I recently had a Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) discussion with Gilad Garon, CEO of ASOCS, a privately held company that develops and markets multi-core processors (Their own design) that enable software to program physical layer functions and algorithms.
Although ASOCS has been around for ten years, their new business direction is two-pronged:
Silicon licensing IP business (ARM model)
Re-focus from baseband in smart phones and tablets to wireless infrastructure.
They have full stacks for 802.11 and other wireless standards, but they are not just a processing company. They are virtualizing the wireless physical layer.
With OFDM for 4G, a dense network with more base stations—users are at 100 Mbps! Where 3G needed 10 macro base stations, 4G needs about 250 base stations for the proper coverage at these rates.
Mobile networks have greatly evolved since the days of GSM, the beginning of digital radio technology, and the move away from the analog base station technology called Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) in Ma Bell’s time.
