Picochip Extends Femtocell's Reach to Outdoor and Rural Networks

 

As the first operators deploy femtocells in the home, many are also looking to the next application for the tiny base stations - as outdoor units to boost capacity and shrink cells, helping 3G macro networks cope with the increasing strain of mobile broadband traffic. The leading supplier of chips for femtocells, UK-based picoChip, has announced its latest reference design, the PC8219E, for this market.

Focal Points:

• By increasing the range of an HSPA femto, the design is targeted at the extension of the device's reach into metrozones, enterprises and rural deployments. It is based on the company's PC8208 and 8209 PHYs and supports eight users over a two kilometre range, plus vehicular mobility. The design, which is already deployed by OEMs, provides seamless migration to picoChip's PC3xx picoXcell systems-on-chip, with the reference design aiming to offer vendors a relatively quick and low risk entry to the market, on which they can build in future.
• Simon Saunders, chair of the Femto Forum, commented: "The first femtocell deployments have been focused on the residential market but we are now seeing overwhelming interest in moving beyond the home. Numerous operators have called for outdoor femtocells which will extend coverage and provide additional mobile broadband capacity to rural and metropolitan areas as well as enterprise campuses." This trend will be stimulated by digital divide programs that require affordable rural coverage and low cost ways to improve urban capacity.
• The PC8219E includes a network monitoring function that allows the femtocell to reconfigure itself to behave like a handset receive chain, synchronizing with the macro base station, improving network planning and providing a route to self organizing networks, one of the highlights of 4G development. Self-configuration and standard backhaul are the main differences between these new enlarged femtocells and traditional picocells.
• The aim of reference designs is to speed time to market for new devices, easing vendors' cost and risk burden, and this platform could herald the arrival of the new class of 'super femtocells' from next year. The Femto Forum recently categorized femtocells into three standard category - class one or residential; class two, primarily indoor for enterprise; and class three, for outdoor rural, metro and wider area deployment.

The importance of this technology is that it extends cell coverage inside of the office. This can only lead to enhanced mobility and all of the advantages that this brings.

IT executives should keep an eye on this and other disruptive technologies so the business units they support can be informed whenever something of inherent value emerges. This can only strengthen the IT/Business alignment.