3G HOME ssAdvertising and Sponsorship ssFREE Daily 3G Newsletter

TTPCom is opening its Cambridge, UK and Boston, US laboratories to demonstrate EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) technology to potential clients. The company has already tested 5 of the modulation and coding schemes, including one full family, against an independent peer and will shortly undertake interoperability testing with a number of leading EDGE infrastructure vendors and network operators in the UK and North America.

Greg Matthews, TTPCom’s EDGE Product Manager, commented “TTPCom made a firm commitment to develop EDGE technology 2 years ago. The fact that we are now able to demonstrate data transfer with our EDGE platform places us firmly on schedule to deliver EGPRS software later this year. We anticipate that mobile device customers licensing this technology will be able to introduce products in mid-2003”.
The initial drive for EDGE has come from North America where spectrum is limited and a number of the leading carriers have announced their plans to deploy the technology. TTPCom has recently established an office in Boston which has a primary role in supporting EDGE field trials and operator approvals in the region. Malcolm Burwell, General Manager of the Boston facility explains “The greatest challenge in bringing EDGE technology to market is interoperability and field testing - this is why we are engaging in early trials with EDGE infrastructure vendors and carriers. In fact our global experience in supporting GPRS in the field will prove invaluable in bringing EDGE to market and making the process of introducing products easier for our customers".

EDGE is a low-risk, low-cost add-on to existing GSM/GPRS networks and offers operators a logical evolutionary route beyond GSM/GPRS to 3G. In addition to increased voice capacity and improved quality of service, EDGE offers three times the bandwidth of GPRS through the use of new modulation and coding schemes such as 8PSK, incremental redundancy, link adaptation and dynamic window sizes. Operators worldwide are showing interest in EDGE as it will enable them to deploy revenue generating 3G services at an earlier date.

Technology for chipset and mobile device manufacturers

TTPCom has developed the technology to enable both terminal manufacturers and chipset vendors to lead the EDGE market. The company supplies system architecture designs and Layer 1/physical layer software for baseband chipset developers; radio architecture designs for radio chipset developers; EGPRS protocol software running on multiple platforms; and a full suite of applications. Extending beyond the licensing of intellectual property the company offers a comprehensive service package that includes; EDGE training; operator approvals and field trial assistance.

TTPCom has developed a unique multi-platform strategy in which users of its protocol stack gain the flexibility to choose from a range of baseband and radio chips. Customers can select whichever platforms are optimal for their products, whether this is based on product functionality, cost or time to market advantages.

TTPCom’s EGPRS protocol stack supports Release 99, Class B & C operation, multislot classes 1 to 12 and all coding schemes, MCS 1 to 9. This EDGE solution inherits the full breadth of existing applications of the TTPCom GSM Protocol Stack, is built on TTPCom’s solid and proven GSM/GPRS foundations and offers a fully integrated step in the route from GSM to 3G.