LIPA, SIPTO and IFOM Comparison

Enhancing macro radio access network capacity by offloading mobile video traffic will be essential for mobile communications industry to reduce its units costs to match its customer expectations. Two primary paths to achieve this are the use of femtocells and WiFi offloading. Deployment of large scale femtocells for coverage enhancement has been a limited success so far. Using them for capacity enhancements is a new proposition for mobile operators. They need to assess the necessity of using them as well as decide how to deploy them selectively for their heavy users.

Three alternative architectures that are being standardized by 3GPP have various advantages and shortcomings. They are quite distinct in terms of their dependencies and feasibility. Following table is a summary of comparison among these three approaches for traffic offloading.

Looking at the relative strengths of the existing traffic offload proposals, it is difficult to pick an outright winner. SIPTO macro-network option is the most straight-forward and most likely to be implemented rather quickly. However, it doesn't solve the fundamental capacity crunch in the radio access network. Therefore its value is limited to being an optimization of the packet core/transport network. Some other tangible benefits would be reduction in latency to increase effective throughput for customers as well as easier capacity planning since transport facilities don't need to be dimensioned for large number of radio access network elements anymore.

LIPA provides a limited benefit of allowing access to local premises networks without having to traverse through the mobile operator core. Considering it is dependent on the implementation of femtocell, this benefit looks rather small and has no impact on the macro radio network capacity. If LIPA is extended to access to Internet and Intranet, then the additional offload benefit would be on the mobile operator core network similar to the SIPTO macro-network proposal. Femtocell solves the macro radio network capacity crunch. However, the pace of femtocell deployments so far doesn't show a significant momentum. LIPA's market success will be limited until cost of femtocell ownership issues are resolved and mobile operators decide why (coverage or capacity) to deploy femtocells.

IFOM is based upon a newer generation of Mobile IP that has been around as a mobile VPN technology for more than 10 years. Unfortunately success record of mobile IP so far has been limited to enterprise applications. It hasn't become a true consumer-grade technology. Introduction of LTE may change this since many operators spearheading LTE deployments are planning to use IPv6 in handsets and adopt a dual-stack approach of having both IPv4 and IPv6 capability. Since many WiFi access networks will stay as IPv4, DSMIPv6 will be the best tunneling mechanism to hide IPv6 from the access network. Having dual-stack capability will allow native access to both legacy IPv4 content and native IPv6 content from major companies such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, etc. without the hindrance of Network Address Translation (NAT). Considering the popularity of smartphones such as iPhone, Blackberry and various Android phones, they will be the proving ground for the feasibility of DSMIPv6.

Source of the above content: Whitepaper - Analysis of Traffic Offload : WiFi to Rescue

IP Flow Mobility and Seamless Offload (IFOM)

Unlike LIPA or SIPTO that are dependent on upstream network nodes to provide the optimization of routing different types of traffic, IFOM relies on the handset to achieve this functionality. It explicitly calls for the use of simultaneous connections to both macro network, e.g., LTE, UMTS and WiFi. Therefore, IFOM, unlike LIPA and SIPTO, is truly a release 10-onward only technology and it is not applicable for user terminals pre-Release 10. IFOM is being specified via 3GPP TS 23.261 [1]. Following diagram shows the interconnectivity model for IFOM capable UE.

IFOM uses an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request For Comments (RFC), Dual Stack Mobile IPv6 (DSMIPv6) (RFC-5555) [2].

Since IFOM is based on DSMIPv6, it is independent of the macro network flavor. It can be used for a green-field LTE deployment as well as a legacy GPRS packet core.

Earlier on we looked at the mobile network industry attempts of integration between packet core and WLAN networks. Common characteristic of those efforts was the limitation of the UE, its ability to use one radio interface at a time. Therefore, in earlier interworking scenarios UE was forced to use/select one radio network and make a selection to move to an alternative radio for all its traffic. Today many smartphones, data cards with connection managers already have this capability, i.e., when the UE detects the presence of an alternative access network such as a home WiFi AP, it terminates the radio bearers on the macro network and initiates a WiFi connection. Since WiFi access network and packet core integration is not commonly implemented, user typically loses her active data session and re-establishes another one.

Similarly access to some operator provided services may not be achieved over WiFi. Considering this limitation both iPhone IOS and Android enabled smartphones to have simultaneous radio access but limited this functionality to sending MMS over the macro network while being connected to WiFi only.

