SpaceBridge was formed in August 1997 by Newbridge (now Alcatel) and COM DEV to develop ICs for broadband terrestrial and satellite wireless access systems. In November 2000, SpaceBridge completed a $25 million Cdn second round of financing led by RBC Dominion Securities and including Royal Bank Capital Partners, TRW, MWI & Partners and Altamira Management. The original seed investors, Val O’Donovan, Chairman, COM DEV International and Terry Matthews, CEO, March Networks also participated. The company has raised $42 million to date. The company has 85 employees.

In June 2000, TRW and SpaceBridge formed a partnership to develop broadband wireless access products. The agreement provides TRW with an exclusive license to SpaceBridge’s proprietary technology for extremely fast digital data switching aboard spacecraft. TRW also made an investment in SpaceBridge and has secured a 10% equity position in the company.
According to Frost and Sullivan, the broadband satcom market will experience 69% annual growth to reach a services market of over $8.5 billion by 2006. Pioneer Consulting forecasts the terrestrial broadband market to grow to over $10 billion by 2004. However, Spacebridge believes the creation of efficient end-user terminals capable of delivering a full range of multimedia services is one of the most costly and challenging aspects of broadband wireless networking. While this challenge has been met for cable and xDSL access devices, there are no optimized solutions available for broadband wireless systems.

To address these challenges, SpaceBridge offers a suite of technologies that includes both silicon and software. The silicon solutions include SiGe-based IF modulators and demodulators and CMOS digital modems that provide all the resources required to implement a range of industry standard air interfaces. SpaceBridge offers a comprehensive software suite that provides designers with a pre-integrated wireless Internet access building block.

SpaceBridge offers software programmable components and modules that allow network providers to implement complex broadband wireless systems quickly and efficiently. SpaceBridge designs ICs for broadband wireless access systems based on a “Silicon plus Software” approach, which combines semiconductor solutions for broadband modems with a comprehensive suite of software modules. This shortens OEM design cycles and makes its products applicable to a wide range of applications, including terrestrial (LMDS, MMDS) and satellite (DVB-RCS) markets.

The company offers digital and IF modem circuits coupled with a suite of software modules that control network interfaces, terminal platform services, and network management elements. Target applications include satellite broadband wireless terminals, wireless Point-to-Point (T1/E1, T3/E3, and OC3) links, broadband wireless Internet access terminals, and terrestrial LMDS/MMDS terminals.

The SB7015/7040/7041 is a flexible broadband modem chipset comprised of the SB7015 Broadband Wireless Digital Modem, SB7040 IF Modulator, and SB7041 IF Demodulator. The SB2100CB Broadband Wireless Access Module is an IC-based module that incorporates board level hardware components, application software, and OS support to enable advanced IP services. Complimentary software offerings include DVB-RCS CPE Software and DVB-RCS MAC Software.

The SB7015 is a high-speed digital modem IC designed for broadband point-to-multipoint wireless terminal applications. The SB7015 consists of a continuous or burst modulator and continuous demodulator, as well as a programmable Air Interface Processor for implementing all aspects of the physical layer of a radio link. Features include transmission rates up to 155 Mbps; fully programmability (FEC, CRC, scrambling, interleaving), continuous and burst mode modulator; continuous demodulator; programmable air interface formatter and deformatter; ATM, IP, MPEG-2 transport support; MF-TDMA transmission, TDMA transmission, TDM, FDMA, FDM, FDD; and QPSK or 16-QAM modulation.

The SB2100CB access module contains the SpaceBridge programmable modem chipset, a PowerPC processor, and ample memory for bandwidth intensive applications. This module performs both IF modulation and demodulation, baseband processor functions, and includes wireless network access software. The SB2100 is tailored to the satellite DVB-RCS industry and provides a complete solution for 2 way high speed IP connectivity according to the DVB-RCS Air interface standard.

SpaceBridge’s AirOE software resides on the SB2100CB Broadband Wireless Access Module and uses the VxWorks RTOS. The modular software architecture provides flexibility for the Wireless Network Interface to be altered to support other wireless protocols (e.g. DVB-RCS, IEEE 802.16, proprietary, etc.). AirOE is currently implemented to operate on a Motorola MPC860 or MPC8260.

The DVB-RCS MAC software works in conjunction with the SB7000-series of broadband wireless modem products in supporting the DVB-RCS terminal MAC layer. The software is layered between the terminal applications software and the modem driver software and is responsible for managing the wireless link characteristics and utilization.

In September 2000, Spacebridge announced a US $15M contract with Newtec, a Belgium-based satellite communications solutions provider, to enable the production of a commercial terminal for broadband access via satellites. By using SpaceBridge’s ICs, the Newtec DVB-RCS terminals will be capable of offering 38 Mbps in the forward direction, and 2 Mbps in the return path. The contract required SpaceBridge to deliver initial units by the beginning of 2001 with volume delivery by the end of 2001.

Spacebridge will be moving to higher modulation rates in the coming months. The company claims that there are no other modem packages on the market today that support such a wide range of modulation techniques and air interface protocols.

Avedis Menechian, President and CEO (previously President and Senior VP of AGRA Monenco Systems)

Michael Kelly, VP of Finance and Administration (previously Assistant VP of Business Portfolio Management with Newbridge)

Dick Bakker, VP of Sales (previously VP of Sales at Coventus)

Intekhab Alam, VP of R&D (previously VP, Technology and Product Development at AGRA Systems)

Stephen Goodman, VP of Business Development (previously a Corporate Development Officer at COM DEV)

Brian Marshall, VP of Human Resources (previously a Director of Human Resources at SHL Systemhouse)