LTE Advanced and 5G CPRI v6.1 Switch Reference Design by eASIC and Comcores
Date: 17/06/2015
FPGA alternative ASIC solution provider eASIC and wireles-n/w IP vendor Comcores ApS have together engineered a common public radio interface (CPRI) v6.1 switch reference design targeting next-gen LTE Advanced radio base stations and 5G networking equipment.
The ref design uses Comcores CPRI Switch IP and eASIC’s Nextreme-3 ICs for C-RAN (cloud or centralized radio access interface) fronthaul network applications.
The reference design helps in bridging between virtually any radio access that uses optical or microwave transport, and a centralized baseband pool that uses CPRI for communication. The design features blocks for a CPRI switch an I/Q cross-connect, an Ethernet switch and CPRI v6.1 controller IP.
“Together with Comcores, we’re delivering an ideal platform for rapid and cost effective deployment of fronthaul technology,” said Jasbinder Bhoot, vice president of worldwide marketing at eASIC. “With today’s news, designers now have an efficient, no-compromise solution for jumpstarting LTE-Advanced and 5G wireless communications system designs to address stringent cost, performance and time-to-market requirements for next-generation C-RAN fronthaul applications.”
“We’re pleased to extend our collaboration with eASIC with delivery of a CPRI v6.1 switch reference design,” said Thomas Noergaard, CEO of Comcores. “Our optimized core is a perfect match for eASIC silicon. It fully exploits the high performance 12.5 Gbps serial transceivers to achieve multiple hundreds of gigabit of serial throughput depending on the switch configuration. And, it can be dynamically configured to handle wireless multi-mode radio systems, addressing the deterministic latency and high-performance throughputs required by LTE Advanced radio base stations. Altogether, this puts a concrete solution in the hands of customers for making the C-RAN vision a reality for next-generation fronthaul design and deployment.”
The design provides high throughput, flexible fronthaul connection between the new network architecture of centralized baseband controllers and remote standalone radio heads at cell sites at line rates of up to 12.2 Gbps enabled in the CPRI v6.1 specification.
Other key technical features include:
Up to 52 ports non-blocking, user-plane switch using an eASIC N3XT1300_FC1517 device
Switching at antenna carrier (AxC) level
Low system clock rate of 245.76 MHz to optimize performance and power
Dynamically supports 1:1 connectivity, broadcast or multicast operation
Support for optional Ethernet switch for Control and Management
Support for optional ORI compliant compression IP
