Broadcom aims for clearer calls on crowded networks

Broadcom on Tuesday announced a technology that could result in clearer calls for mobile users on swamped networks.

It also introduced software for advanced video playback, part of an effort to become a bigger player in the emerging mobile TV market. Both announcements were made at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona.

Broadcom said its M-Stream technology allows mobile networks to support twice as many calls at a steady quality without changes to their current network infrastructures. Broadcom acquired M-Stream, based in Israel, two years ago.

Handsets equipped with M-Stream have steadier connections in areas where call quality is weak, Broadcom said. The technology further improves signal coverage, data integrity and network capacity for 2G (second-generation) and 3G networks, it said.

As cellular phone use has grown, carriers have dropped the number of bits transmitted, a move that increases capacity per base station but can degrade call quality, Broadcom said. Handset manufacturers are evaluating M-Stream along with mobile operators, although Broadcom but did not specify the manufacturers.

Broadcom’s new baseband processors have M-Stream. The technology uses advanced error-correction algorithms to incoming voice or data streams and can reconstruct dropped information. It can work on GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) or WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) networks.

M-Stream has been integrated into CellAirity, Broadcom’s multimedia platform for mobile phones.

Broadcom also announced that its VideoCore software, which does low-power multimedia processing, has been integrated into the CellAirity platform. The software allows developers to reprogram different applications as opposed to requiring new chip designs for each new product, Broadcom said.

Broadcom is aiming for multimedia chips that are capable of decoding a range of audio and video standards that could be used to broadcast mobile TV.

VideoCore will support Microsoft’s Windows Media Video, Microsoft’s version of video compression standard referred to as VC-1, Broadcom said. Broadcom chips such as the BCM2702, BCM2722 and BCM2724 will support VC-1 and H.264 — also known as MPEG-4 AVC — video codecs along with several audio codecs, the company said.