ABSTRACT ON FEMTOCELL

GEEVARGHESE V K L7 A ROLL NO: 57

INTRODUCTION In telecommunications, a Femtocell is a small cellular base station, typically designed for use in a home or small business. It connects to the service providers network via broadband (such as DSL or cable); current designs typically support 2 to 4 active mobile phones in a residential setting, and 8 to 16 active mobile phones in enterprise settings. A femtocell allows service providers to extend service coverage indoors, especially where access would otherwise be limited or unavailable. Although much attention is focused on WCDMA, the concept is applicable to all standards, including GSM, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX and LTE solutions. For a mobile operator, the attractions of a femtocell are improvements to both coverage and capacity, especially indoors. Consumers benefit from improved coverage and potentially better voice quality and battery life. Depending on the carrier they may also be offered more attractive tariffs e.g. discounted calls from home. Femtocells are an alternative way to deliver the benefits of fixed-mobile convergence (FMC). The distinction is that most FMC architectures require a new (dual-mode) handset which works with existing unlicensed spectrum home/enterprise wireless access points, while a femtocell-based deployment will work with existing handsets but requires installation of a new access point that uses licensed spectrum. Many operators have launched femtocell service including Vodafone, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, Verizon and Mobile TeleSystems. Typically the range of a microcell is less than two kilometers wide, a picocell is 200 meters or less, and a femtocell is on the order of 10 meters, although AT&T calls its product, with a range of 40 feet (12 m), a "microcell". WORKING Femtocells from part of the mobile operations network, although they are located at home or in the business. Most of the functionality of a completer 3G cell site has been miniaturized onto a chip, which look and operates like a WiFi access point, and is connected via broadband DSL back to the mobile operators network. A femtocell is installed at home and connected to mains power and a standard broadband IP connection (typically DSL) through to the mobile operators core network. Voice calls, text massages and data services are provided by the same systems.

Femtocells operate at very low radiation power levels (50 milliwatts peak output during a call, much lower when idle), and typically have a range of 200 meters. The signals do not travel through walls particularly well, but this is a benefit because it allows the frequency to be reused for other calls in nearby building. Where users walk outside or out of range, calls are automatically handed over to the external mobile network. Any standard 3G phone can be used on the femtocell if permitted by the mobile operator. Unlike WiFi access points, 3G Femotcells operate using licensed spectrum and thus must be supplied and operated in conjunction with the mobile operator Figure 1 shows working of femtocell. The battle is most likely to be between the modified 3G RAN (which some RAN Network vendors are keen to promote because it reuses their existing RNC products) versus UMA, which has new, custom designed systems architected to handle the much larger number of cells and IP connectivity. SIP based solutions may be of interest where the user wants to bypass the network operator completely, and is happy to operate in a different way to achieve this. ADVANTAGES y A Femtocell is used for compensating poor cellular coverage inside the homes in some places. y A Femtocell can also give lower call charges while the caller calling from home, using the Femtocell as it directly connects to the core network through the internet. y Some vendors are also planning to incorporate all the three features Wi-Fi, cellular and DSL into the same box to achieve maximum functionality. y The voice calls/data calls through the Femtocells are encrypted and the cell phone automatically switches over to the Femtocells when they come in their range eg. In homes, where they are installed. y Femtocell units can handle up to three or four simultaneous calls, from the same operator, depending on the model. They can operate with normal cellphones, without any enhancements. y Femtocell units can help related cellular services like 3G by offering a better speed and data rate when inside buildings, where the coverage and data rate is generally lesser than outside. y Generally, the cell towers are back-hauled by using lines with bandwidth of around 2 Mbps (in some places) and hence when newer services like 3G are introduced, these lines may not be sufficient and hence may require a upgrade. But with Femtocells, since the subscribers internet connection is

used, there may not be an issue with existing infrastructure if Femtocells are adopted in a large scale. y Femtocells can not only extend the cellular macro network but can also become the primary network if enough Femtocells are adopted in an area. So, all future upgrades etc. can be done by the Femtocells itself, reducing the number of macro base stations required to cover an area but this is a long shot, based on the current situation and the problems described below. DISADVANTAGES y Some internet data plans today, charge on the basis of bandwidth used. So, asking the subscriber to pay additional data charges for internet back-end connectivity for the core cellular network may not be easily accepted. y Femtocells can support both open and closed usage. That is neighboring subscribers may or may not be allowed to connect to them. If they are, then the access control list needs to be managed by the cellular network. There will also be a question on the ownership and the location of placement, in case of shared ownerships. If they are not, then the individual subscriber may have to pay the full price (if they are not subsidized by the vendor or operator) for the femtocells. y If the Femtocells are used to their full capacity, it may require around 500 Kbps which is available in broadband networks but not for all plans. Similarly, there might be reduction in call quality/ internet browsing if huge files are being downloaded from the internet simultaneously. y The determination of location of the Femtocells becomes critical as the RF channel in which they need to transmit would be determined by their location and the RF channels used by nearby Femtocells. But normally, a particular operator may have licenses for different channels in adjacent geographic areas so there should not be any overlapping which would result in reduction of quality of communications. Also, they should not interfere with the RF channel used by the overlapping macro cell network. For all these things, the determination of accurate location is very important and it is not clear as to how the operators are planning to address this. y At least initially, the Femtocells would work for only a particular cellular operator. So, everyone at home may require changing to the same operator. y Not all cellular operators are on IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), which might become the interface for the Femtocells. y Cellular only service providers are dependent on the broadband services which are beyond their control. So, trouble shooting may become an issue.

APPLICATIONS Femtocell applications allow consumers to access a wide variety of services from home or office networks, mobile operators and the web, that make life simpler and more fun. They are software applications which allow mobile handsets and network applications to benefit from the cheap and fast data connections and location-awareness provided by femtocells. Femtocells provide application developers with a new environment to monetize new or existing applications. Operators can generate new service revenue and/or differentiate their proposition from competitors while also installing a base for a new generation of content distribution and home automation services. FUTURE SCOPE By 2012, there will be 36 million shipments with an installed base of 70 million femtocell serving 150 million users. With widespread usage and technical developments we can reduce the cost of a femtocell from $200 -$250 to around $100 in next few years so that it will be affordable to everyone.

CONCLUSION

Femtocells are now an integral part of the development strategy for cellular telecommunications operators. Not only do Femtocells provide additional advantages for users in terms of improved performance within the home, or business office, but they also provide the possibility for additional services and the promise of lower charges. They also offer the change of convergence where a single phone can be used instead of the landline as well as for roaming. For operators they provide a cost effective manner in which they can improve their coverage and gain extra revenue by the provision of additional services. Accordingly the use of Femtocells will become a mainstay in the cellular telecommunications roadmap for the future.