AccelerComm, the provider of physical layer solutions for 5G and beyond, has announced the latest release of its 5G NR NTN phyiscal layer solution, designed to drive up to 6Gbps and support 128 beams and 4,096 users per chipset for LEO satellites.
The new solution represents a 30x increase in performance compared with the previous generation, and there is a roadmap to increase this by more than 400x.
Each LEO satellite can contain multiple chipsets to scale for commercial constellations, allowing performance in excess of 20Gbps and 500 beams and the solution can also be deployed on MEO or GEO constellations. The new solution builds on the success of the company’s NTN single chip integrated solution which was revealed last year for proof of concept and trial projects, which was selected by Lockheed Martin for its regenerative 5G.MIL project and is set to be the first 5G base station in space.
The solution focuses on the specific requirements of commercial NTN constellations using a regenerative architecture. Core to delivering this leap forward in performance levels within the tight power constraints of satellite payloads is the use of vector processing cores for signal processing, such as the AI Engines on the AMD Versal devices. AccelerComm has reportedly achieved more efficient processing using these cores than is typically achieved with industry-standard processor cores.
Designed from the ground up to be portable, the solution can utilise a range of silicon platforms from other vendors that meet the highly challenging requirements of the space environment. The new solution is initially available on the AMD Versal series of Space Hardened embedded devices.
“The mobile industry is embracing NTN as a critical component of its network offerings, delivering huge amounts of additional coverage that complements existing terrestrial networks, with high profile demonstrations and proof of concepts,” said Rob Maunder, CTO and Founder of AccelerComm. “The next stage of 5G satellite will see the industry build on this early work to deliver these services at scale with high performance.
“Through our innovative algorithms and architecture using AMD’s Versal AI chip and the vector processing of its AI Engines, we have managed to supercharge the performance of space-based 5G NR modems. We are now primed to deliver a commercial solution, deployable on space-hardened hardware that delivers a leap forward in capacity.”
This latest solution complements AccelerComm’s portfolio of 5G physical layer IP, including its flexible and high-performance LDPC channel coding accelerators.
“There is growing industry consensus that regenerative payloads are the solution to unlock the potential power of 5G NTN, delivering improved latency through reductions in round-trip time (RTT) as well as store-and-forward functionality,” added Jake Saunders, Vice President, ABI Research. “AccelerComm’s solution shows how the challenge of these architectures can already be met today, resulting in an accelerated standards-based approach to the commercialisation of space-based communications and 5G compliant NR-NTN. We anticipate rapid growth in this sector with the number of 3GPP NTN Direct to Cellular and IOT connections growing to 39.4 million by 2030.”
There’s plenty of other editorial on our sister site, Electronic Specifier! Or you can always join in the conversation by commenting below or visiting our LinkedIn page.
