Femtocell Networks

Mobility has since long been the elusive goal for non-cellular access technology networks. “If you can’t beat them, join them” has been the guiding axiom for fixed-access and now WLAN networks. Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) and Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), the two prime approaches to bridge the networks, have been rife with their ability to deliver, but have generated skepticism in their ability to last. While FMC and UMA are seen as a part of a continuous evolution, the focus has been shifting to enable residential access with femtocells.
 
Femtocell technology provides some distinct advantages. It relies upon the public wireless frequency spectrum to enable better indoor coverage. This reduces the burden on carrying a dual-mode handset, the mass availability of which has been an impediment to the growth of FMC and UMA solutions. It does not require any special client software. Like most of us, who suffer from poor cellular coverage indoors, femtocells act as repeaters and provide an enhanced service quality. Lastly, they also provide a lower backhaul expense, by offloading calls into a private network from the macro-cellular network.
 
The advantage of using an existing frequency spectrum base in a smaller cellular coverage area has helped Telecom Equipment Manufacturers (TEM’s) to reuse their existing radio assets effectively. The challenge is to provide control to a cluster of these femtocellular radios and appear to the network as a single entity. IntelliNet addressed this challenging problem with its versatile signaling platform to enable the effective translation of SS7 and ATM signaling from the existing network to the next generation of IP signaling. IntelliNet experts enabled this with the ability to coordinate the operation of several thousands of handsets registered in huge femtocell clusters.