According to In-Stat, the cellular industry has been a battle ground between different communication technology standards driven by regional and industry politics, and Super 3G/4G appears no different. However, the industry appears to be narrowing down to just three standards: LTE, WiMAX and XGP. Despite the differences in the technologies, all three are based on OFDM technology and represent the transition to IP-based networks for communications. Unlike previous generations, however, those similarities are making it easier for the silicon vendors to support more than one technology in a single chip.
Software defined radios (SDR) have been a reality in silicon for several generations due to the need to support multiple frequency bands and/or 2G/3G standards. With the next generation solutions, however, using similar technologies is easier through a programmable modem architecture combined with dedicated or configurable IP to handle the network interface and security. As a result, many baseband chipset suppliers are considering support for multiple technologies through an SDR architecture. Thus far, the newer market entrants that viewed the transition to 4G technologies as a disruptive opportunity appear to be taking the lead. Companies like Comsys, which recently announced a WiMAX + GSM baseband chipset, and Wavesat, which is the first vendor to support all three next generation standards, LTE, WiMAX and XGP, on a single chip appear to be the leading innovators. Even Intel, which already offers WiMAX chipsets and has a 3G license through a partnership with Nokia, has hinted at the possibility of supporting LTE in the future. And, there is sure to be 3G + LTE solutions from the industry leader Qualcomm, even if supporting WiMAX is out of the question.
The clear trend is that the next generation of baseband solutions will have to support multiple communication standards to be competitive. In addition, as silicon space becomes more readily available with the 28 nm and 22 nm semiconductor process generations, we are also likely to see more baseband solutions integrated into processors, similar to what Qualcomm has accomplished with its Snapdragon product line that is rapidly gaining momentum in the mobile market. Just as the baseband market appeared to be a commodity with little differentiation, 4G and Moore's Law are once again turning the technology into a competitive race. For more information on the outlook for baseband technology and chipsets, please refer to the upcoming In-Stat report, "New Baseband Solutions Fuel Mobile Broadband Devices."