Ikanos Communications a leading provider of advanced broadband semiconductor and software products for the digital home, today announced that it has joined forces with DSP Group, Inc. to demonstrate a reference design for a multi-service residential gateway with fully integrated Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) capabilities. The DECT/CAT-iq Module from DSP Group, a leading global provider of wireless chipset solutions for converged communications at home, combined with Ikanos' Fusiv® Vx180 integrated gateway processor, is designed to enable network equipment manufacturers to quickly bring to market a platform that supports cordless telephony as a part of a residential gateway offering.

"One of the important differentiators in the newest-generation of residential gateways is integrated cordless telephony," said Mitch Kahn, vice president of Corporate Development at Ikanos. "As service providers seek to deliver more value-added offerings, built-in DECT communications is necessary. The offering from DSP Group and Ikanos can help manufacturers deliver products with this capability more quickly than ever before."

The reference design includes the Ikanos Fusiv Vx180 gateway processor and DSP Group's DECT/CAT-iq Module. The Fusiv Vx180 device combines Ikanos' industry leading VDSL2 customer premises equipment (CPE) PHY and its widely deployed Fusiv network processor architecture into a power and space optimized chipset that supports all key types of DSL technology, including ADSL, ADSL2+ and VDSL2. The Fusiv Vx180 also combines accelerator processor (AP) engines for data path functions with a MIPS-based(TM) CPU core, resulting in the preservation of host CPU processing power for enabling powerful value-added applications.

DSP Group's DECT/CAT-iq Module enables superior voice coverage and wideband audio (HD voice). Based on DSP Group's single-chip architecture, the low-cost and small form-factor cordless base station module can be integrated into broadband residential gateways, such as integrated access devices (IAD), set-top boxes (STBs), IP office PBXs and passive optical network (PON) modems. DSP Group's DECT chipsets are CAT-iq 2.0 compliant and support all worldwide digital cordless technologies.

"The combination of Ikanos' Vx180 chipset and our DECT/CAT-iq Module into one system will give network equipment manufacturers a competitive edge when developing a fully-featured multi-service residential gateway," said Oz Zimerman, corporate vice president of Marketing at DSP Group. "The integrated reference design delivers the performance and flexibility that is required by manufacturers for developing gateways that meet the needs of service providers around the world."

Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) plans to purchase a total of 3,000 femtocell base stations, which has attracted four international telecom vendors - Nokia Siemens Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Samsung Electronics and NEC - to participate in the bidding, according to information provided by CHT.

 

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As this great summer continues, the amount of rain has resulted in some problems with my roof. It needs to be repaired.

 

So what do I do, I search in the yellow pages and find someone who can repair my roof. 

 

With Google maps I can do it as well. Start Google maps on my mobile, and it automatically locates where I am, based upon the location of the GSM base stations. Then I search for roofer (or dakdekker in Dutch), and automatically I get the nearest roofers as result, including address and phonenumber.

 

This could also be possible with a CAT-iq home communcation product (don't call it a phone!!).

 

However this requires that the product has an operating system that supports apps like Google Maps.  

 

 

The members of the Femto Forum have agreed on a standard for management of femtocells, yet another step toward a commercial roll-out of the small base stations for wireless home broadband.

 

Femtocells improve indoor coverage and increase capacity. When a user is making calls and surfing the Web with a phone or laptop equipped with wireless broadband, signals are sent via the femtocell and a fixed broadband connection. For carriers they also provide a chance to offload users from the regular mobile network, and save money on backhaul capacity.

 

Getting the management in place is especially important because of how femtocells will be installed, according to Simon Saunders, chairman of the Femto Forum.

 

"Femtocells, unlike outdoor base stations, will be deployed in high volumes and installed by the subscriber, so the provisioning and configuration must be completely automated and managed remotely by the mobile operator," he said.

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