Challenge
A telecom equipment maker designing 5G AAU (Active Antenna Unit) needed sub-50µs baseband processing latency while operating in a thermally constrained outdoor enclosure at -40°C to +75°C.
Solution
Deployed NXP Layerscape P2022 network processor for packet processing combined with MICRON NOR Flash (Octal SPI, 400MB/s) for execute-in-place code storage, eliminating NAND boot bottleneck.
Key Outcomes
Processing latency: 42µs (vs 80µs previous design)
Cold boot time: 1.2s (from 4.5s with NAND)
Full temperature range -40°C to +75°C verified
Cost reduced by 18% vs previous platform