Broadcom introduces single-chip microwave outdoor unit

     Broadcom announced the launch of the world's first single-chip microwave outdoor unit (ODU). The BCM85810 achieves an unmatched level of integration that combines the capabilities of up to 10 off-the-shelf chips, dramatically reducing the size of the microwave radio frequency unit (RFU) and reducing the unit's complexity, production costs and power consumption.

     In the microwave split mounted outdoor unit and all/All outdoor unit (FODU/AODU) markets, the BCM85810 RF System on a Chip (SoC) is designed to meet the need for greater bandwidth and faster time-to-market. The single-chip system is based on a flexible architecture that enables different types of system architectures, such as split mounted outdoor units (IDU-ODU) and All outdoor units (All-ODU) on a common hardware platform. The BCM85810 single-chip solution covers all standard point-to-point microwave bands and all channel bandwidths in just two specifications, simplifying system manufacturing, deployment, and inventory management. BCM85810 supports high order modulation and has great improvement in spectrum utilization and spectrum capacity.

     Industry analysts predict that mobile data traffic will quadruple by 2015 as the number of mobile users continues to increase and the use of multimedia services continues to rise. To manage the massive growth in wireless traffic and the development of 4G/LTE networks, mobile operators are investing in next-generation mobile backhaul networks to meet the performance and bandwidth requirements for mobile backhaul data from cell base stations to core networks. Analysts also forecast that by 2015, the microwave backhaul market will exceed $6 billion, while microwave unit deliveries will approach 3 million units.