femtocell technologies

FEMTOCELL

TECHNOLOGIESPresentation By

VIPIN K T

MCA (2013- 2016)

CHINMAYA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

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“ Can you hear me now ? ”

This is often the case in homes and buildings where coverage decreases

considerably as soon as you go indoors

People are ditching their landlines in favor of mobile phones

It has become necessary to work on new technology that will facilitate

calling coverage both indoor and outdoor

Femtocell technology could be the answer

In addition to facilitating better indoor call coverage, this emerging

technology reduces the drain that advanced mobile services (such as

mobile broadband) are placing on the capacity offered by phone

companies

A small device which is installed in the home or office in order to offer

better support to mobile phones there

These base stations can accommodate up to five cell phones which

means that you can get increased coverage for your whole household

Enhance the cell phone signal that you receive indoors so that your call

quality isn’t decreased when you’re talking indoors

Now many operators are providing Femtocell service

PROBLEMS

Mobile cellular and 3G networks normally often suffer from poor

penetration and reception in certain areas, like indoors

This decreases the quality of voice and video communication.

It slows down high speed services.

POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Repeaters

Dual Mode Wi-Fi

Femtocells

WHY IS FEMTOCELL IMPORTANT?

Femtocells very important for the following reasons:

1. It can provide indoor coverage for places where macrocells cannot

2. It can offload traffic from the macrocell layer and improve macrocell capacity

3. Addition of a femtocell layer will significantly improve the total network capacity by reusing radio spectrum indoors

4. There is a growing demand for higher and higher data rates

WHY IS FEMTOCELL IMPORTANT?

5. Femtocells can provide significant power saving to UEs

6. The use of femtocells ‘greener’ than macrocells

7. Femtocell provides an ideal solution for FMC (Fixed Mobile Convergence).

8. Femtocell plays an important role in mobile broadband and ubiquitous

communications.

EVOLUTION OF CELLULAR SYSTEMS

EVOLUTION OF CELLULAR SYSTEMS:

CELL SIZE

Cell size decreases dramatically.

Usage:

Macrocell: Rural, highway.

Microcell: Urban, street.

Picocell: building, enterprise, station.

Femtocell: indoor, very high-rate coverage

EVOLUTION OF CELLULAR SYSTEMS:

CELL SIZE

CELL SIZE vs. THROUGHPUT AND USAGE

As throughput demand and usage increase, cell size decreases.

TRAFFIC TREND (USER BEHAVIOR)

29% of calls placed at home.

57% of mobile usage at home or at work.

75% of 3G traffic to originate in-building by 2013.

In the future, more and more indoor mobile usage.

SHORTCOMING OF MACROCELL FOR

INDOOR USAGE

Macrocell cannot provide good signal strength for indoor coverage.

FEMTOCELL : FEMTOFORUM

Femtocells are low-power wireless access points that operate in licensed spectrum to connect standard mobile devices to a mobile operator’s network using residential DSL or cable broadband connections. [Femto forum]

By 2013, 204 million users on 60 million access points worldwide. [ABI Research]

Femtocell base station is also known as

home base station, home access point,

or home Node B.

FEMTOCELL IS AN ACCESS POINT

Femtocells a low-power domestic access point

Small-size cellular base stations (BSs) for residential or small business environments.

Full-strength mobile technology but simpler deployment With full operator management.

Improve indoor coverage and capacity With internet-grade backhaul At prices comparable with Wi-Fi access points ($30~$200 for home usage).

Typically support 2 to 6 concurrent users.

An alternative method to Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC).

A FEMTOCELL DEFINITION

A small cellular base station, designed for use in residential or enterprise.

Connects to the service provider’s network via broadband.

Support 2 to 5 mobile.

Allows service providers to extend service coverage indoors.

The concept is applicable to all wireless standards, including UMTS, GSM,

CDMA-2000, TD-SCDMA and WiMAX solutions.