IFOM provides simultaneous attachment to two alternate access networks. This allows fine granularity of IP Flow mobility between access networks. Using IFOM, it will be possible to select particular flows per UE and bind them to one of two different tunnels between the UE and the DSMIPv6 Home Agent (HA) that can be implemented within a P-GW or GGSN. DSMIPv6 requires a dual-stack (IPv4 or IPv6) capable UE. It is independent of the access network that can be IPv4 or IPv6.

[1] 3GPP TS 23.261: IP flow mobility and seamless Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) offload; Stage 2

[2] RFC-5555: Mobile IPv6 Support for Dual Stack Hosts and Routers

[3] 3GPP TS 23.327: Mobility between 3GPP-Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) interworking and 3GPP systems

Content Source: Analysis of Traffic Offload : WiFi to Rescue

Proximity Indication - New RRC Uplink Message in Rel-9

The inbound handover from a Macro eNB to an HeNB (a.k.a. Femtocell) is not supported in Release 8. Before making a handover decision to a HeNB, the Macro eNB needs to acquire UE measurement information related to the so-called target CSG cell. Nevertheless, UEs cannot continuously make measurements and read the system information of lots of CSG cells in cases of large scale HeNB deployments.

In order to allow the UE to make those measurements efficiently, a newly defined proximity report can be configured within the RRC Reconfiguration message. This proximity report will allow the UE to send a so-called “proximity indication” to the source eNB in the uplink whenever it is entering or leaving the proximity of one or more cells with CSG IDs that the UEs has in its CSG Whitelist.

A UE that is able to determine that it is near its CSG cell can thus inform the network to take the necessary actions for handover preparation. The detection of proximity is based on an autonomous search function.

The source eNB, upon receiving the proximity indication, might ask the UE to perform measurements of the CSG cell, to read the System Information (SI) or, in case it already has all required information, it might already start the handover procedure. PCI (Physical Cell Identification) confusion is resolved in Release 9. The eNB will ask the UE to report the global cell identity. As usual the UE reporting is using the RRC measurement procedures. The ovell procedure is illustrated in Figure below.

In summary five basic steps can be identified:

1. Proximity configuration/reporting

2. HO measurement configuration/reporting

3. Resolution of PCI confusion by requesting and reporting System Information

4. Access Control in the network

5. HO execution

Since the CSG search can be very slow there are no strict requirements on the inbound handover performance, which can range from one to several 10’s of seconds.

Since the proximity information is based on UE signaling, the network might be receiving a lot of proximity indications, increasing the network load. Therefore, it was agreed to limit proximity indications a UE can send within a certain time frame. A timer, called the prohibit proximity timer, was introduced.

Source:

• 3GPP TS 36.331 v9.3.0 section 5.3.14
• Nomor Research Whitepaper - LTE Home Node Bs and its enhancements in Release 9

'Wi-Fi Direct': New Standard and competition to Femtocells and Bluetooth

Last month when I blogged about WiFi as 4G, i got mixed reactions. Some suggesting that WiFi is just a filler till Femtocells become prevalent and others suggested that in future all devices would with 3G/HSPA/LTE/4G enabled so there may be no need for WiFi.

Well, yesterday I read about the new Wi-Fi Direct (formerly known as 'Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer') standard that is supposed to make WiFi devices easier to operate with other WiFi devices. I havent explored the security options but I am sure they are well thought out.

Before we go further, you may want to check out the WiFi Direct official video below:

There is an interesting piece in PC World that compares Bluetooth 4.0 with Wi-Fi Direct. I am sure soon both these camps would be listing the merit of their standards and dissing the other one. According to the Register, Bluetooth never really took off in the US. They think Wi-Fi has bigger clout and this would translate to WiFi Direct success.

WiFi Alliance has a recently revised FAQ on Wi-Fi Direct here. Very interesting read. A Media presentation is embedded below and can be downloaded from Slideshare here.

'Wi-Fi Direct' Media Presentation

View more presentations from Zahid Ghadialy.

The devices have already started undergoing certification and commercial devices should be available by the end of this year.

Finally, while there is a lot of debate going on about WiFi v/s Femtocells and I respect everyone's views and arguments on this debate, I think Wi-Fi direct may give a kicking to the Femtocell manufacturers where it hurts the most.

