ASIA : GCT Semiconductor and Green Packet Berhad (Green Packet) announced collaboration to bring the world’s first intelligent connection management solution that delivers seamless connectivity and handover between WiMAX and WiFi. The Green Packet “Intouch Connectivity Manager” integrates Green Packet’s Mobile IP solution with GCT’s GDM7215, the industry’s first single-chip solution supporting both mobile WiMAX IEEE 802.16e Wave 2 and WiFi 802.11 b/g.

Above shows a current WiFi connection manager - the SONconnect from Green Packet.

“A seamless broadband environment is now a reality. It is no longer just an idea on paper or a vision for the future,” said Kelvin Lee, Senior General Manager of Green Packet. “With Green Packet’s “Intouch Connection Manager” users enjoy uninterrupted connections as the solution intelligently and transparently switches between WiMAX and WiFi according to connectivity rules set by the user or the operator. Our intelligent connectivity management solution is aptly named Intouch to correspond to the fact that users will never have to experience a ‘disconnect’.”

Green Packet’s “Intouch Connection Manager” also supports multiple connection modes such as WAN and LAN in addition to WiMAX and WiFi. Intouch is coupled with lifestyle features such as communication services, information and entertainment into a single client. This unique combination is aimed at providing WiMAX operators with service differentiation factors allowing them to gain revenue not only from network access but from value-added services as well.

“GCT’s GDM7215 single-chip WiMAX plus WiFi integrated circuit enables a physically smaller solution, lower power consumption and reduced bill-of-materials,” commented Dr. Kyeongho (KH) Lee, President and CEO of GCT Semiconductor. “WiMAX plus WiFi systems containing our chip and running Green Packet’s Intouch allows users to roam seamlessly between WiMAX and WiFi networks, thus creating a powerful and highly desirable wireless broadband experience.”

That seamless connectivity will soon be available to Malaysians. Green Packet, with its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, has already signed up Malaysia’s first and largest WiMAX operator, Packet One Networks (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (P1) to roll out this new and innovative technology in the coming months.

GDM7215 implements mobile WiMAX RF/MAC/PHY and WiFi RF/MAC/PHY on a monolithic integrated circuit. GDM7215 supports multimode wireless connectivity with its on-chip RF transceivers, allowing seamless broadband and local wireless roaming. Based on GCT’s industry-proven CMOS RF technology, GDM7215 integrates WiMAX and WiFi radios, a high performance ARM9 RISC processor along with a 32-bit uniscalar DSP, and a full range of advanced interfaces for network, storage, and audio/visual device applications.