FEMTOCELL DEVELOPMENT

In 2002, a group of Motorola engineer introduced a Home Base Station

technology

In 2007, vendors formed the Femto Forum to promote femtocell use

In 2008, Sprint Nextel released home-based 2Gfemtocellbuilt by Samsung

Electronics that works with any Sprint handset

In 2009, Verizon and Vodafone rolled out their femtocell network service

with 3G standard

EXISTING COMMERCIAL FEMTOCELL

WHY NEEDS FEMTOCELLS ?

DATA COVERAGE

Problem:

Mainly a issue for macro cellular systems Good voice coverage, but poor high

data rate coverage.

Coverage degrades at high rates.

Femtocells :

Extend high-rate data coverage.

Mainly applies to Cellular operators with macrocell deployment.


BASIC COVERAGE

Problem:

RF coverage holes.

Need to improve voice coverage.

Femtocells:

Provide basic service coverage.

Home/Enterprise coverage.

Mainly applies to : Operators for suburban/rural coverage.


CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT

Problem:

Data loads exceeding capacity.

Limited macro enhancement ability. (Higher power may induce higher

interference.)

Increase capacity economically by offloading to femtocells.

Femtocells:

Provide localized capacity.

Increase overall capacity.

Mainly applies to : Highly saturated operators.

BENEFITS OF FEMTOCELL NETWORKS:

FOR OPERATORS

Low cost solution.

Improve reliability.

Increases both coverage and capacity.

Reduce coverage holes and create new converged services.

Reduce macrocell backhaul capacity requirements.

Works with all existing handsets; no need for expensive subsidizes on dual-

mode (3G + Wi-Fi).

Increases 3G adoption.

BENEFITS OF FEMTOCELLNETWORKS:

FOR END-USERS

Excellent network coverage when there is no existing signal or poor

coverage.

Higher capacity, which is important if the end-user uses data services on

his/her mobile phone.

Depending on the pricing policy of the MNO, special tariffs at home can

be applied for calls placed under femtocell coverage.

FEATURES OF FEMTOCELL

Operates in the licensed spectrum

Uses fixed broadband connection for backhaul

Principally intended for home and SOHO

Lower cost

Smaller coverage

Smaller number of subscriber

Higher density

INDOOR WIRELESS COVERAGE:

FEMTOCELL

Internet-grade service quality. (Wire line backhaul)

Easy plug-and-play.

Two typical operation modes of femtocells.

Public (open)

Private(closed)

FEMTO USAGE MODEL

Public (Open):

No restrictions on subscriber to use the femtocell.

All customers of a cellular service providers can access publicly accessible Femto-AP.

Hotspot type scenario: coffee shop or airport.

The femtocell becomes another part of the public mobile network.

Private (Closed):

Only authorized users are allowed to connect to a privately accessible Femto-AP.

Access Control List.

Non-authorized subscribers are denied access to the Femto (redirected back to the public macrocell network).

Home or enterprise environments.

INDOOR TECHNIQUES COMPARISON

FEMTO CHARACTERISTICS

Physique

Physically small for limited space in some households/offices

Silent in operation while generating low levels of heat output

RF Power

T x RF power is between 10-100mW (lower than 1W by Wi-Fi)

3G handset is able to transmit at lower power levels when being close to the

femtocell

Coverage

Dedicated 3G coverage within a household (10-200m)

Designed for a capacity of 2 to 6 end-users

Backhaul

Utilize Internet Protocol (IP) with a flat BS architecture

Link to operator networks via wired broadband connections

Interference

Macrocells vs. Femtocells

Femtocells vs. Femtocells

Security

Security risks due to broadband internet (open access)

Network security is managed by the IPsec protocol


Operation

Compatible with existing 2G/3G handsets and devices

Operates in licensed spectrum owned by operators

Remote configuration and monitoring system similar to that used by the macro networks

Remote management to enable QoS at the edge of the network

Includes provision for a services environment on which applications may be added

Worldwide Standard Support

Developed to support both 3GPP (UMTS) and 3GPP2 (CDMA)

Also supports emerging technologies such as WiMAX and LTE


KEY ATTRIBUTES OF FEMTOCELLS

Mature mobile technology:

Femtocells use fully standard wireless protocols over the air to communicate with

standard mobile devices, including mobile phones and a wide range of other

mobile-enabled devices.

