Intel continues to push deep into the mobile network, buying over 1,400 patents and applications from bankrupt infrastructure maker Powerwave, to add to its acquisitions of the mobile network chip activities of Mindspeed and LSI Axxia.
Its new store of IPR covers technology in tower mounted amplifiers, antenna structures, power amplifiers, crest factor reduction, and digital pre-distortion circuitry, Intel said in a statement. It did not reveal the purchase price but it bought the assets from The Gores Group, which had obtained them following Powerwave’s filing for Chapter XI bankruptcy protection.
Its recent deals see Intel moving beyond its usual area of activity in carrier infrastructure – network processors and Ethernet switch-chips, plus, of course, devices – into the RAN and the base station themselves. Its hopes of muscling in on Freescale and Texas Instruments rest mainly on the future move to virtualized RANs, and the chance for Intel to see network functions running in software on its x86-based servers, while it also provides the low power SoCs for the stripped-down cell site equipment which would support Cloud-RANs and very dense networks.
The Powerwave patents would be relevant to a wide variety of possible Intel projects, including WiFi access points, cellular and/or WiFi small cell antennas, and specialized coprocessors to work alongside vRAN servers to handle intensive network tasks.