One of the strong arguments in the favour of Femtocell is the seamless roaming. With Wi-Fi direct you may be able to seamlessly connect to various Wi-Fi devices and Access points. This certainly counts big time in their favour.

Certainly the gate is still wide open for some Femtocell based killer apps which would turn the tide in their favour but for now I am looking forward to some Wi-Fi direct devices.

Locating Wireless Devices Where GPS May Not Be Available

Some of you may have read my earlier posts on stealing spectrum via Femtocells and using Femtocells abroad illegally. This presentation tries to answer one such problem on how do you find the location where GPS cannot be used. This could also be used in case of Cognitive Radios. See my old blog entry here.

OFCOM Locating Wireless Devices where GPS may not be available

View more presentations from Zahid Ghadialy.

HeNBs (Femtocells) and eNBs Handovers

An excerpt from presentation by Dr. Doug Pulley, picoChip. The presentation is available to download from here.

Femtocell Interference Management in real life

Couple of years back we blogged about the Femtocell Inteference in Macro network. Since then things have moved on a long way. There are commercial rollouts happening with Vodafone leading the way. Yesterday, I was reading Prof. Simon Saunders article on Femtocell and the following struck me.

A major technical challenge that femtocell designers initially faced was the need to manage potential interference. It takes up to two years to install conventional base stations, during which time radio engineers meticulously plan a station’s position and radio characteristics to avoid interference. However, such an approach is not viable in the case of femtocells, deployed potentially in their millions at random. Automating a process conducted by radio engineers was no mean feat and simply would not have been possible a few years ago.

Fortunately, the fact that the walls of buildings keep 3G signals out and keep the femtocell’s signals in provides strong inherent interference mitigation for indoor femtocells. Extensive studies have shown that proper implementation of a few key techniques to reduce interference can take advantage of this attenuation in an intelligent manner. Such techniques include frequent monitoring of the cell’s surrounding radio environment combined with adaptive power control. Indoor users gain faster data rates, as do outdoor users who now operate on less congested cells, while it costs less for operators to deliver higher overall network capacity. Large-scale, real-world deployments are demonstrating that these techniques work in practice and even allow new approaches, such as operating 3G networks in the same spectrum as 2G networks.

AT&T has deployed femtocells on the same frequencies as both the hopping channels for GSM macrocells and with UMTS macrocells. They have tested thousands of femtocells, and found that the mitigation techniques implemented successfully minimise and avoid interference. The more femtocells are deployed, the more uplink interference is reduced.

It is very interesting to see that the interference is not causing any problems in real life.


Back in Feb, Femto Forum released a new report on "Interference Management in UMTS Femtocells". A similar report was released in Dec. 08. Then in March they released a similar report for OFDMA (covering both LTE and WiMAX) femtocells. They are interesting reading for those who are interested in this area.


European Union is having a similar program called FREEDOM (Femtocell-based network enhancement by interference management and coordination of information for seamless connectivity ). FREEDOM focuses on:

• Advanced interference-aware cooperative PHY techniques,
• Improvement of the control plane procedures for seamless connectivity, and
• System-level evaluation and hardware demonstrator of the proposed femto-based network architecture.

More info on their website (http://www.ict-freedom.eu/). You can see their scenario document that shows different interference scenarios and also compares different approaches including those of Femto Forum, 3GPP and WiMAX.

Selected IP Traffic Offload (SIPTO)

The industry is developing a new standard called Selected IP Traffic Offload (SIPTO). SIPTO allows internet traffic to flow from the femtocell directly to the internet, bypassing the operator’s core network, as shown in Figure 8 below.

More information on LIPA and SIPTO can be obtained from:

1. 3GPP TR 23.829: Local IP Access and Selected IP Traffic Offload (http://www.3gpp1.eu/ftp/Specs/archive/23_series/23.829/)

2. Femtocells – Natural Solution for Offload (http://www.3gamericas.org/documents/016+Femtocells+Natural+Solution+for+Offload%5B1%5D.pdf)

Local IP Access (LIPA) for Femtocells

I blogged about data offload earlier, for Femtocells. This traffic offload can be done via a feature called Local IP Access (LIPA). If you have LIPA support in your Home NodeB (HNB) or Home eNodeB (HeNB) then once you have camped on your Femtocell then you can access your local network as well as the network's IP network.

