Beceem and Elliptic collaborate on WiMAX security

Monday, January 29, 2007 – Santa Clara, California and Ottawa, Canada. - Beceem Communications, the leading supplier of chipsets for the Mobile WiMAX terminal market and Elliptic, the leading supplier of security IP products, will extend their collaboration on WiMAX security.

Properly securing wireless broadband connections is a key requirement for service providers as they have to protect their users from eavesdropping and as they have to defend their networks from denial-of-service attacks.

Implementing appropriate security measures therefore requires the full understanding of the underlying threat model, but it also needs to ensure that the solution does not prevent the operator from providing open networks and rich services to their customers. Recognizing these challenges Beceem and Elliptic, the respective leaders in the wireless broadband and security space, have joined forces to work closely with operators and service providers to develop a security architecture for Mobile WiMAX networks that meets these challenges, can be implemented cost-effectively and without impacting the service flows.

David Patterson, Vice President Marketing Beceem Communications said "We are working with Elliptic on implementing the security requirements of the WiMAX Forum profile and jointly examining other security enhancements to ensure both the user identity and content are secure."

Richard White, President and CEO of Elliptic Semiconductor said "Elliptic has worked with Beceem since 2004, initially in the design of the semiconductor security core that serves as the root of trust in Beceem's WiMAX SoC. The two companies are pleased to announce this collaboration aimed at implementing a practical and robust system security architecture that will enable carriers to roll-out a rich service offering in mobile WiMAX."

About Elliptic Semiconductor
Headquartered in Ottawa, Elliptic Semiconductor Inc. provides semiconductor intellectual property (IP) cores and software for secure communications ranging from low power to multi-gigabit per second implementations. Elliptic SIP cores enable system-on-chip designers to efficiently balance power, performance and silicon area in complex security-based systems. Demanding customers in markets such as implantable devices, wireless, storage, digital rights management (DRM), RFID and high performance communications trust Elliptic IP cores.