Qualifying standard protocols include GSM, UMTS, LTE, Mobile WiMAX, CDMA

and other current and future protocols standardized by 3GPP, 3GPP2 and the

IEEE.

The use of such protocols allows femtocells to provide services to more than 3

billion existing devices worldwide and to provide services which users can access

from almost any location as part of a wide-area network.

Operating in licensed spectrum:

By operating in licensed spectrum licensed to the service provider, femtocells

allow operators to provide assured quality of service to customers over the air,

free from harmful interference but making efficient use of their spectrum.

Generating coverage and capacity:

As well as improving coverage within the home, femtocells also create extra

network capacity, serving a greater number of users with high data-rate services.

They differ in this from simple repeaters or ‘boosters’ which may only enhance

the coverage.


Using internet-grade backhaul:

Femtocells backhaul their data over standard residential broadband

connections, including DSL and cable, using standard internet protocols. This

may be over a specific internet service provider’s network, over the internet itself

or over a dedicated link.

At competitive prices:

The large volumes envisaged for femtocells will allow substantial economies of

scale, driving efficiencies in manufacturing and distribution in a manner similar to

the consumer electronics industry and with pricing projected to be comparable

with access points for other wireless technologies.


Fully managed by licensed operators:

Femtocells only operate within parameters set by the licensed operator.

While they have a high degree of intelligence to automatically ensure that they

operate at power levels and frequencies which are unlikely to create

interference, the limits on these parameters are always set by operators, not the

end user.

The operator is always able to create or deny service to individual femtocells or

users. This control is maintained whether the femtocell itself is owned by the

operator or the end user.


FEMTOCELL CONFIGURATION

SCENARIOS

Macrocells are operated by a mobile wireless operator, while femtocells

are privately owned and connected to a broadband service provider,

such as an Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Thousands of femtocells may co-exist in a coverage area of a macrocell-

based cellular network.

FEMTOCELL NETWORK CONFIGURATION

There are three possible types of femtocell network configurations based

on the availability of a broadband connection (e.g., ISP) and on the

coverage of the macro cellular network:

Type A :a single stand-alone femtocell

Type B : a network of stand-alone femtocells

Type C : a femtocell network integrated with a macro cellular infrastructure

FEMTOCELL NETWORK CONFIGURATION

TYPE A -

A SINGLE STAND-ALONE FEMTOCELL

This could be the case of a remote area with:

no macro cellular coverage

a poor coverage area

indoor

Macrocell edge

when no other neighboring femtocells are available.

this type of a configuration extends the service coverage into remote areas.

TYPE B –

A NETWORK OF STAND-ALONE FEMTOCELLS

In this scenario, multiple FAPs are situated within an area in such a way that a radio signal from one FAP overlaps with other FAPs’ signals.

There is no macro cellular coverage

Ether coverage is poor.

Femtocell-to-femtocell handovers are present and need to be handled by the femto cellular network.

As the Type A configuration, the Type B configuration is also able to extend the service coverage into remote areas.

TYPE C –

A FEMTOCELL NETWORK INTEGRATED WITH A

MACROCELLULAR INFRASTRUCTURE

This scenario can be viewed as a two-tier hierarchical network, where :

the macrocells create the upper tier ; and

the femtocells the lower tier

Handover between macrocells and femtocells, as well as handover

between femtocells, are common occurrence in this scenario.

This configuration improves the indoor service quality and reduces the

traffic load of the macrocells by diverting traffic to femtocells.

DEPLOYMENT : GREATER FEMTOCELL

Not only for the home !

