Altera’s Open RAN solutions and a robust ecosystem enable radio infrastructure providers to deliver scalable, intelligent, future-ready platforms faster and with greater flexibility

At Mobile World Congress 2026, Altera, the largest pure-play FPGA solutions provider, highlighted how it’s leveraging strategic partnerships to enable the next generation of advanced radio systems through programmable innovations. By ensuring seamless integration between leading radio platforms and Altera’s FPGAs and Open RAN reference solutions, Altera is enabling communications providers to accelerate advanced 5G deployments, prototype early 6G architectures, and expand into emerging Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) applications such as satellite and airborne connectivity.

Altera and Broadcom Advancing Future-Ready Radio Platforms

Altera recently collaborated with Broadcom to help enable the next generation of high-performance radio platforms by combining Altera’s Agilex™ 7 FPGAs with Broadcom’s leadership in advanced radio silicon. Together, the companies successfully completed interoperability testing between Agilex 7 FPGAs and Broadcom’s BroadPeak SoC platform, validating robust, deterministic, high-throughput performance across wideband radio configurations leveraging JESD204C connectivity at 32.44Gbps.

Designed for large-scale deployments, the solution meets stringent power consumption envelopes and thermal hotspot constraints, enabling dense, high-capacity radios without compromising reliability or form factor. Together, the BroadPeak SoC platform allows equipment manufacturers and network operators to deploy wideband radios with advanced RF performance, evolving beamforming and AI-assisted signal processing, and open innovation as the industry moves toward 5G-Advanced and beyond.

“As mobile networks evolve toward higher bandwidths, larger antenna arrays, and increasingly intelligent RAN architectures, the industry requires deep, open, and highly optimized partnerships across silicon platforms,” said Venkat Yadavalli, head of Altera’s Business Management Group. “Our collaboration with Broadcom combines Altera’s programmable compute leadership with Broadcom’s world-class radio SoC technology to deliver scalable, future-ready platforms.”

Successful interoperability between Altera and Broadcom’s latest silicon platforms enables customers to rapidly build scalable radio platforms supporting O-RAN 7.2x splits, from 8T8R to 128T128R configurations and beyond. The combined solution supports next-generation 3GPP FR1 and FR3 bands, while efficiently partitioning baseband and RF processing to simplify system design and accelerate time-to-market.

Vijay Janapaty, Vice President and GM, Physical Layer Products (PLP) Division at Broadcom, added, “By combining Broadcom’s industry-leading RF and converter technology for 5G Advanced and emerging 6G with Altera’s high-performance, power-efficient FPGAs and proven radio beamforming and L1 low solutions, we are helping infrastructure providers move faster, reduce complexity, and deploy next-generation wireless networks with confidence.”

Altera’s collaboration with Broadcom reflects the company’s broader momentum in working with leading technology partners to accelerate Open RAN innovation and deployment.

Altera Expands Open RAN Momentum for Customized Innovation

Altera recently collaborated with NEC on a 5G Massive MIMO radio developed using Altera’s Agilex 7 FPGA technology. The solution helped NEC rapidly bring to market a sub-6GHz radio unit that boosts network capacity with significant throughput gains while reducing power consumption by more than 40%, enabling more efficient Open RAN and vRAN deployments.

“Altera’s Agilex 7 FPGA and advanced NEC technologies enabled NEC’s 5G Massive MIMO Radio platform delivering leading compute performance for O-RAN, beamforming and layer 1 low-PHY functions that are critical for effective 5G deployment,” said Kazuhiko Harasaki, General Manager of Mobile Access Department, NEC Corporation. “By leveraging Altera’s FPGA-based platform, we were able to deliver the performance and efficiency along with the flexibility that operators need.”

Altera’s collaboration with Microelectronics Technology Inc (MTI) on the development of macro high-power 4T4R radio units (RU) based on Altera’s Agilex 5 E-Series FPGA technology allowed MTI to rapidly bring to market compact, sub-6 GHz single and multi-band radio units that reduces system cost and form factor while meeting the performance requirements of modern Open RAN deployments.

“Altera’s Agilex FPGAs enabled MTI’s single and multi-band high-power radio platforms to deliver efficient compute performance for O-RAN, L1 low-PHY, and DFE functions for leading network operators,” said Jerry Chen, Vice President of Product Management at MTI. “By leveraging Altera’s FPGA-based platform, we were able to deliver 25GbE fronthaul performance while achieving meaningful reductions in power consumption, form factor, and overall system cost.”

Altera’s collaboration with Wisig Networks is helping to advance Open RAN innovation through the development of two next-generation radio platforms, including a 32TR n78 Massive MIMO ULPI radio and an 8T8R high-power n78 macrocell. Designed and developed in India, these platforms align with the country’s made-in-India requirements for 5G telecom infrastructure, while delivering improved energy efficiency, enhanced uplink performance, and scalable architectures for Open RAN-based 5G deployments.

“Agilex’s market-leading performance per watt, combined with Altera’s enablement solutions, allowed us to develop deployable radio systems faster and more cost-effectively while meeting India’s localization mandates,” said Prof. Kiran Kuchi, Founder of WiSig Networks and faculty at IIT Hyderabad. “Beyond advanced 5G, we are now preparing for the 6G transition by leveraging future-ready radio silicon platforms for next-generation systems in this critical upper mid-band range.”

Source: BUSINESS WIRE