Femtocell
It typically connects to the service provider's network via the Internet through a wired broadband link (such as DSL or cable); current designs typically support four to eight simultaneously active mobile phones in a residential setting depending on version number and femtocell hardware, and eight to sixteen mobile phones in enterprise settings.
Although much attention is focused on WCDMA, the concept is applicable to all standards, including GSM, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX and LTE solutions.
Consumers and small businesses benefit from greatly improved coverage and signal strength since they have a de facto base station inside their premises.
As a result of being relatively close to the femtocell, the mobile phone (user equipment) expends significantly less power for communication with it, thus increasing battery life.
Operators who have launched a femtocell service include SFR, AT&T, C Spire, Sprint Nextel, Verizon, Zain, Mobile TeleSystems, T-Mobile US, Orange, Vodafone, EE, O2, Three, and others.
In most cases,[4] the user must then declare which mobile phone numbers are allowed to connect to their femtocell, usually via a web interface provided by the MNO.
When the user leaves the femtocell coverage (whether in a call or not) area, their phone hands over seamlessly to the macro network.
Standardisation enables a wider choice of femtocell products to be used with any gateway, increasing competitive pressure and driving costs down.
Although much of the commercial focus seems to have been on the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), the concept is equally applicable to all air-interfaces.
[14] The placement of a femtocell has a critical effect on the performance of the wider network, and this is the key issue to be addressed for successful deployment.
Ralph de la Vega, AT&T President, reported in June 2011 they recommended against using femtocells where signal strength was middle or strong because of interference problems they discovered after widescale deployment.
Femtocells can also create a much better user experience by enabling substantially higher data rates than can be obtained with a macro network and net throughputs that will be ultimately limited by backhaul in most cases (over 20 Mbps in 5 MHz).
[19] This service must meet the same requirements for availability as current wired telephone systems, such as functioning during a power failure.
When using an Ethernet or ADSL home backhaul connection, an Access Point Base Station must either share the backhaul bandwidth with other services, such as Internet browsing, gaming consoles, set-top boxes and triple-play equipment in general, or alternatively directly replace these functions within an integrated unit.
When things go wrong, subscribers will turn to cellular operators for support even if the root cause of the problem lies with the broadband connection to the home or workplace.
Hence, the effects of any third-party ISP broadband network issues or traffic management policies need to be very closely monitored and the ramifications quickly communicated to subscribers.
A key issue recently identified is active traffic shaping by many ISPs on the underlying transport protocol IPSec.
[citation needed] To meet Federal Communications Commission (FCC) / Ofcom spectrum mask requirements, femtocells must generate the radio frequency signal with a high degree of precision.
The solution to this problem is to use an external, accurate signal to constantly calibrate the oscillator to ensure it maintains its accuracy.
At the 2013 Black Hat hacker conference in Las Vegas, NV, a trio of security researchers detailed their ability to use a Verizon femtocell to secretly intercept the voice calls, data, and SMS text messages of any handset that connects to the device.
They also demonstrated how it could trick Apple's iMessage–which encrypts texts sent over its network using SSL to render them unreadable to snoopers, to SMS—allowing the femtocell to intercept the messages.
According to market research firm Informa and the Femto Forum,[24] as of December 2010 18 operators have launched commercial femtocell services, with a total of 30 committed to deployment.
[27] Within the United States, Cellcom (Wisconsin), was the first CDMA carrier in the U.S. to be a member of the non-profit organization founded in 2007 to promote worldwide femtocell deployment.
In the same year, the operator launched a project to deploy femtocells to deliver outdoor services in rural environments where existing coverage is limited.
In Singapore, Starhub rolled out its first nationwide commercial 3G femtocell services with devices provided by Huawei Technologies, though the uptake is low, while Singtel's offering is targeted at small medium enterprises.
[36] This was rebranded as SureSignal in January 2010,[37] after which Vodafone also launched service in Spain, Greece, New Zealand,[38][39] Italy, Ireland,[40] Hungary[41] and The Netherlands.
From 2019 onwards, all 3 French carriers still proposing Femtocell retired their offering, focusing instead on using the Voice Over Wifi technology when a better 3G/4G covering is impractical to deploy.