Femtocell economies of scale deliver cost-effective deployments in offices

and in high-traffic or low coverage locations

Femtos in the enterprise and metro zone

Scope for cost-effective access to rural and developing markets via

appropriate backhaul solutions

INDOOR FEMTO

DATA FEMTO

OUTDOOR FEMTO

WORKING OF FEMTOCELL


A femtocell is installed at home and connected to mains power and a

standard broadband IP connection (typically DSL) through to the mobile

operator’s core network

Voice calls, text massages and data services are provided by the same

systems.

Femtocells operate at very low radiation power levels, and typically have a

range of 200 meters


When users walk outside or out of range, calls are automatically handed

over to the external mobile network.

Unlike Wi-Fi access points, Femtocells operate using licensed spectrum and

thus must be supplied and operated in conjunction with the mobile

operator

Femtocells are a complicated technology and there have been a number of issues and concerns which need to be addressed.

INTERFERENCE

The placement of a femtocell has a critical effect on the performance of the wider network, and this is one of the key issues to be addressed for successful deployment. Because femtocells can use the same frequency bands as the conventional cellular network, there has been the worry that rather than improving the situation they could potentially cause problems.

As more analysis has been done, and more operators have deployed it is clear that so long as femtocells incorporate appropriate interference mitigation techniques (detecting macrocells, adjusting power and scrambling codes accordingly) then this need not be a problem.

ISSUES

EQUIPMENT LOCATION

There are issues in this regard for access point base stations sold to

consumers for home installation, for example. Further, a consumer might try

to carry their base station with them to a country where it is not licensed.

Other regulatory issues relate to the requirement in most countries for the

operator of a network to be able to show exactly where each base-station

is located, and for E911 requirements to provide the registered location of

the equipment to the emergency services.

ISSUES

QUALITY OF SERVICE

In shared-bandwidth approaches, which are the majority of designs

currently being developed, the effect on Quality of Service may be an

issue.

ISSUES

CONTROVERSY ON CONSUMER PROPOSITION

The impact of a femtocell is most often to improve cellular coverage,

without the cellular carrier needing to improve their infrastructure (cell

towers, etc.). This is net gain for the cellular carrier. However, the user must

provide and pay for an internet connection to route the femtocell traffic,

and then (usually) pay an additional one-off or monthly fee to the cellular

carrier. Some have objected to the idea that consumers are being asked

to pay to help relieve network shortcomings. On the other hand, residential

femtocells normally provide a 'personal cell' which provides benefits only to

the owner's family and friends.

ISSUES

POTENTIAL CONSUMER CONCERNS

A base station at my home ???

Femtocell transmits less than DECT or Wi-Fi

Handset transmits less power near femtocell

Confidential UMTS femtocell max transmit power is 10-17dBm (3G handset

max transmit power is 21dBm)

FEMTO FORUM

FEMTOCELL VENDORS

SOME FEMTOCELLS

CONCLUSIONS

Femtocells are on a road to nowhere

Unsatisfactory coverage and the increasing number of high-data-

rate application are two driving forces for femtocell development

Femtocells have the potential to provide high quality network

access to indoor users at low cost

Improve coverage

Provide huge capacity gain

REFERENCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femtocell

http://www.mobileburn.com/definition.jsp?term=femto

http://searchtelecom.techtarget.com/definition/femtocell

http://www.airvana.com/technology/femtocell-network-architecture/

http://123seminarsonly.com/Seminar-Reports/031/Femtocells.html

http://www.seminarsonly.com/computer%20science/Femtocell-seminar-report-ppt.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femtocell

http://www.mobileburn.com/definition.jsp?term=femto

http://searchtelecom.techtarget.com/definition/femtocell

http://www.airvana.com/technology/femtocell-network-architecture/

http://123seminarsonly.com/Seminar-Reports/031/Femtocells.html

http://www.seminarsonly.com/computer science/Femtocell-seminar-report-ppt.php

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