Sequans Communications, a leading provider of cellular IoT chips and modules for massive and broadband IoT, announced that LTE band 65 support is now available on its Cassiopeia LTE-Advanced platform. In collaboration with EchoStar Mobile, a mobile satellite services provider offering connectivity across Europe through a converged satellite and terrestrial network, Sequans has extended the capabilities of its Cassiopeia LTE platform to include B65, 90 MHz of spectrum that is primarily used for satellite or combined terrestrial/satellite services. The new Sequans/EchoStar Mobile solution comprises the entire modem function, including baseband, RFIC, and front-end, enabling EchoStar Mobile to realize its plans to deploy a converged S-band satellite and terrestrial end-to-end network.
"Our collaboration with EchoStar Mobile on Band 65 support is the latest development we've undertaken to enable LTE to satellite communications, and we are excited about the new broadband IoT applications that are now possible using this new technology," said Georges Karam, Sequans CEO. "EchoStar Mobile is working on some of the world's most exciting communications projects, and we are pleased to contribute our technology in support of their long-term spectrum utilization strategy."
The new Cassiopeia LTE-A prototype with B65 support has passed all 3GPP required conformance tests for the FDD 1920 – 2010 MHz UL / 2110 – 2200 MHz DL frequency range and can be used as an initial design guideline for a wide variety of broadband LTE IoT devices.
This project with EchoStar Mobile was undertaken as part of Sequans' "Custom Technology Solutions" initiative where Sequans experts address some of the world's most difficult and exciting communications challenges. In addition to satellite, Sequans has adapted its technology for projects in other markets, including aviation, transportation, public safety, and government. For more information, see CustomTech.
Sequans' Cassiopeia LTE-Advanced platform is compliant with 3GPP Release 10 specifications. Cassiopeia supports highly flexible dual-carrier aggregation that allows the combination of any two carriers of any size up to 20 MHz each, contiguous or non-contiguous, inter-band or intra-band. Cassiopeia also supports other Release 10 enhancements such as new MIMO schemes, enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC) schemes for heterogeneous networks (HetNets), and improvements to LTE broadcast. Cassiopeia features Sequans' advanced receiver technology for improved performance and can support additional optional features, including envelope tracking and secure boot.
Click here to learn more about the Cassiopeia LTE-A prototype.