Atlanta - Lucent Technologies is previewing here the first elements of its new Flexent global wireless network architecture, designed to offer service providers a modular, cost-effective way to add features including proposed next-generation, high-speed data services.
The new Flexent network elements, including an application processor and a new base station, will work with modules in Lucent's current wireless network architecture, the 16-year-old Autoplex, said officials.
The Flexent architecture is designed to operate in a more client/server manner than Autoplex, with more base station signalling-control features incorporated into software that resides in the new Application Processor (AP). The AP, like the other Flexent modules, is set for release by the end of the year, according to officials.
The AP is a cluster of up to eight industry standard CPUs. Lucent plans to use Hewlett-Packard Co. CPUs, which slide into the modularly designed AP cabinet, on display at the show here. The software that resides in the AP controls, among other things, the signaling interface between the base stations and mobile handsets.
Different flavors of the software in North America will support either code division multiple access (CDMA) or rival wireless specification time division multiple access (TDMA). Lucent also plans to support the so-called third generation, higher-bandwidth versions of these specifications that are now being drawn up.
"By bringing signal processing into software on the AP, we're letting service providers upgrade to new technology by swapping in new software into the AP, rather than having to replace hardware units," said Sam Gronner, a Lucent spokesman here at the show.
Other Flexent elements introduced here include:
- The Flexent Microcell base station, about one-third the size of the company's current smallest base station, the Minicell. The microcell allows service providers to incrementally extend network coverage at low cost to specific areas, such as high-traffic buildings.
- The Flexnet Ethernet Interface Node, designed to reside between the AP and Lucent's current Mobile Switching Center (MSC), connecting the new Flexnet elements to the previously available wireless network offerings. With the Ethernet node unit, an MSC can perform routing functions for more than 1,000 microcell base stations.
- The Flexent CDMA Private Networks Offer, based on software that allows wireless operators to partition the physical network into logical or "virtual" subnetworks, each with its own custom features and billing parameters.
Pricing of the new Flexent elements was not released.
