Femtocells Technology

HARSHIT BHATNAGAR , PRIYANKA AGARWAL , MITALI CHOKSI

ABSTRACT
OFDMA femtocells have been pointed out by the industry as a good solution not only to overcome the indoor coverage problem but also to deal with the growth of traffic within macrocells. However, the deployment of a new femtocell layer may have an undesired impact on the performance of the macrocell layer. The allocation of spectrum resources and the avoidance of electromagnetic interference are some of the more urgent challenges that operators face before femtocells become widely deployed. Special attention is paid to the use of selfconfiguration and self-optimization techniques for the avoidance of interference. This paper explains about the Femtocells technology, its features like ability to handle user interference, architecture and synchronisation. This paper focuses on the major technical comparisons (like QOS and coverage) between WiMAX and other technologies. It also explains about the ability of the femtocells to provide efficient service in multipath environment

INTRODUCTION
The first interest in femto cells started around 2002 when a group of engineers at Motorola were investigating possible new applications and methodologies that could be used with mobile communications. A couple of years later in 2004, the idea was beginning to gain some momentum and a variety of companies were looking into the idea. With the idea gaining momentum, and many more companies investigating femto cell technology, the Femto Forum (www.femtoforum.org) was set up in July 2007. Its aim was to promote the wide-scale adoption of femtocells. With mounting industry pressure to be able to deploy femto cell technology, the Femto Forum also played a coordinating role in ensuring that the standards were agreed and released as fast as possible.

Femtocell system basics :Femtocells are essentially a form of cellular access point. The femtocells provide connectivity between the local mobile phones and an internet router. However this is only part of the overall femto cell system required. Several items are needed: Femtocell itself Internet router to enable the data to be passed to and from the femto cell via the Internet Internet link Mobile telecommunications service provider core network gateway

The two key elements of the system are the femtocell which is installed within the user premises and also the network gateway that provides the link from the Internet into the telecommunications network .

STANDARDISED ARCHITECTURES

The standards bodies have published formal specifications for femtocells for the most popular technologies, namelyWCDMA, CDMA2000, LTE and WiMAX. These all broadly conform to an architecture with three major elements: 1. The femtocell access points themselves, which embody greater network functionality than found in macrocell basestations, such as the radio resource control functions. This allows much greater autonomy within the femtocell, enabling self-configuration and self-optimisation. Femtocells are connected using broadband IP, such as DSL or cable modems, to the network operator's core switching centres. The femtocell gateway, comprising a security gateway that terminates large numbers of encrypted IP data connections from hundreds of thousands of femtocells, and a signalling gateway which aggregates and validates the signalling traffic, authenticates each femtocell and interfaces with the mobile network core switches using standard protocols, such as Iu. The management and operational system which allows software updates and diagnostic checks to be administered. These typically use the same TR.069 management protocol published by broadband forum and also used for administration of residential modems.

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The key interface in these architectures is that between the femtocell access points and the femtocell gateway. Standardisation enables a wider choice of femtocell products to be used with any gateway, increasing competitive pressure and driving costs down.

FEMTOCELL ISSUES

Femtocell interference scenarios There are fewer femtocell interference problems when the femtocells use a separate carrier frequency to the surrounding macro network for the cellular telecommunications system. The more complicated scenarios arise when the femtocells use the same carrier frequency. This scenario also provides the greatest level of spectrum efficiency, but also the greatest challenges to the interference management systems. The main interference scenarios are detailed below.. Femtocells interfering with base stations on the same frequency Base stations interfering with femtocells on the same frequency Closely spaced femtocells interfering with each other User equipment transmitting with a sufficiently high power such that it is received by more than one base station

Solutions to interference problems :In view of the fact that there are a variety of forms of femtocell interference that arise, a number of different solutions are required. Studies that have been undertaken have devised a number of methods to reduce the performance degradation to below acceptable levels. These are already being introduced into the current femtocells being manufactured Adaptive Pilot Power Control: Using this scheme femtocell detects the signals from surrounding cells and dynamically adjusts its transmitter power while still aiming to maintain its own coverage area. Dynamic femtocell receiver gain management: In order that femtocells can satisfactorily operate with mobiles, or user equipments that are near to the femtocell or at a greater distance, a satisfactory form of automatic gain or attenuation much be installed. This will enable the mobiles to operate without increasing their transmitted output power any more than is absolutely necessary. This will keep any increase in noise and interference to a minimum. Mobile phone uplink power capping: It is possible to cap or limit the maximum power output of a mobile when operating in the femto environment. This ensures that the phone will hand off to the macro network before its transmitter power rises to a point where it adds noise to the macro network. Extended femtocell receiver dynamic range: In order to ensure that femtocell designs are able to operate reliably even in the presence of nearby high power mobile phones connected to the macro network, it is necessary to ensure that their receivers are able to operate in the presence of other very strong signals. To achieve this they need to have a very high dynamic range.Even though femtocell interference is a problem that needs to be addressed and kept in mind, there are strategies that have been developed to overcome it.

FEMTOCELL SYNCHRONIZATION

Femtocell synchronization is an important aspect of their design. Many aspects of their operation requires reasonable levels of femtocell synchronisation.3GPP specifies that base station frequencies need to be very accurate, and there needs to be close synchronisation with precise clock signals.

Reasons for femtocell synchronization:There are a number of areas of femtocell operation that require synchronisation and frequency accuracy if they are to be able to operate satisfactorily. Supply frequency information to handsets: It is not possible for the handsets or user equipments to achieve the level of frequency accuracy that can be achieved by base stations. As a result, the handsets synchronize to base stations. Ensure reliable handover: If the femtocell is not synchronized to the network, and the adjacent basestation, then a variety of offsets may exist that would make any handovers fail or become disrupted. Interference reduction: By having all base stations synchronised the elvels of interference can be reduced. High levels of interference can reduce call quality and reduce the network capacity. Ensures femtocell to be aware of adjacent cell sites: If the femtocell is accurately synchronized to the rest of the network it can detect other cells more quickly and thereby improve the operation of the femtocell. Synchronization Techniques : Femtocell synchronization and timing from the Internet GPS timing for femtocell synchronisation Using nearby macro cells for femtocell synchronization TV transmitters for femtocell synchronization

FEMTOCELL SECURITY MEASURES

In order to prevent femtocell security attacks from succeeding, there are several areas that can be addressed: Use of IPsec: In order to ensure that the femtocell security is maintained across the Internet IPsec orIP security is used. The IPsec standard is a widely used standard defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Femtocell Secure Authentication: Authentication is required by both the service provider or operator to ensure that valid femtocells are connecting to the core network. Additionally femtocells need to be correctly identified within the network. Wireless link security: The wireless link is an area where femtocell security is needed to ensure that unauthorised users do not connect or take over the femtocell