Posted: 10th Jan, 2005 By: MarkJ
Cambridge Broadband has today confirmed its intention to take advantage of newer WiMAX wireless technology:
Cambridge Broadband today announced a major addition to its VectaStar product family, by adding WiMAX support to its multi-service platform together with an expansion into new frequency bands.
Cambridge Broadband has partnered with SEQUANS Communications - a fabless semi-conductor company specialising in WiMAX silicon to develop a new product called VectaMAX. VectaMAX will integrate Sequans WiMAX System-on-a-Chip (SoC) into VectaStar customer premise equipment to produce a WiMAX pico-base station with integrated backhaul.
The key to a successful WiMAX service is to ensure that the end user experience is one of consistent, reliable coverage delivering the high data rates promised. For this, numerous WiMAX pico-base stations will be needed, and as with WiFi hotspots, cost effective backhaul will be a key consideration.
VectaMAX will offer local coverage in a range of licensed and unlicensed bands, supporting connectivity with Intels Rosedale and other WiMAX chipset vendor enabled CPEs. The backhaul traffic will be carried on the core VectaStar network together with a mix of traffic types such as E1/T1, ATM and IP as part of a complete alternate access network. VectaMAX pico-base stations can be incorporated in any new or currently deployed VectaStar networks.
To address the growing backhaul crisis due to increased capacity requirements and shortage of spectrum, Cambridge Broadband is also adding new frequency variants to the VectaStar product family. The first of these will be at 10.5GHz. This will allow spectrum-limited network operators to use the 3.5GHz band to offer local WiMAX coverage combined with 10.5GHz for backhaul. Cambridge Broadband will later offer VectaStar in other new frequency bands during 2005.
Commenting on the choice of Sequans, John Porter, Cambridge Broadbands CTO said, We see Sequans as an agile, innovative company whose philosophy matches our own. As Sequans offer a complete SoC for both base station and subscriber terminals, we can develop a cost-effective, higher performance product ideally suited for a WiMAX pico-base station. This in turn creates an economically viable WiMAX solution for small deployments as well as for larger rollouts.