Femtocells

Continuous Computing has a deep understanding of Femtocells and the key necessity for network equipment providers to deliver Femtocell Access Point (Home NodeB and Home eNodeB) devices and Femtocell Gateway (NodeB and eNodeB) infrastructure quickly and cost-effectively.

Femtocells are strategic for Continuous Computing; we have 21 Femtocell wins.

We invested early (and heavily) in Trillium software and ATCA platforms to deliver deployment-ready Femtocell Access Point reference platforms and FlexTCA platforms that support Femtocell Gateway applications.

What’s more, the thought leaders within our engineering and product line management teams have written extensively about the specific requirements of Femtocells:

• LTE Femtocell Roadmap: From Concept to Reality
• Local IP Access via Home Node B
• Iuh: A Protocol Solution to Scale Femtocells for the Mass Market
• CPE WAN Management Protocol and Femto Access Point Management
• Femtocells: Spectrum Efficiency Improved
• Top Ten Challenges to Femtocell Deployment, Part I & Part II
• Integrating Femtocells with Existing Wireless Infrastructure
• Mass Femtocell Deployment and the RF Environment
• Femtocell Network Architecture and Signaling Protocol Options

Femtocell Diagrams

These diagrams illustrate how Trillium protocols, system software and ATCA hardware may be combined to create deployment-ready Femtocell solutions:

To illustrate our system-level approach to addressing Femtocell key requirements, let’s drill down a layer.

Femtocell Access Point (FAP)

An average consumer spends 50 to 60% of his or her time in an indoor environment, and 70% of wireless calls originate and terminate indoors. But, many subscribers are frustrated by bad coverage and poor data rates within their homes and/or offices.

What to do? Femtocells.

A femtocell is a small wireless base station that resides in the consumer’s home or office and transmits at very low power. Femtocells use an IP broadband connection (e.g., cable, DSL, fiber) for backhaul.

Femtocells eliminate the need for dual-mode handsets as virtually any existing wireless handset should seamlessly work with a femtocell offered by the carrier.

Furthermore, femtocells not only provide excellent indoor coverage, but also free up capacity in the macro-cellular network. In other words, indoor subscribers’ cell phone traffic is parked on a femtocell as opposed to on a macrocell.

Femtocell Gateway (FGW)

A Femtocell Gateway aggregates femtocell access point traffic backhauled over fixed line broadband links such as cable modem, DSL or fiber. The Femtocell Gateway application routes traffic according to service type: voice to the IuCS interface of the mobile core network and packet data to the IuPS interface. In addition, traffic destined for the Internet may be off-loaded at the FGW to minimize impact on the wireless core network.

A Femtocell Gateway system solution would typically include control plane and forwarding applications as core modules. A customer might also equip the system with Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) capabilities to support policy enforcement as well as a security module to meet Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) requirements related to the Internet offload function (country-specific requirements).

Leverage Our Femtocell Expertise

Related Products & Information

TRILLIUM WCDMA FEMTOCELL PROTOCOLS

TRILLIUM LTE FEMTOCELL PROTOCOLS

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For more information on our extensive Femtocell Access Point and Femtocell Gateway capabilities, please contact us.