Your Femtocell Radio Is Unique, But What About Your Network Access?
 
Ubiquitous coverage – indoors and outdoors – with one number access has been an elusive goal for generations of wireless technologies. The proliferation of wireless broadband in the unlicensed mobile spectrum showed great potential, but the challenges with dual-mode handsets have forced us to keep looking for new solutions. Femtocells present the promise of using the existing handset base, improving indoor cell coverage and reducing backhaul costs. Innovation is adding momentum to the concept. With solutions ranging from clean sheet designs to the leveraging of existing macro and micro cell technology, femtocells are becoming a practical reality.
 
Without clearly defined standards and building on embryonic business cases, the task of constructing a complete end-to-end solution can be daunting. The fundamental challenge is that femtocells in a home access point configuration are deployed in very large cluster sizes. In order to derive a greater value of services from these elements than being mere backhaul devices, it is essential to have centralized control. The femtocell access points need to have the capability to deliver a converged service paradigm. This requires an intelligent control element which can communicate with a large cluster and interface with the core network. It needs to be a more than an aggregator or a simple access gateway.
 
Building solutions with SIP interfaces or tunneling to Generic Access Network controllers are good options. But does that solution interwork with your existing network technology – CDMA for instance? On the other hand, if you are looking to leverage your existing assets and extend the BTS and RNC to a smaller form factor, can all the components be retrofitted?