LTE and Femtocell

Abstract

Long-term evolution networks promise to change the mobile broadband landscape with peak data rates of over 100 Mbps, high-speed mobility, reduced latency, and the support of a variety of real-time applications. However, simply providing LTE coverage is not enough to fulfill indoor service requirements. Therefore, operators need to complement macro network with femtocell deployments more tailored to residential and workplace use. To understand the importance of femtocell for LTE, it is important to analyze mobile customers’ behaviors and to determine the nature of this demand and more particularly where it occurs. Traditionally, mobile operators’ mission is to deliver services to mobile users constantly on the move which use their mobile phones mainly for voice services. With the emergence of technologies such as UMTS and the Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) , mobile services usage are changing and new trends are appearing leveraging indoor importance. In such context, high data rates and coverage are the two main ingredients that each operator should offer to remain competitive. However, operators usually fail to provide high quality of services to home users and 45% of home and 30% of business subscribers experience problems with poor indoor coverage [1]. With macro cellular network, it is very difficult for operators to provide high-quality services and cell coverage to indoor users. Indeed, it is nearly impossible for operators to deploy a huge number of outdoor base stations in areas densely populated in order to improve indoor coverage. The above-mentioned concerns emphasize the need of femtocells as indoor solutions.¹