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sohonokos
I represent SysDsoft who has the fully tested and widely accepted LTE IP stack ...
sohonokos
Price and performance are key in using LTT+IMS with Femto. IF you can run on an ...
Will Broadcom buy change the femto market?
Junko Yoshida
10/28/2010 1:10 AM EDT
Implications on its competitors
How bad can Broadcom’s Percello acquisition be for competing femtocell chip vendors? The industry knows too well what happens to silicon startups when their core function gets sucked into a bigger SoC.
Rupert Baines, vice president of marketing at picoChip (Bath, the U.K.), a leader among femtocell chip suppliers, is keeping his cool. He called the Broadcom/Percello deal “validation” of the femtocell market, while adding: “Percello has found a good home, and we welcome Broadcom into the femtocell market.”
However, Baines, who acknowledged the emerging market for femtocell-integrated boxes, described the integration “a segment of the market: not all of it.”
The femtocell integration market won’t be a slam dunk, because “most people get cellular sevice from someone other than their broadband supplier,” said Baines. That would make it “impossible to integrate,” he added.
Further, even if the systems are integrated in one box, that does not mean that the chips will be integrated, said Baines. “We have customers making integrated gateways today. They get the femto chip from us, and the broadband chip from someone else.”
He said, “Part of the problem is what do you integrate?” In addition to three femto flavors (HSPA, cdma2000 & soon LTE), there are at least four backhaul options (ADSL, VDSL, cable, fibre, etc). Baines said, “It gets expensive to make 12+ different die, or to ‘tax’ the people who don't want one modem by including it anyway.”
Peter Jarich, research director at Current Analysis, agreed with Baines. “First, it’s not clear how quickly the market will go to an integrated gateway model. Secondly, it will still be possible to integrate other femtocell silicon into gateways…and vendors may want to do this where they think a standalone femtocell silicon package offers advantages or differentiators.”
Forward Concepts’ Strauss, however, suspected that “PicoChip is well aware that they need additional chip solutions to broaden their market, and it is pursuing markets other than just femtocells.”
There are also a lot of options available for PicoChip. Joseph Byrne, senior analyst at the Linley Group, noted, “Picochip isn't the only one at the dance in this situation.” He said that there are also suppliers of DSL chips, such as Ikanos and Lantiq, suppliers of PON chips, such as Broadlight and PMC, suppliers of Wi-Fi chips (Atheros, Ralink, and Realtek), and others that would benefit from working with a company like Picochip with femtocell technology.
Broadcom’s Fischer was cautious in outlining the company’s plan for “silicon-level integration” for femtocells. While noting that “it all depends on how the market moves along,” he said, “It is feasible sometime in the next two years.” But first, Broadcom has to wait and see which products sell, and which platform is best to integrate femtocells, he explained.
Why Percello?
Broadcom stressed that the company is not a total novice to femtocells. Broadcom quietly bought Radioframe’s femtocell assets almost a year ago. While Broadcom was often rumored as Radioframe’s mystery femto buyer, the company never confirmed it until now. Fischer said, “We have built our knowledge base on femtocells through a team of engineers we acquired from Radioframe; then, Percello came on the radar.”
Industry analysts are split on their assessments of Percello. Current Analysis’ Jarich called Percello “not as strong as PicoChip in terms of momentum.” But he added that Percello has stronger traction than Qualcomm, especially given its work with Ubiquisys.”
Forward Concepts’ Strauss recalled the time when Ubiquisys’ CTO told him that the Percello chip proved to be measurably more powerful than competitors at the time they selected Percello.
The Linley Group’s Byrne believes Percello was early with femtocell chips supporting 8 and 16 users, which would be used in systems for offices. But “Picochip has since met and exceeded that scale. The bulk of the market is in smaller (e.g., 4-user) femtocells, where Picochip is strong,” Byrne added.
Regardless who has more momentum, Broadcom chose Percello, “because we liked Percello’s rifle-shot approach,” said Broadcom’s Fischer. Percello’s femtocell is focused on UMTS. The company has no solutions for LTE yet. “It is low power, cost effective and easy to integrate in an SoC,” he explained.
By “easy to integrate,” Fischer means that the hardwired approach taken by Percello is a good fit for Broadcom’s future SoCs. Unlike the DSPs used by TI or PicoChip, this will make Percello’s solution infinitely easier to integrate, he explained.
Broadcom, which has had no serious experience in the base-station market, sees femtocell as a clear opportunity to get its foot in the new market’s door. While big boys like Texas Instruments may have every reason to defend their big share in the base-station market by downplaying the significance of femtocells, Fischer said, “We are not threatened by femtocell. Rather, we see femtocell a real disruptive technology."
How bad can Broadcom’s Percello acquisition be for competing femtocell chip vendors? The industry knows too well what happens to silicon startups when their core function gets sucked into a bigger SoC.
Rupert Baines, vice president of marketing at picoChip (Bath, the U.K.), a leader among femtocell chip suppliers, is keeping his cool. He called the Broadcom/Percello deal “validation” of the femtocell market, while adding: “Percello has found a good home, and we welcome Broadcom into the femtocell market.”
However, Baines, who acknowledged the emerging market for femtocell-integrated boxes, described the integration “a segment of the market: not all of it.”
The femtocell integration market won’t be a slam dunk, because “most people get cellular sevice from someone other than their broadband supplier,” said Baines. That would make it “impossible to integrate,” he added.
Further, even if the systems are integrated in one box, that does not mean that the chips will be integrated, said Baines. “We have customers making integrated gateways today. They get the femto chip from us, and the broadband chip from someone else.”
