Sequans Communications: from WiMAX to 4GAmbroise Popper – Director, Product Management

IEEE ComSoc – May 13, 2009

Sequans: leading the WiMAX market

Maturity of products– More than half of the WIMAX Forum Certified™MIMO products are based on

Sequans chips– Large number of Sequans-based terminals are deployed with leading BS vendors:

Samsung, Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Huawei, Alvarion, ZTE

Superior performance & best cost structure– Maximum throughput– Lowest power consumption– Chips for low-cost CPE and mobile handsets

Technology leadership– 2 Tx enabling UL MIMO– Integrated RF/BB 65nm single die & triple-band RF– Pico and femto cell– Mobile WiMAX R1.5-ready and 802.16m in progress

Involved with leading global operators

Malaysia: Packet One

Russia: Scartel

India: BSNLTata, Reliance

USA:Clearwire

Japan: UQKorea: KT

Pakistan: Mobilink

UK: France:UKBB SHD

S. Africa: Vodacom

Bolivia:Nuevatel

Argentina:Argentina Telecom

Largest customer base

WiMAX today: uplink is the bottleneck!

14/05/2009 5

Downlink

Uplink

64-QAM16-QAM

QPSK

=> 6 dB DL/UL imbalance

Typical WiMAX deployment 1Tx Mobile Station

Base Station

Mobile Station

Tx power 43 dBm 23 dBm

Subch. gain 0 dB 16 dB

MIMO gain 2 dB 0 dB

-> Uplink directly limits the coverage

64-QAM 16-QAM QPSK

Loss of downlink connection

Loss of downlink connection

Loss of uplink 

connection

Loss of uplink 

connection

14/05/2009 6

Increasing uplink budget with 2Tx

Link-budget gains

+4.5 dB : CDD

+5.5 dB: STC

23 dBm

23 dBm

23 dBm

2 Tx MS @ 23 dBM 1 Tx MS @ 23 dBM

vs.vs.

Sequans solution Legacy solution

works today with existing base stations (WiMAX R1.0)works today with existing base stations (WiMAX R1.0)

requires support of STC at the base station (WiMAX R1.5)requires support of STC at the base station (WiMAX R1.5)

Coverage gains with 2Tx CDD

14/05/2009 7

Downlink

Uplink

64-QAM16-QAM

QPSK

+4.5 dB gain on link budget+30% coverage-40% capex

64-QAM16-QAM

QPSK

4.5 dB

Loss of uplink 

connection 1Tx

Loss of uplink 

connection 1Tx

Loss of downlink connection

Loss of downlink connection

Loss of uplink 

connection 2Tx CDD

Loss of uplink 

connection 2Tx CDD

SQN1210: continuing innovation

SQN1210 launched at Mobile World Congress ‘09

The New SQN1210: SoC for Mobile WiMAX Mobile Stations

The first 65nm single die baseband and RF chip

Ultra low power consumption:

<350 mW active mode (with fully loaded MIMO traffic)

0.5 mW standby mode

Very high throughput >40 Mbps

10X10 package: no external SDRAM

Triple band RF support: 2.3, 2.5, 3.5 GHz

Supports 2Tx, uplink MIMO, and mimoMAXTM technology

First announced customer - ZyXEL

IndustryIndustry--leading performanceleading performance20082008

SQN1130:

BaseBand

Separate 2.3/2.5 GHz & 3.5 GHz RF

20072007

SQN1170:

BB+RF single-chip

2.3/2.5 GHz

DRAM included

20092009

SQN 1210: BB+RF single-die

2.3/2.5/3.5 GHz

DRAM included

WiMAX: a foundation for 4G technology

• 4G technologies are based on same core technologyas Mobile WiMAX

• At chip level, many core IP blocks can be leveraged– OFDM modulator/demodulator– FEC– Channel estimation– MIMO processing

• Main differences to be taken into account– 20MHz channels– FDD support (only H-FDD required for WiMAX R1.5)

Sequans vision for 4G

•Develop technology for leading 4G technologies

– IEEE 802.16m– LTE

•Support smooth evolution of WiMAX operators to 4G

– Converged dual-mode ICsfor backwards compatibility

•Main differentiators– Efficient low-power

implementation– Radio performance

WCDMA

GSM, EDGE

WiMAX-802.16d (Fixed)

WiMAX-802.16e

EDGE Evolution

HSPAHSPA+

LTE

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

TD-SCDMA

TOWARDS4G

Convergence 802.16mLTE-ADV

Thank You!