US : UTStarcom has selected Motorola, Inc. network processors for use as packet- forwarding engines in several of its 3G radio access network products. As service providers in China prepare for 3G field trials in 2004, UTStarcom will use the Motorola processors and Wireless Network Interface (WNI) software to ramp up volume production of its Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) solutions.

"Our strategy has always been to meet market needs by developing innovative products and technologies that deliver the greatest possible value to our customers," said Mr. Bruce Huang, director of UTStarcom Common Hardware and 3G Advance Platforms. "We consider Motorola network processors to be part of our 3G product strategy, enabling us to create multiple, cost-effective 3G designs around a core technology and software base."

Motorola's network processors were selected by UTStarcom because they provide interface support for 3G wireless (including Gigabit Ethernet and OC-3/STM-1 SONET/SDH) and offer a highly programmable environment for protocol implementations needed in the converging 3G wireless network, including ATM, AAL-2, AAL-5, and Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS). In addition, the product-quality WNI software from Motorola offers exceptional integration of these wireless protocols into full-featured data path applications for base transceiver stations and base station controllers.

"Motorola's WNI software has significantly accelerated our software development efforts," added Mr. Huang. "We were able to take this comprehensive software and easily modify it to meet certain requirements for our market. The modularity of the software enabled each protocol implementation, such as AAL-2 and AAL-5, to be highly portable for reuse in our applications."

The UTStarcom boards designed with Motorola's C-3e™ and C-5™ network processors include an E1 interface board, an Inverse Multiplexing over ATM (IMA) interface board and Routing Engine Modules (REMs). Having already used Motorola's C-5 network processor in their mSwitch™ platform, UTStarcom has been able to leverage their experience and software for these new 3G wireless designs. The UTStarcom boards also use Motorola's MPC8245 processor, which contains a PowerPC® core, as the host processor connecting to the C-3e and C-5 network processor. Motorola's MPC9230 clock synthesizer serves as the clock source on the boards.