BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobile World Congress 2012 --

News Highlights:

• Targets fast growing small cell base station market - forecast to reach 1.6M units by 2016(1)
• First small cell Ethernet switch with integrated traffic management and deep packet buffering
• Integration of up to four components reduces system cost and power consumption

At Mobile World Congress 2012, Broadcom Corporation BRCM, a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today introduced a new line of switch solutions optimized to meet the bandwidth, scalability and efficiency demands of the fast growing small cell base station market. Based on Broadcom's award winning StrataXGS^® architecture and optimized for mobile backhaul, the BCM56240 series is the most highly integrated system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution in its class, combining the functionality of up to four stand-alone components on a single chip. Visit Broadcom @ Mobile World Congress for more news from the show.

Global IP traffic is expected to grow 18-fold by 2016(2), driving the need for a faster and more efficient mobile network. As a result, analysts predict the carrier Ethernet market to reach $40.2 billion.(3) As small cell vendors race to fulfill operator demand for higher bandwidth in metropolitan and rural outdoor networks, the small cell base station market is predicted to reach 1.6M units by 2016(1). Urban networks alone are expected to require 40x more capacity by 2016 to keep pace with peak demand(1).

Features Optimized for Mobile Backhaul

Designed to address the economic and performance challenges of operators and service providers as they upgrade legacy mobile networks, the BCM56240 series offers the latest in complete carrier-grade Ethernet innovations including MPLS, OAM, time synchronization, protection switching and hierarchical Quality of Service (QoS). By coupling these capabilities with a highly capable traffic manager and deep packet buffer, the BCM56240 is uniquely suited to a wide variety of system configurations and wireless media types required in the emerging small cell and microwave all-outdoor unit (ODU) categories.

Complete Spectrum of Mobile Backhaul Solutions 

With today's announcement Broadcom extends its industry-leading portfolio for mobile backhaul, now offering a complete line of end-to-end solutions. As operators work to deliver high-bandwidth mobile broadband across their coverage areas, Broadcom can deliver all of the silicon tools required to solve the diverse range of challenges in the mobile backhaul:

• BCM56240 for small cell backhaul systems
• BCM56440 for cell site router and microwave indoor unit (IDU) systems
• BCM56540 for packet transport network (PTN) systems
• BCM56640 for carrier Ethernet switch systems

 Market Drivers

• Global IP traffic expected to grow 18-fold by 2016(2)
• Carrier Ethernet equipment market to reach $40.2 billion by 2015(3)
• Small cell base station to market to reach 1.6M units by 2016(1)
• Urban networks alone are expected to require 40x more capacity by 2016(1)
• An average of 19 percent of total mobile traffic will be carried on small cells by 2013 (up from 7 percent in 2011)(4)

Key Facts

• Non-blocking architecture enables line-rate operation for all packet sizes
• Integrated hierarchical traffic manager with deep off-chip packet buffer expansion option using DDR3 SDRAM
• Latest Carrier Ethernet protocols including MPLS/VPLS, MPLS-TP, PBB, PBB-TE, QiQ
• Dedicated resources for per-service MEF-compliant hierarchical meters and counters
• Low power architecture and Energy Efficient Ethernet™
• Broadcom unified Software Development Kit

Availability

The BCM56240 series is now sampling with production volume slated for the second half of 2012.

For more information on Broadcom at Mobile World Congress, please visit http://www.broadcom.com/company/events/mwc12.php, the Broadcom Connected blog and Facebook/Broadcom. 

Quotes:

Michael Howard, Principal Analyst & Co-Founder, Infonetics Research

"3G and 4G small cells play a large role in mobile operator plans for handling their fast-growing total mobile traffic loads. Operators handle a large majority of their mobile traffic with macrocells today, but this market is set to expand quickly, as operators we surveyed plan to use in-building and outdoor small cells to handle 19 percent of their traffic in 2013 – up from 7 percent in 2011. We expect operators to welcome this latest innovation from Broadcom as a means to help transition their small cell networks to higher bandwidth and reliability."

Eric Hayes, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Network Switch, Broadcom

"Broadcom is thrilled with the overwhelming demand for our mobile backhaul solutions, the world's most widely deployed portfolio in the industry. Rather than entering this market with a one-size-fits-all product strategy, we have optimized our solutions for every form factor of mobile backhaul, providing our customers with the specific configurations and capabilities they desire along with a common implementation and software layer. With the addition of the BCM56240 series we can now deliver a complete end-to-end solution for mobile backhaul."

Supporting Resources:

• BCM56240 Featured Product Page
• B-Connected Broadcom Blog
• Subscribe to Broadcom's RSS Feed

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation BRCM, a FORTUNE 500® company, is a global leader and innovator in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom® products seamlessly deliver voice, video, data and multimedia connectivity in the home, office and mobile environments. With the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and embedded software solutions, Broadcom is changing the world by Connecting everything®. For more information, go to www.broadcom.com.

Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything®, and the Connecting everything logo and StrataXGS® are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU.  Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

(1) Mobile Experts - Backhaul for Small Cells – Oct 2011

(2) Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2011-2016

(3) Infonetics Small Cell Outlook – Jan 2012

(4) Infonetics Small Cell Deployment Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey - December 2011

Contacts

SOURCE Broadcom Corporation; BRCM Infrastructure & Networking