Could Femto-cells Bring More Problems Than They Solve?
Comment by Dr. Michael J. Flanagan, CTO, Arieso
Femtocells are increasingly being considered by wireless service providers as a means to provide localized coverage and capacity relief in residential and small business areas. In most deployment models, femtocells take advantage of a subscriber-provided backhaul path to provide licensed cellular service in a manner analogous to the commonly used WiFi router. However, the interactions between femtocells and the overlay macro network are critical for the success of future femtocell deployments.
Widespread femtocell deployments will put additional strain on traditional maintenance, as well as the operation of the macro network. System parameters will routinely need to be updated to account for the addition and deletion of femtocell sites. If the femtocell market lives up to its promise and hype, there will rapidly come a point when it will no longer be physically or financially possible to conduct routine updates of the overlay macro network manually.
At that point, network operators will need to be able to rely on automated software solutions in order to maintain target quality objectives across multiple service classes. Such solutions will also need to allow the overlay macro network to reconfigure itself automatically in order to respond to the areas that are served by femtocells (or not served, in the cases where femtocells go out of service). Using this kind of software, the macro network will be able to redirect its coverage and capacity to other areas in order to make maximum use of all network resources (including the femtocells).
While the standard model for femtocells is based on the subscriber-driven "pull" of femtocell purchases, new solutions coming to the market, such as ariesoGEO and ariesoDNA, will allow for a service-provider-driven "push" of femtocells onto the network. This will enable service providers to identify areas where femtocell additions would most relieve the overlay macro network, based on traffic data derived from real-time observations of the subscriber experience.
This information could be used, for example, to motivate subscribers to employ femtocells in highly localized areas via discounted offerings, improved calling plans or similar strategies. This will be a key enabler for substantial capital savings due to reduced overlay infrastructure spending.
On their own, femtocells could end up causing as many headaches as they promise to solve. In order for femtocells to have a significant, positive impact it is necessary to ensure that the combined macro and femtocell networks are properly optimised and that automation replaces what would otherwise become labour intensive and prohibitively expensive update and configuration activities.
Posted to the site on 27th August 2008
