Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation has expanded its Serval Carrier Ethernet switch engine portfolio with the six-port Serval Lite (VSC7416). This solution integrates the company’s IEEE1588v2 VeriTime technology. It is optimised for small cell applications, with added rich Carrier Ethernet features which are said to offer 75 percent lower power and 50 percent lower BOM cost than competitive options.
Market analysts project an estimated 64.2M small cell base stations in use by 2016, with the microwave small cell backhaul equipment market alone growing to $6.4B by 2017.
‘Carriers are planning and moving to increase 3G/4G/LTE coverage and capacity by deploying small cells, which will play an increasingly critical role in mobile networks,’ stated Michael Howard, principal analyst at Infonetics Research.
‘The new networking and connectivity requirements of a large number of small cells pose a major technical challenge for small cell backhaul. And yet there is more difficulty added by the size, power, and cost constraints of small cell equipment. The company has created new options for 3G/4G/LTE small cells with its latest Ethernet-optimized Serval device with state-of-the-art packet timing technology.’
‘Serval Lite enables the cost and power-efficient deployment of small cell base stations backhauling to an all-IP backbone,’ said Uday Mudoi, product marketing director at Vitesse.
This solution is said to meet carrier grade small cell backhaul needs, integrating Carrier Ethernet features needed to support advanced packet-based services in a compact, low power package. At less than 1.5W power, it simplifies thermal design, described as significantly reducing equipment costs in small form factor outdoor deployments.
Vitesse
