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NVIDIA’s Icera Modem Hooks Up Voice-Over-LTE And Live Gaming

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On Feb 24 2012 in Mobile
5 Comments 5 Comments

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If you’re in Barcelona next week, check out our booth at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) show in Hall 1, Stand C34. We’ll be giving a sneak peek at advanced technologies developed by Icera, the UK company NVIDIA acquired in mid-2011.

We’ll be showing the NVIDIA Icera 410 LTE modem to our partners, showcasing the latest advances in Voice over LTE (VoLTE), as well as multiplayer gaming over a live LTE network.

Voice over LTE

For VoLTE, we’ll demonstrate seamless handover of voice calls from an LTE network to a circuit-switched WCDMA 3G network, and vice versa, using Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC) with HD quality voice (known in the industry as AMR-WB or Adaptive Multi-Rate-Wideband).

These technologies are rich in acronyms, so let’s try to explain what this means.

SRVCC is a technology that enables voice calls to seamlessly hop between 4G and 3G networks, which will exist side by side for some time.  It’s important because it marks a significant step towards operators being able to move their voice traffic from 3G to LTE networks, allowing the 3G spectrum to be re-used for super-fast LTE technology.

It relies on a single radio in the handset for hand-off and a single multimode baseband processor to support LTE VoIP and circuit-switched 3G – like the Icera LTE modem – rather than different basebands for each air interface.  What’s more, using a single multimode baseband also means smaller phone designs, lower power and better battery life.

LTE Gaming Demo

We’re also showing a live LTE gaming demo at our booth (Hall 1, Stand C34), using our software defined radio (SDR) modem that implements all three radio technologies – 4G, 3G and 2G – with the full handover capabilities that network operators will need next year. The NVIDIA Icera modem is currently used more than any other modem to validate LTE handover test cases designed to meet the requirements set by  global standards organisations. This means consumers will experience a smooth and fast connection, regardless of whether they are using an LTE, 3G or 2G network.

The NVIDIA Icera LTE modem leverages our unique SDR technology, which enables software upgradable functions to OEMs and carriers, offering high throughput and best-in-class power and small die size.

This feature also enables faster time to market for new air interface technologies and lower R&D expenses for handset manufacturers. This allows us to include on our roadmap for 2012-2013 a bevy of wireless data technologies, including: LTE FDD, TD-LTE, 42Mbps Dual Carrier and TD-SCDMA in addition to existing HSPA+, HSPA and 2G technologies.

You can also keep tabs on MWC 2012 updates via this blog, twitter and our Social Media Newsroom.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/janisku7 Jani Marko Ilari Turunen

    sounds great chip

  • http://www.facebook.com/sonarctica89 Anders Salvesen

    Nvidia just gets better and better in any ways! :D

  • http://twitter.com/msreekan Mahesh Sreekandath

    Does any of the competition like Qualcomm, STE, Via Telcom support seamless handover between 4G & WCDMA 3G?

  • http://www.facebook.com/michaelgonzalez2012 Michael Gonzalez

    This is one of the many reasons Nvidia is a leader in 3D graphic technology.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/6UYF4FWUDVSUBQWXIMKTZKW7YY STAN

    Actually, Qualcomm announced they’ll be showing it at MWC, so I think that makes two of us.  STE seems some way behind, but I’m prepared to be surprised. It’s not relevant for Via Telecom since (i) they only do CDMA and SVRCC isn’t defined for CDMA/3GPP2 standards – which is why Verizon is currently going down the SVLTE route which requires two radios and two basebands and (ii) they don’t have LTE.
    Stan