Technology : femtocells break down the walls

 

A new technology is emerging that has the potential to address these issues. Originally called Access Point Base Stations or home base stations, femtocells are smaller than micro- or picocells. Femtocells are very small, low-power, cellular base stations designed for in-building use, initially for residential or small business environments. They connect to a service provider’s network via broadband such as DSL or cable and typically support two to five mobile phones in a given location. Unlike dual-mode WiFi or Bluetooth based solutions, users only require standard handsets to access the service.

 

Femtocells enable service providers to extend service coverage within a user’s premise without the need for costly cellular towers. Benefits to end users include: improved indoor network coverage; reduced device battery drain; one consolidated bill; the ability to support multiple users and lines; and the back-up of landline support. The technology also provides benefits such as: improved coverage; reduced backhaul traffic because mobile traffic is routed through an IP network; capacity enhancement; and reduced churn.

 

 

And, for once, the technology is not a distant prospect. Sprint-Nextel, in the US, has carried out a limited rollout of 2G femtocells and the Femto Forum expects European femtocell services to become available for home users and SOHO environments in the second half of next year.

 

“Femtocells are focused on the home market at this stage,” said Professor Simon Saunders, chairman of the Femto Forum. “However, further down the line, they will have a place in the enterprise. The reality is that in-building cellular in some areas is sometimes poor and, where coverage is available, it can be more cost effective for enterprises to use fixed telephony – at least when they’re calling landlines or internationally. Femtocells provides optimum cellular coverage in the enterprise at an attractive price point.”

 

Enterprises are willing to consider the technology, as shown by their deployment of picocell technology – the more powerful and more costly ‘big brother’ technology to femtocells. “Picocells are already being deployed in enterprises,” said Dr Alastair Brydon, an associate of research firm Analysys and CEO of Sound Partners who has authored a recent report entitled The Business Case for Picocells and Femtocells in the Enterprise Market. “The primary reason is to provide indoor coverage and capacity for services and to address the issue of indoor mobile usage. That’s obviously a problem for businesses at the moment because people like to use their mobiles. Work has already been done in the picocell coverage area to address this issue.”

 

Unsurprisingly, Saunders thinks femtocells could be an important technology for enterprises. “Further down the line, femtocells could shake up enterprise communications by potentially replacing deskphones altogether. Numerous femtocell vendors are building in support for SIP so the mobile handset could connect to the centrally located, company controlled IP-PBX and take advantage of its advanced services.”

 

 

The rise of 3G and the low cost of equipment are the factors that unlock the potential of femtocells for the enterprise market. “Although the coverage capacity of femtocells is smaller than picocells that doesn’t mean to say that you couldn’t use multiple femtocells and they are much cheaper than picocells,” added Brydon. “The attenuation issue 3G faces in buildings are where femtocells become more important than 2G picocells. 2G coverage is pretty good and 3G coverage is certainly not. Femtocells would be a cost effective way of maximizing coverage.”

 

However, challenges remain. “Enterprise femtocells are some way behind domestic and SOHO femtocells so we’re probably talking about deployment in the 2009 timeframe,” said Saunders. “Many enterprises are keen to control their communications closely and this means all in-building communications need to run through the PBX. We are still waiting for PBX manufacturers to publicly announce their position on femtocells and define whether they will build support for them into their devices.”

 

Femtocells need to overcome transmission issues for the enterprise market. Whereas in the home market, broadband connections serve perfectly well for backhaul, the enterprise has a completely different connectivity environment. The issue of handover between femtocells still needs to be resolved to make it a viable technology in the enterprise, because they are currently only designed to handover to the outdoor cellular network. Femtocells will already go into the smaller end of the enterprise market quite readily but the question of how you tailor solutions to meet the requirements of a particular enterprise is still a challenge.