BroadLight and Atheros Deliver Wireless-Enabled GPON Residential Gateway Designs

BroadLight, the leading supplier of GPON semiconductors and software, today announced that the company is collaborating with Atheros Communications to provide complete, turnkey reference platforms that integrate BroadLight’s GPON technology with Atheros XSPAN(R), the industry’s most widely-adopted 802.11n Wi-Fi technology. Based on BroadLight’s BL2348 GPON VoIP Residential Gateway System on chip (SoC) and Atheros’ XSPAN 802.11n solutions, the new Aspen reference platform will enable equipment suppliers to meet the needs of service providers worldwide for high-performance, wireless-enabled GPON gateway solutions supporting triple-play applications in the home.

Atheros is the newest participant in BroadLight’s Synergy+ program, which establishes strategic alliances with industry leaders that deliver best-in-class solutions and complement the company’s product offerings.

“The combination of Atheros and BroadLight technologies creates a compelling solution for customers and enables them to quickly bring to market wireless-enabled GPON home gateways,” said Doron Tal, vice president of business development and product management for BroadLight. “Wi-Fi is a must-have requirement for residential gateways to enable wireless distribution of new high-speed services such as IPTV in the GPON-connected home, and we are confident Atheros’ 11n will provide a superior wireless networking experience.”

Atheros’ Vice President, broadband carrier networking, Ali Hariri said, “11n is the clear choice for wirelessly distributing media content and services throughout the home. GPON significantly increases broadband performance on the LAN, driving the need for similarly robust wireless capabilities. New home gateways based on BroadLight’s GPON combined with Atheros XSPAN Wi-Fi can deliver the performance and reliability consumers demand when streaming media and latency-sensitive content.”

The joint reference designs feature Atheros’ 802.11n single-band and dual-band 2×2 MIMO options. Atheros’ AR9220 XSPAN family is comprised of the most integrated solutions for residential gateways, combining the radio, baseband/MAC and PCI interface into a single chip. New residential gateway designs based on these solutions will deliver up to 10 times the end-user throughput and nearly twice the range of legacy 802.11g and 802.11a/g networks.

The new BroadLight and Atheros-enabled GPON VoIP Gateway reference designs are now available. For more information, customers should contact BroadLight at sales@broadlight.com.

About BroadLight

BroadLight delivers the industry’s only end-to-end (E2E) solution (from the customer premises to the central office) for equipment vendors designing ITU-T compliant passive optical network (PON) systems. The company’s completely integrated product line consists of standards-based communication semiconductors and software solutions that enable its customers to deliver BPON and GPON equipment to carriers and services providers worldwide. This E2E solution provides customers with a lower risk development cycle and enables them to significantly speed time-to-market. As a result, BroadLight technology has been adopted by leading manufacturers who are currently providing equipment for the some of the world’s largest fiber PON roll-outs.

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