Third generation (3G) cellular systems will be based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) approaches and will provide significant data services as well as increased capacity for voice channels. This results in considerable computational requirements for 3G base stations. This chapter discusses an architecture that provides the needed computation together with significant flexibility. At the same time, this approach is one of the most cost effective known. Based upon a Texas Instruments TMS320C64xe as the core DSP, the architecture utilizes three Flexible Coprocessors (FCPs). | The Application of Programmable DSPs in Mobile Communications Edited by Alan Gatherer and Edgar Ausländer Copyright 2002 John Wiley Sons Ltd ISBNs 0-471-48643-4 Hardback 0-470-84590-2 Electronic 4 Programmable DSPs for 3G Base Station Modems Dale Hocevar Pierre Bertrand Eric Biscondi Alan Gatherer Frank Honore Armelle Laine Simon Morris Sriram Sundararajan and Tod Wolf Introduction Third generation 3G cellular systems will be based on Code Division Multiple Access CDMA approaches and will provide significant data services as well as increased capacity for voice channels. This results in considerable computational requirements for 3G base stations. This chapter discusses an architecture that provides the needed computation together with significant flexibility. At the same time this approach is one of the most cost effective known. Based upon a Texas Instruments TMS320C64x as the core DSP the architecture utilizes three Flexible Coprocessors FCPs a Correlation Coprocessor for the CDMA portion a Turbo Decoder Coprocessor for the data services and a Viterbi Decoder Coprocessor for the voice services. The solution can be used for the two main flavors of 3G cellular as well as for second generation systems. The explosive growth in wireless cellular systems is expected to continue. There will be 1 billion mobile users perhaps as early as 2003. 3G wireless systems will play a key role in this growth and roll-out of 3G should begin within 1 year. The key feature of 3G systems is the integration of significant amounts of data communication with voice communication all at higher user capacities than previous systems. More recently IP networking has become a key interest and such capabilities will become 3G services as well. These new 3G standards come under the coordination of the International Telecommunication Union ITU under the name of IMT-2000. Wideband CDMA techniques form the core of the higher capacity portions of these new standards and are the primary focus of
