Project directory

SYMPA

SYstEM on Chip for software rAdio - Design of a chip for terminals and multi-standard base stations, reconfigurable, mobile networks of the future.

Given the large number of parallel and competing standards in the field of mobile communications (Wifi, Wimax …) to be considered for equipment manufacturers and operators, this emerging solution aims to design terminals and base stations that can not only support a multitude of these standards but also switch from one standard to another in real time, and perfectly flexible and transparent for the user.

The economic stakes are considerable: increasing the capacity of the networks, increasing the speed of deployment of the new standards, drastically reducing maintenance costs, developing more quickly new services and uses.

Also the SYMPA project proposes the design of a high-performance digital circuit allowing terminals and base stations to perform the multi-standard reconfigurability function.

Based on the results acquired by the IDROMEL project (ANR 2005), which made it possible to specify the hardware and software functionalities of the different access network layers, and to develop a development platform architecture based on Programmable components (FPGAs), the SYMPA project will now focus the study even more closely on industrial issues, by creating a System-on-Chip for the “baseband processing” part, which is realistic in terms of cost (silicon area) and cost of use (consumption).