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Mike350
Steven, you're absolutely right. I've interviewed more than 30 mobile operators ...
Bert22306
The femtocell paradigm we read about most often is of the privately owned ...
How femtocells will solve data capacity
Steven Brightfield, Qualcomm CDMA Technologies
10/4/2011 10:08 AM EDT
If we project these sustained rates of data growth to future mobile
network capacity, the current network capacity will represent less than
10 per cent of what is needed by 2016. Future network deployments will,
in fact, be handling the vast majority of data capacity requirements for
mobile network operators. If we were to scale today’s mobile network
architectures to handle this tsunami of data, the cost to deploy would
be too high. Future mobile network architecture therefore needs to
change, by not only scaling to handle the much higher data loads, but
also by scaling cost effectively so that mobile operators can afford to
deploy it.
Why Femtocells?
They deliver on the promise of providing the next leap in performance for wireless networks by bringing cell sites closer together, providing coverage, capacity and service delivery platform to subscribers. To realize this vision the industry has had to address the challenges of interference mitigation and mobility requirements from operators and subscribers. But to make this transition, what are the issues that this technology faces? What innovations need to take place? How will they alter the topology of mobile networks and, what will this landscape look like when the roll out of femtocells reaches its apogee?
It is the rapidly rising rate of mobile data which has propelled the development and deployment of femtocells. By 2014, monthly worldwide mobile data traffic will exceed the total for 2008. The pattern of usage has equally inspired this technology with 70 per cent of all mobile use in 2008 done whilst at home or in the office. But the most important factor today impacting mobile broadband performance and use is coverage, particularly in rural areas, and the differences between the performances of operators’ 3G networks. The mass deployment of femtocells should solve this problem resulting in ubiquitous coverage, indoors and out, with faster connection and download speeds.
For operators, the key advantage of femtocells is that they are able to offload resource-intensive over-the-air data traffic onto an IP backbone, reducing both capital (less macro sites) and operational (less backhaul costs) expenditures while creating a branded operator point of presence in either the home or the work environment. As femtocells increase signal strength and provide excellent coverage indoors, they also contribute to a better user experience, with improved coverage/peak data rates and quality of service. As mobile users are offloaded to femtocells, data traffic load and signaling load on the macrocell reduces.
Editor's Note: This article originally published on EETimes Europe. For the complete article, follow this link
Why Femtocells?
They deliver on the promise of providing the next leap in performance for wireless networks by bringing cell sites closer together, providing coverage, capacity and service delivery platform to subscribers. To realize this vision the industry has had to address the challenges of interference mitigation and mobility requirements from operators and subscribers. But to make this transition, what are the issues that this technology faces? What innovations need to take place? How will they alter the topology of mobile networks and, what will this landscape look like when the roll out of femtocells reaches its apogee?
It is the rapidly rising rate of mobile data which has propelled the development and deployment of femtocells. By 2014, monthly worldwide mobile data traffic will exceed the total for 2008. The pattern of usage has equally inspired this technology with 70 per cent of all mobile use in 2008 done whilst at home or in the office. But the most important factor today impacting mobile broadband performance and use is coverage, particularly in rural areas, and the differences between the performances of operators’ 3G networks. The mass deployment of femtocells should solve this problem resulting in ubiquitous coverage, indoors and out, with faster connection and download speeds.
For operators, the key advantage of femtocells is that they are able to offload resource-intensive over-the-air data traffic onto an IP backbone, reducing both capital (less macro sites) and operational (less backhaul costs) expenditures while creating a branded operator point of presence in either the home or the work environment. As femtocells increase signal strength and provide excellent coverage indoors, they also contribute to a better user experience, with improved coverage/peak data rates and quality of service. As mobile users are offloaded to femtocells, data traffic load and signaling load on the macrocell reduces.
Editor's Note: This article originally published on EETimes Europe. For the complete article, follow this link
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Bert22306
10/4/2011 8:13 PM EDT
The femtocell paradigm we read about most often is of the privately owned femtocell access point, in homes for example, tied to the carrier via IP. But if the explosion of wireless broadband demand progresses as the FCC thinks it will, I'm thinking that the carriers may have to deploy some femtocells of their own. For instance, in public parks, airports, or any locations in which users are likely to slow down, or stop, and run demanding apps on their smartphones and tablets.
The article only mentions 3G, no doubt because it addresses CDMA femtocells, but the same ought to apply to LTE and WiMAX. The limiting factor being, as more and more femtocells are deployed, there must be some point at which the handover protocol takes up too much bandwidth and handover occurs too often.
Still, there's little doubt in my mind that going this route promises a LOT more gains than repurposing a mere 100 MHz of spectrum from TV broadcasters. That 100 MHz is a huge chunk of spectrum available to broadcasters, but only provides one channel for the new wideband 4G service.
Or, alternatively, the addiction to handheld devices may wane some in the future? It's almost comical these days, when you go out in public, to see all these heads bowed down. Even while walking.
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Mike350
10/11/2011 2:03 PM EDT
Steven, you're absolutely right. I've interviewed more than 30 mobile operators about femtocells and they are generally not excited about giving away free femtocells for "offloading". Instead they are focused on deploying their own small cells.
Check out the results of our survey at www.mobile-experts.net
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