announced a chipset for wireless IP phones that will create a new category of consumer products.
Wi-Fi phones based on this chipset will offer consumers a cordless phone replacement that can also support data applications such as web browsing, email and instant messaging. This solution is based on the convergence of Broadcom’s award-winning 54g wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) and field-proven Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies. When compared to similar solutions, Broadcom’s Voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) chipset reduces major chip count from four to two chips, and offers additional important features such as quality of service (QoS) and security.
“Our research indicates the number of broadband IP telephony subscribers will increase with a compound annual growth rate of 122 percent year-to-year in the US from 2004 through 2008,” said Keith Nissen, Senior Analyst for In- Stat/MDR. “By 2008, there will be approximately 75 million subscribers using Wi-Fi-based voice services in the US, and over 145 million subscribers worldwide. Wi-Fi Phones will help drive the adoption of VoIP by enabling the delivery of advanced VoIP services such as unified messaging and presence directly to the handset.”
“There is a lot of discussion around ‘convergence’ in the industry. With its proven ability to integrate, Broadcom is bringing to the market a real example of convergence that will enable a new class of phones,” said Robert A. Rango, Group Vice President of Broadcom’s Mobile & Wireless Group. “As the worldwide leader in Wi-Fi and an emerging leader in VoIP customer premises equipment (CPE) solutions, it is a natural step forward for us to combine these two technologies onto one platform for the development of wireless IP phones.”
Industry Leading Integration
Broadcom’s wireless IP phone chipset solution consists of the Broadcom BCM1160 mobile VoIP processor and BCM4318 AirForce One 54g chip. These two chips are shipping today and together enable a complete wireless VoIP handset solution that offers a future-proofed platform capable of supporting emerging Wi-Fi and VoIP standards, as well as new data and multimedia applications over an 802.11g Wi-Fi connection.
The BCM1160 is a new Broadcom mobile VoIP processor specifically designed to meet the integration and low-power requirements of wireless handheld devices. The BCM1160 integrates an ARM9-based CPU, analog voice codec with a direct microphone and high-output speaker interface, 1.3 megapixel camera interface, 262k color LCD display interface, and USB into a single-chip solution.
The processor uses Broadcom’s xChange VoIP software for supporting the transport of toll-quality voice. xChange is a robust, field-proven, modular software architecture used across all of Broadcom’s VoIP silicon platforms, including Wi-Fi and desktop Ethernet IP phones, residential terminal adapters and voice-enabled cable and DSL residential gateways. It has been shipped in more than four million devices to date.
The BCM4318 is Broadcom’s smallest and most cost-effective 54g transceiver, integrating a high-performance 2.4 GHz radio, IEEE 802.11a/g baseband processor, medium access controller (MAC) and other components onto a single silicon chip. The BCM4318 supports Broadcom’s SecureEZSetup and its SmartRadio technology enables wireless VoIP phones to maintain connectivity at greater distances from the wireless router. Broadcom has been an industry leader in promoting interoperable Wi-Fi products. Broadcom’s client and access point Wi-Fi reference designs are included in the Wi-Fi Alliance test bed for 801.11b, 802.11g, 802.11a/g, Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM), Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), and WPA2.
To reduce customers’ time-to-market with new product designs, Broadcom has developed the BCM91160 Wi-Fi VoIP phone reference design. The BCM91160 includes Broadcom’s xChange VoIP software, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) call signaling stack, WLAN OneDriver and a LinuxOS-based board support package, including all necessary drivers and software development tool chain. This kit is available today to developers as a wireless IP phone handset with a comprehensive hardware reference design support package.
Broadcom plans to demonstrate the BCM91160 reference design at the Fall 2004 VON Conference & Expo, Oct. 18-20, at the Sheraton Boston hotel connected to the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA.