This would mean that you can directly print from your mobile to the local printer or access other PC's on your LAN. Note that I am also referring to access via Dongle as Mobile access though in practice I dont see much point of people just using dongles when they are in their Home Zone. Every laptop/notebook/netbook is now Wifi enabled so this situation doesnt benefit much for the dongle access.

I am sure there are quite a few unresolved issues with regards to the Security of the data, the IP address allocation, QoS, etc.

Continuous computing have a white paper on LIPA available that can be obtained by registering here. Anyway, enough information is available even without getting the PDF.

There is also a small presentation here that gives a bit of idea on LIPA.

As usual any comments, insights and references welcome.

Bell Labs Ireland research on small cells

Bell Labs Ireland research on small cells [Davide Cherubini]

View more presentations from Keith.

Standards Developments in SAE

Standards Developments in SAE

View more presentations from Zahid Ghadialy.

Femtocells: Not merely for providing 3G without base stations

Interesting presentation from Argela

Femtocells: Not merely for providing 3G without base stations.

View more presentations from Zahid Ghadialy.

Argela, one of the leading global telecom solution providers, was an exhibitor, speaker and sponsor of the Femtocell World Summit in London which is billed to be the largest Femtocell focused event in the industry for 2010. In addition, Argela’s Femtocell Committee Advertising Application was shortlisted and recognized by the Femto Forum Awards Panel for its innovative application of the Femtocell technology.

During the event, Argela exhibited its Femtocell and Home Gateway products in addition to demonstrating its Femtocell Advertising Application. Oguz Oktay, VP of Sales, commented, “The Femtocell World Summit provides a venue for key players to discuss the latest developments in the Femtocell industry which is why we decided to be a sponsor of the event. Having our Femtocell Advertising Application shortlisted and recognized for its innovation was a very nice bonus for us. We have received a lot of interest in our Femtocell Advertising Application which provides yet another way for service providers to increase the return on their Femtocell investment.”

Argela’s Director of Technology and Research, Dr. Mustafa Ergen, was a speaker during the three day event and he presented how Femtocells are capable of going beyond just providing 3G services.

To download and view Dr. Ergen’s presentation, “Femtocells: Not Merely for Providing 3G without Base Stations,” please click here.

Home Energy-Management solution using Femtocells

A recent demonstration from ip.access and AlertMe.com showed how femtocells can be integrated into smart-home energy-management solutions. With femtocell integration, the AlertMe Energy service can automatically detect when the house is empty and power down lights, televisions, and other home appliances. The service also can switch the services back on when the resident returns home.

For the demo, ip.access combined the AlertMe Energy service with its own femtocell technology. The solution works by allowing electrical appliances to switch on and off automatically in response to the presence or absence of mobile phones in the home. This “presence” information, which is routinely gathered by the femtocell, is normally only used to route cell-phone traffic and set tariffs.

In the demonstration, however, the AlertMe integration enables the presence information to be used to set light and power preferences, which are activated automatically when a subscriber arrives at home. Preset electrical outlets also can switch off automatically to save energy a few minutes after the last person has left the house.

The demonstration shows how supplementary service codes on the phone can be personalized through the femtocell when the phone is at home. For example, the phone can be used to remotely switch appliances on and off.

“One automatic trigger could be to switch the kettle on as soon as you arrive home,” says Dr. Andy Tiller, Vice President Marketing at ip.access. “But there is more to this than just tea and convenience. Using a femtocell to personalize supplementary service codes is a new and unique idea. It enables the mobile phone to become a powerful controller for all kinds of applications in the home. And because it’s a network-enabled feature, it works with any handset. There are no applications to install.”

According to AlertMe.com Founder Pilgrim Beart, “The mobile phone is increasingly the remote-control for your life. Most people carry their handset everywhere they go, making it an ideal control device for the AlertMe Energy service.”

The demo also shows how the AlertMe Hub (the central device that receives instructions via the Internet and controls the electrical plugs in the home) can be integrated inside a femtocell access point. It will then rely on the femtocell for power and its Internet connection. In this way, a mobile operator could offer a smart-home energy-management solution as an integrated option to its femtocell subscribers.

You can see the Video of the demo here. (Sorry no embed allowed)

Via: Andy Tiller in 3G in the Home.

'Femtocells' or 'Small cells' ?

