Broadcom Aggregation Network for Mobile

 September 26, 2011 – Santa Clara, CA – The expansion of mobile devices and the need for high percentages of data traffic from video is causing a shift in the delivery networks. The data networks for carrier ethernet are moving from 1G & 10G throughput up to the 40G & 100G rates. To address these higher speeds, Broadcom has introduced a new high performance switch solution called the StrataXGS. This product family is a modular, flexible configuration product that was architected not only for addressing multiple networks (PTN and IP-RAN) types, but optimized for reduced power consumption over performance as the featured specification.

Carrier Ethernet and Aggregation Network

The Carrier Ethernet network is composed of access and mobile backhaul (the BCM56440 series), an aggregation portion (the new BCM56640 and BCM56540 series), and a high speed core network which is served with thier BCM88600 series chips. The aggregation network is characterized by applying to a subscriber density of 2500-10000. The new aggregation products address the Carrier Ethernet features such as MPLS-TP, MPLS OAM, integrated time synchronization, protection switching and support for both IPv4 and IPv6 routing. The chip set is supported by a common software platform over the whole range of the Carrier Ethernet network, and provides a portable common interface for all three regions.

The modular nature of the design, allows for the construction of a “line card on a chip” without the need for external PHYs. The product provides a 40% power savings over traditional designs interfaces to the optical module. The part supports a front panel connectivity options of 48xGbE or 12x10GE or 3x40GE or 1x100GE. Part of this configurability comes from Broadcom’s F.XAUI technology will allows for 10GE interface to be reassigned on the fly as 4xGE, 4×2.5GE or 4×100-FX interfaces, and the parts share a pooled configurable memory.

Architecture for Supporting PTN and IP-RAN

This flexible architecture allows for addressing the challenge of growing neworks. Current networks are voice targeted and need to be upgraded to support data. New networks going in are data centric. The PTN configuration offer the “look and feel” of voice networks and are primarily L2 type systems. IP-RAN offers a more scalable L3 based data network with longer term life. By addressing both markets with an application configurable chip, the networks can be created for PTN now, and then only need software upgrades on these switches to support IP-RAN applications.

This flexibility comes at cost that is in line with other solutions in the PTN space and provides a cost savings over traditional IP-RAN (MPLS) solutions. The main marketplace for this technology is China, and is being targeted by all three major players – China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. The BCM56640 and BCM56540 are currently sampling and the production is slated for the first half of 2012.