New Femtocell Reference Book

Femtocells are not just a new type of device, they change traditional technical boundaries and they open new commercial models for mobile.


There have been some good introductions to femtocells, such as David Chambers' Femtocell Primer, but what has been missing is a comprehensive reference covering both technology and commercial aspects in detail.


Enter the unambiguously-titled "Femtocells - Opportunities and Challenges for Business and Technology", available now for pre-order at Amazon.

The book examines the market, exploring commercial and technical factors which are critical in the initial deployment and long-term success of femtocells. Business, standards and regulatory aspects are also considered to provide a complete but concise overview.

• One of the first authoritative texts to concentrate on femtocells
• Written by expert authors from industry including leading analysts, femtocell and system vendors
• Covers both technology and business aspects in detail
• Provides overview of the relevant standards across WCDMA, LTE, CDMA, WiMAX and GSM air interfaces.

The authors of the book are all acknowledged femtocell experts, including Ubiquisys guru Andrea Giustina.

Femtocells - a network planning and management nightmare?

Kevin Fitchard asks some key questions about femtocells in his article in Telephony Online. He was commenting on how femtocells might be the answer to mobile networks reaching Shannon’s Limit of available capacity. Femtocells can easily provide the capacity relief, but with millions of them deployed, wouldn’t they “create a network planning and management nightmare”?

These are the challenges that faced femtocell pioneers from day one, and the solutions are fundamental to the femtocell concept.

1. How do you make femtocells self-installable under an existing macro network deployment deployed on the same spectrum?

This is addressed by the much talked-about principle of Self-Organising Networks. In reality, this means femtocells having autonomous cognitive radio capabilities that scan the relevant spectrum and optimise a complex set of parameters to work symbiotically with the macro network. It also means femtocells continuously monitoring the spectrum to adapt to any changes, such as a macro re-plan or the installation of a femto neighbour. This ensures that femtocells remain the adaptive subsidiary partners to the dominant manually-engineered macro network.

2. How do you enable millions of plug-and-play femtocells and keep them under control once they are out there?

The principle is to make the installation easy for the consumer and manageable for the Mobile Service Provider, and to do this in very large numbers. That’s why the DSL Forum approach for management (TR069) has been widely adopted for femtocells. TR069 is a proven method used to remotely manage millions of home gateways and set-top boxes around the world.

These two functions, fundamental to the femtocell concept and proven in real deployments, effectively eliminate the risk of nightmares.

Chameleon Points to the Future

Why did the announcement of Intrinsyc’s UX-Zone “chameleon” femto application generate so much interest? I think there are several reasons, and they point to the new ways we will use our mobile phones in the future:

• Touch-Screen Potential – Phones with large touch screens are a blank canvas for multiple experiences: home, mobile, work, retail, and so on. But until now it has been all about personalising one screen, not using multiple screens with different functions according to location. It’s a new way of thinking about interface design.

• Open Handset OS – The Android operating system from the Open Handset Alliance is specifically designed for complete customisation. Intrinsyc made full use of these features when developing UX-Zone, demonstrating the power of the original Google vision.

• Femtocell Automation – Clever features and endless options for customisation usually lead to complex products that most people don’t have time to learn or use. But femtocell presence triggers hide all of this complexity, making all location-based changes automatic. This leaves users with a simple , fun and useful experience rather than the fiddly apps that never make it beyond a narrow niche.

It’s amazing seeing it in real life. You feel like there’s a whole world of opportunities opening up in front of your eyes. Imagine this chameleon experience not just in the home; but also as you move between small “femto” cells in your everyday life, whether the office, stores, cafes, railway stations, airports, museums etc. The list is endless (well almost).