Recently, while browsing, I ended up on Wilson Street. I have been noticing it since earlier this year that Alcatel-Lucent have rebranded their Femtocells as Small-cells. I have blogged earlier about Femtocell variations but the term 'small cell' could be used to cover different sizes and capacity of cells.

Here are some interesting things i found from a recent ABI research blog:

• Indoor residential grade Femtocells have an output power of 10mW-100mW.
• Enterprise grade or Metro femtocells have an output power of 200-300mW.
• Rural femtocells (a.k.a. Super Femtocells, Greater Femtocells) 200mW-1W. Some people refer to them as picocells as well.
• Compact base stations use femtocell silicon efficiencies and multi-core chipset platforms to build a base station on a SoC - but are meant to be higher output power base stations (1W and higher).
• Compact base stations are scalable platforms, which can fit into picocell, microcell or even macrocell form factors. The emergence of compact base station can be traced to the need for multifrequency, multimode, low power consumption, low-cost, pizza-box type base station platforms that can de deployed within different site classifications especially in metro metrozone overlays.
• The capacity crunch in networks is likely to drive operators to deploy compact base stations as in-fills initially with compact base stations being a part of future network blueprints. Current microcell or macrocell platforms are too bulky or costly to deploy in clusters and in large numbers. Compact base stations are also meant to take advantage of backhaul relay techniques making it easier to deploy in small clusters.
• Small cells on the other hand could be the umbrella under which compact base stations (portion of), picocells, microcells, residential, enterprise, rural/metro femtocells exist.
• We are already seeing vendors like Alcatel Lucent change their marketing message from femtocells to ‘small cells’ covering a wider range of products and deployment types. They have also included features like SON and value-added applications into the small cell base category.

To avoid confusing the end users who are just interested in better coverage and data rates, it would make sense to brand the Femtocell as something approprite (like Vodafone has done for Sure Signal). Small cells do sound good too.

Ubiquisys and PicoChip Interviews at Femtocell World Summit

Courtesy: David Chambers, ThinkFemtocell.com

Airvana Femto Family Tablet demo

Last year when I blogged about the 'Femtocell Applications Live' from the Femto World Summit, I mentioned about the Airvana Digital Picture Frame that would automatically synchronize to your mobile once your mobile enter the Homezone / Femtozone. Here is a recently added Video from Stuff Tv:

My crazy ideas and Softbank's free Femtocell (+ ADSL and maybe Femtocalls)

Couple of years back I blogged about end users making money by allowing operators to deploy Femtocells. I cant remember but someone did say that it was a crazy idea. Well Softbank, the Japanese operator is doing something similar.

Rather than giving cashback, they are giving in free ADSL connection. The customers will have to sign a 2 years contract though. With free ADSL connection and a Femtocell, surely the end users are winners. They only have to invest in electricity which would not be a lot. The operator can end up as a winner as well as they get a better coverage by deploying open access Femtocells.

According to Will Franks, CTO of Ubiquisys, Softbank can afford to do this because femtocells are cheap and the IMS based architecture used by Softbank allows easy scalability. They are expecting upto 200,000 femtos to be rolled out in this scheme this year.

My take is that this is going to be the case but there will always be people who would be reluctant to get the Free Femtos + ADSL deal. They could instead be tempted with cashback if someone makes or receives call by accessesing their femto or instead free calls can be offered to the owner while he is camped onto his residential femto. A combination of both would be a good business case as well.

Anyway, Softbank is setting a good bar for other operators to compete with.

Picture Source: Femtocell Pioneer.

Femtocells data cap and offload dilemma

I recently heard Prof. Simon Saunders (who has a much impressive background that i thought of) at Cambridge Wireless International conference speaking on Thinking Networks.

One of the things mentioned that struck me is how convenient it would be with femtocells to offload the data on the internet directly without going through the operators core. This would mean less data on the backhaul for the operators and since data would have to travel through less nodes, the speed and reliability could be higher.

There is a slight problem though. In the recently concluded Femtocells World Summit (which I have blogged a lot about), AT&T has been harping about its data caps while using Femto. AT&T wants that the Femto's should mainly be used for voice and for data the users should generally switch to using WiFi. Their reasoning is based on the fact that they are not allowed to perform data offload as mentioned above due to FCC regulations. In fact the same problem may be present in other countries and would hamper the Femto growth in time.

