SMART Alliance Launched by Navini, Beceem, Fujitsu, Runcom

SMART Alliance Launched by Navini, Beceem, Fujitsu, Runcom

October 25, 2007

Advances Beamforming, Beamformed MIMO technology and
multi-vendor CPE devices


    TAIPEI, Oct. 25 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- 

    In an effort to drive harmonized system performance and
interoperability of Smart Antenna systems, Navini, Beceem,
Fujitsu and Runcom announce the formation of the
"SMart Antenna RF Test" Alliance (SMART).  This
alliance has been formed to promote the adoption and
implementation of Beamforming (BF) and Beamformed MIMO (BF
+ MIMO) which are included in the 802.16e-2005
specification published by the IEEE and adopted by the
WiMAX Forum for Mobile WiMAX certification under Wave 2.
Smart Antenna systems are already deployed in commercial
Mobile WiMAX networks today.
  
    "The capacity and coverage benefits of combining
Beamforming with MIMO are very compelling offering up to
double the capacity with twice the coverage of
non-beamformed systems," said Sai Subramanian,
Navini's vice president of Product Management.  "This
Alliance ensures broad availability of CPE devices that
have full capability of Beamforming and Beamformed
MIMO."
  
    The SMART Alliance will publish a system performance
baseline for the mandatory Smart Antenna features adopted
by the WiMAX Forum(1) for Mobile WiMAX.

    The founding Charter members of the SMART alliance
are:

    -- Navini Networks.  Navini leads the Beamforming task
group, part
       of the Certification Working Group in the WiMAX
Forum.
    -- Beceem Communications. Beceem has been an outspoken
Smart
       Antenna proponent in the IEEE and WiMAX Forum
working groups and
       was the first to offer a commercial Mobile WiMAX
terminal
       chipset that supports the WiMAX Forum Wave 2 Smart
Antenna
       feature set. 
    -- Fujitsu Microelectronics America.  Fujitsu recently
participated
       in the first multivendor interoperability
demonstration of
       Beamformed MIMO over Smart WiMAX, in partnership
with Navini.
       Fujitsu is a member of the Beamforming task group in
the WiMAX
       Forum's Certification Working group.
    -- Runcom Technologies.  Runcom has long been a
supporter of
       Beamforming and MIMO, which the company recognizes
as a smart
       way to obtain improved overall performance of WiMAX.



    SMART Alliance members will collaborate on
implementation details to optimize performance and open
their field testing labs to other members for performance
interoperability testing. Performance test results will be
shared to ensure Smart Antenna technology deployments of
the highest possible system performance while maintaining
compatibility with the WiMAX Forum profiles and certified
products.

    This will not replace or alter the tests and
certification processes already defined or planned by the
WiMAX Forum, but will supplement them to ensure that
multi-vendor products with Beamforming + MIMO can be
implemented with predictable performance and full
interoperability.  The WiMAX Forum's certification testing
is limited to proving multi-vendor interoperability through
conformance to a defined profile specification. The SMART
alliance is open to all WiMAX Forum members interested in
the benefits of Smart Antenna systems. 

    (1) "WiMAX Forum" is a registered trademark
of the WiMAX Forum.
        "WiMAX," the WiMAX Forum logo,
"WiMAX Forum Certified," and the
        WiMAX Forum Certified logo are trademarks of the
WiMAX Forum.
        All other trademarks are the properties of their
respective
        owners.


    For more information, please contact:

     Maryvonne Tubb
     Navini Networks
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]