Recently, Texas Instruments (TI) announced the expansion of its KeyStone multi-core architecture for application and network server developers in the New Hing Cloud Wireless Access Network (C-RAN), ensuring that its market leading System on Chip (SoC) solutions for base stations continue to maintain a leading position in the wireless industry. Specifically, TI is expanding the KeyStone architecture for the emerging C-RAN base station mode, which can create device pools that support high capacity for manufacturers to develop high-performance low-power C-RAN base station clusters. The cluster base station function can concentrate processing capacity, reduce the number of on-site devices, and provide an innovative solution for operators to reduce operating costs. By extending the KeyStone architecture, TI can provide a powerful low-cost approach for C-RAN, helping developers use KeyStone devices in small or macro cellular base stations while protecting their software investments.
Ken Rehbehn, Chief Analyst of Mobile Infrastructure at Yankee Group, pointed out that "TI is providing important support technologies for powerful low-cost cloud RAN solutions. Expanding TI's highly flexible KeyStone architecture to meet the topology requirements of C-RAN networks means that wireless system innovators can obtain an integrated architecture that scales from small cells to large C-RAN processing pools. These enhanced features can provide important design high flexibility and accelerate product launch processes without significantly increasing costs."
C-RAN is another emerging topology tool in the wireless field, in addition to small cellular, distributed antenna systems (DAS), active antenna arrays (AAA), and remote wireless head end (RRH). Its deployment can meet various increasingly challenging requirements from site acquisition, coverage and capacity improvement, and even environmental management (green and environmentally friendly base stations).
KeyStone is the first multi-core infrastructure architecture that provides a comprehensive and scalable platform for base station developers. TI's KeyStone enhancement for C-RAN includes Multicore Navigator's continuously expanding Queue Manager, which can provide over 16K queues and 1 million descriptors. In addition, the interface between TI hyperlink chips can be extended to 100Gbps through dual port operation, while its integrated line speed Ethernet switch can be upgraded to 10Gbps per port. The combination of these enhanced features will help interconnect and operate larger scale System on Chip (SoC) pools based on TI KeyStone as a unified SoC, which is an important feature of C-RAN base stations that requires baseband IQ for large-scale expansion processing through Ethernet IP. This will ultimately help developers create complete C-RAN base stations through wireless optimized KeyStone SoC, without the need for high power x86 servers or other network processors from similar competitors.
Tom Flanagan, Technical Strategy Director for Wireless Base Station Infrastructure at TI, pointed out, "By leveraging the scalability of the KeyStone architecture, we have provided enhanced features that represent significant breakthroughs in multi-core processing performance. With KeyStone, we are now able to create an unprecedented pool of high-capacity devices, integrating nearly 800 cores to work like a unified multi-core device. This is the powerful feature of KeyStone, which is a true multi-core platform and differentiation feature, and is a key consideration when choosing a C-RAN silicon technology partner."
Source of this article: International E-commerce Information Network