Network CoProcessor combined with the PCIe and SGMII interfaces enable connectivity to off-the-shelf Wi-Fi baseband devices. Therefore, the SoC enables carrier-grade 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi as an integral component of a small cell solution.
Small Cell HetNet Applications
Small Cell technology is a necessary ingredient for the continued proliferation of 4G-LTE and its increasing mobile traffic demands. Advanced HetNet topologies typically deploy macro cells mainly for coverage and mobility. Small cells, however, supplement and boost network capacity allowing for increased network efficiency. In densely populated areas, twenty or more small cells may be deployed for each macro cell.
Some of the challenges of heterogeneous network and small cell deployments have been addressed in the LTE-A standard, including:
- Carrier Aggregation (CA) which improves peak data rate
- Higher-order MIMO to improve peak spectral efficiency
- Coordinated Multi-Points (CoMP) to improve cell edge throughput
- Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (eICIC) which enables macro-micro load balancing.
The TCI6630K2L SoC is designed to meet all these challenges.
As usual, much of the small cell implementation challenge resides in software support. Therefore, TI provides a comprehensive package of transport libraries, trace & debug services, device drivers, optimizing libraries, and a RF software development kit. Mix in TI's reputation for design engineer support and the package is rather complete.
Einstein once said that "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." As such, there is elegance in simplicity as long as it satisfies the intended need. With today's growth in mobile traffic, the deployment of a hierarchy of macro and micro cells provide a welcome simplification in HetNet architecture. One suspects the old patent clerk would approve.
Texas Instruments has sponsored this post. They have no editorial input to this post - all opinions are mine. Arnie Peskin