He said, “Part of the problem is what do you integrate?” In addition to three femto flavors (HSPA, cdma2000 & soon LTE), there are at least four backhaul options (ADSL, VDSL, cable, fibre, etc). Baines said, “It gets expensive to make 12+ different die, or to ‘tax’ the people who don't want one modem by including it anyway.”
Peter Jarich, research director at Current Analysis, agreed with Baines. “First, it’s not clear how quickly the market will go to an integrated gateway model. Secondly, it will still be possible to integrate other femtocell silicon into gateways…and vendors may want to do this where they think a standalone femtocell silicon package offers advantages or differentiators.”
Forward Concepts’ Strauss, however, suspected that “PicoChip is well aware that they need additional chip solutions to broaden their market, and it is pursuing markets other than just femtocells.”
There are also a lot of options available for PicoChip. Joseph Byrne, senior analyst at the Linley Group, noted, “Picochip isn't the only one at the dance in this situation.” He said that there are also suppliers of DSL chips, such as Ikanos and Lantiq, suppliers of PON chips, such as Broadlight and PMC, suppliers of Wi-Fi chips (Atheros, Ralink, and Realtek), and others that would benefit from working with a company like Picochip with femtocell technology.
Broadcom’s Fischer was cautious in outlining the company’s plan for “silicon-level integration” for femtocells. While noting that “it all depends on how the market moves along,” he said, “It is feasible sometime in the next two years.” But first, Broadcom has to wait and see which products sell, and which platform is best to integrate femtocells, he explained.
Why Percello?
Broadcom stressed that the company is not a total novice to femtocells. Broadcom quietly bought Radioframe’s femtocell assets almost a year ago. While Broadcom was often rumored as Radioframe’s mystery femto buyer, the company never confirmed it until now. Fischer said, “We have built our knowledge base on femtocells through a team of engineers we acquired from Radioframe; then, Percello came on the radar.”
Industry analysts are split on their assessments of Percello. Current Analysis’ Jarich called Percello “not as strong as PicoChip in terms of momentum.” But he added that Percello has stronger traction than Qualcomm, especially given its work with Ubiquisys.”
Forward Concepts’ Strauss recalled the time when Ubiquisys’ CTO told him that the Percello chip proved to be measurably more powerful than competitors at the time they selected Percello.
The Linley Group’s Byrne believes Percello was early with femtocell chips supporting 8 and 16 users, which would be used in systems for offices. But “Picochip has since met and exceeded that scale. The bulk of the market is in smaller (e.g., 4-user) femtocells, where Picochip is strong,” Byrne added.
Regardless who has more momentum, Broadcom chose Percello, “because we liked Percello’s rifle-shot approach,” said Broadcom’s Fischer. Percello’s femtocell is focused on UMTS. The company has no solutions for LTE yet. “It is low power, cost effective and easy to integrate in an SoC,” he explained.
By “easy to integrate,” Fischer means that the hardwired approach taken by Percello is a good fit for Broadcom’s future SoCs. Unlike the DSPs used by TI or PicoChip, this will make Percello’s solution infinitely easier to integrate, he explained.
Broadcom, which has had no serious experience in the base-station market, sees femtocell as a clear opportunity to get its foot in the new market’s door. While big boys like Texas Instruments may have every reason to defend their big share in the base-station market by downplaying the significance of femtocells, Fischer said, “We are not threatened by femtocell. Rather, we see femtocell a real disruptive technology."
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gadfly
10/28/2010 7:13 PM EDT
for both options, stand along femto box, and integrated box, power consumption is an important issue. For that, Percello has big advantage over Picochip.
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chanj
10/28/2010 7:24 PM EDT
Interconnectivity is getting more interesting. Will every home become a small cell site to extend the coverage of cellular operators?
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junko.yoshida
10/28/2010 7:46 PM EDT
It could. I do see home becoming a small cell site a very interesting development. But the issue is at what cost.
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goafrit
10/29/2010 8:14 AM EDT
Yes, it is very possible. The MetroPCS shows what a nimble strategy could do to extend wireless connection. If they have a major generational leap in engineering, the cost will come down. The opportunities are not just in the US and developed nations, but in developing world where small cells will help penetration.
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iniewski
10/28/2010 7:49 PM EDT
I think the largest impact of femtocells would be in wireless sensor networks...they will be millions, eventually billions of those monitoring every aspects of life and environment: temperature, humidity, pressure, radiation, solar activity, vibration etc...Kris
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Luis Sanchez
10/29/2010 3:19 AM EDT
So femto are really catching up!
One thing for reflection... I've seen that in some VoIP calls software there's a notice which warns the user to not rely on the software and connection for emergency calls. But so far, I think that hasn't applied to cellular wireless calls. But... now with DSL being used to provide 3G connection, I suppose the reliability of the call will drop to same as with the VoIP applications wouldn't it?
VoIP will also have to catch-up to be secure over the TCP/IP protocol.
So only AT&T providing at the moment? How about Verizon? Only GSM or CDMA femtocells also exist? does somebody know? Pricing?
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sohonokos
10/29/2010 12:42 PM EDT
Price and performance are key in using LTT+IMS with Femto. IF you can run on an ARM nine VS a Cavium network processor then you have the price advantage and if you can provide the best performance in category 3,4 and 5 then you are the leader in market. That is when Voice over LTE and Video over LTE for home makes sense. Only one company I know of who can do all of that. Let me know if you are interested and I will send you information on them since this is not an advertising forum.
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sohonokos
10/29/2010 5:49 PM EDT
I represent SysDsoft who has the fully tested and widely accepted LTE IP stack in addition to IMS and femto eNB.
My email address is sam@ip-semantics.com.
Let me know if you more technical information.
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