SEQUANS LEADS IN MOBILE WIMAX CHIP PERFORMANCE
Sequans CEO explains company’s singular achievement in delivering superior performance with lowest power consumption
CUPERTINO, Calif. and PARIS, France — September 4, 2007 — SEQUANS Communications, the leading provider of chips for fixed and mobile WiMAX subscriber stations and base stations, announced today that the SQN1130 for Mobile WiMAX subscriber stations, has demonstrated industry-leading high throughput with low power consumption in field testing. Throughput greater than 30 Mbps has been achieved on a single terminal with power consumption of less than 280 mW. This extraordinary performance is a function of Sequans’ mimoMAX™ technology, based on a unique, patent-pending Sequans algorithm. mimoMAX combines a true maximum likelihood (ML) MIMO decoder on the downlink, enabling highest performance (sensitivity and throughput) and lowest power consumption, with two transmitters on the uplink, enabling MIMO on the uplink for additional link budget improvement.
“People find it hard to believe that we have implemented a maximum likelihood decoder--the highest performance decoder available--given our low power consumption,” said Georges Karam, Sequans CEO. “With ML decoders, the processing required and power consumed increases significantly at higher modulation, so lower performance decoders such as zero-forcing, MMSE, decision feedback, and sphere decoders are being used by others to limit processing and power requirements. We have taken a different path. We have developed a patent-pending, low power MIMO algorithm that allows an ML decoder to be implemented at all modulations, thereby enabling Sequans’ receivers to use the spatial multiplexing MIMO technology in propagation conditions where the receivers of others would collapse.”
Sequans also demonstrated its superior receiver sensitivity during testing of the industry’s first MIMO ExpressCard. The higher receiver sensitivity, which allows for larger cell coverage and better in-building penetration, is up to 13 dB higher than what is required by the WiMAX Forum Mobile WiMAX Wave 2 profile. The total power consumed by the MIMO ExpressCard is less than 900 mW in active mode (at an output power of 23 dBm), and less than 10 mW in idle mode. This directly translates into longer battery life for end users.
In addition to the sustained throughput of more than 30 Mbps in MIMO mode, Sequans has demonstrated high throughput in all 4 categories of H-ARQ (Hybrid ARQ), attaining a maximum combined and sustained throughput of 27 Mbps in Category 4. This total throughput was achieved at a single terminal, proving that operators can deploy very high throughput services to end users with the extra robustness provided by H-ARQ.
Sequans’ SQN1130 chip with mimoMAX is today being used by leading equipment manufacturers, module vendors, and ODMs to build many types of subscriber devices, including mobile handsets, smartphones, PDAs, desktop modems, residential gateways, PC cards, ExpressCards, PCI Express mini-cards, USB dongles, and SDIO modules.
“High throughput, excellent receiver sensitivity, and low power consumption are all of paramount importance in Mobile WiMAX,” said Karam. “We have delivered all three and have not compromised one for another.”
About Sequans
SEQUANS Communications is a leading supplier of fixed and mobile WiMAX silicon and software based on 802.16 d/e standards. Offering base station and subscriber station system-on-chips (SOCs) for both fixed and mobile WiMAX (802.16-2004 and 802.16e-2005), Sequans offers equipment manufacturers an all-in-one solution with full MAC and PHY functionality, enabling them to build the complete range of WiMAX network components: high-end and pico base stations, outdoor and indoor subscriber terminals, home gateways, and all types of mobile devices. Sequans, along with its RF partners, provide the most complete WiMAX solution available to system manufacturers today. Please visit www.sequans.com
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Press contacts:
SEQUANS Communications
Kimberly Tassin
+1 206.654.1001
kimberly@sequans.com