Femtocells are better for data usage as I have mentioned in past because they provide seamless coverage and better data security. It should also be pointed out that the battery drains faster when using WiFi as compared to the mobile Internet.

When a user uses Femtocell, he is already using his broadband data allowance and if there is additional restriction placed in terms of data caps on the Femtocell, the users may just revolt and avoid using Femtocells at all.

Voice coverage advantage is good but users may prefer to switch operators if its just voice that they are using Femtos for. While the use of fixed line phones have decreased in the past (thanks to voice bundles on mobile), some users are switching back to using landlines because of the voice clarity and no reception problems.

The Femto manufacturers and the operators will have to act fast if they want their future predictions to come true.

Femtocell Industry Award Winners 2010

Category 1: Residential femtocell access point design and technology innovation

Shortlists:

* Huawei - Huawei Home Media Centre

* Technicolor - TG872 Integrated Femtocell

* Ubiquisys - The G3-mini Femtocell from Ubiquisys/SerComm

Winner:

Huawei - Home Media Centre

“The residential market for femtocells is clearly the driver for attaining mass-market volumes, enabling improved coverage, data offload and new service opportunities. In order to gain traction and consumer acceptance, there need to be persuasive reasons for purchase - and also value-added features to protect against future churn. Huawei's Home Media Center includes a broad set of audiovisual capabilities such as video storage, on top of the femto module, which can help it attain a permanent role in a subscriber's home," agreed the judges.

Category 2: Greater femtocell design and technology innovation

Shortlists:

* SpiderCloud - SpiderCloud wireless enterprise radio access network (E-RAN): solving network operators’ network capacity and in-building coverage problems

* Ubiquisys - Ubiquisys Enterprise Femto Net Solution

* Ubiquisys - Colo-Node HSPA Metro Femtocell

Winner:

Ubiquisys - Colo-Node HSPA Metro Femtocell

“One of the areas of femtocell technology in which there is intense carrier interest is the metrozone, and the potential to make small outdoor cells part of an urban build-out. Ubiquisys has come up with a very early product for this much discussed market, an innovation that brings real world metro femtocells a big step closer to reality,” agreed the judges.

Category 3: Femtocell network element design and technology innovation

Shortlists:

* NEC - Femto-Share

* Nokia Siemens Networks - The most compact and integrated Femto Gateway commercially available

* Tatara - The Tatara Convergence Server Platform

Winner:

NEC - Femto-Share

“No different than in their macro-cell networks, operators are looking for ways to keep the cost of deploying a femtocell in check. While there was no shortage of impressive network innovations submitted for this year’s awards, NEC’s focus on costs combined with standards and scalability – particularly as operators look to launch services across markets – helped its FemtoShare and FemtoCloud offers to stand apart,” agreed the judges.

Category 4: Femtocell application concept

Shortlists:

* Airvana - Airvana’s ‘Femto Family Tablet’

* Argela - Argela's Femtocell Advertising Application

* Tatara - FemtoCloud services enabled by the Tatara Convergence Server Platform

Winner:

Airvana - ‘Femto Family Tablet’

“As the femtocell industry matures and commercial launches multiply, it is increasingly important to develop unique applications to help drive demand for femtocells. The Airvana Femto Family Tablet stands out as a compelling application that could deliver real value to both operators and end-users based on unique femtocell features such as presence," agreed the judges.

Category 5: Progress in commercial deployment

Shortlists:

* NEC - Commercial progress

* picoChip - picoXcell femtocell SoC family

* Ubiquisys - Commercially deployed by SoftBank Mobile and SFR

Winner:

picoChip - picoXcell femtocell SoC family

“picoChip's involvement in such a large portion of the commercial femtocell services today is a clear indication of progress in commercial deployment. The sheer volume of femtocell chips that the vendor has shipped is further evidence of commercial momentum in the market,” agreed the judges.

Category 6: Commercial launch

Shortlists:

* AT&T - AT&T 3G MicroCell National Deployment

* Sprint - Sprint Airave

* Vodafone - Vodafone Sure Signal

Winner:

AT&T - 3G MicroCell National Deployment

“AT&T’s 3G MicroCell deployment with Cisco caught the judges’ eyes for two crucial reasons. First and foremost, it emphasised the importance of the customer at the heart of the femtocell experience, positioning technology very much as an enabler, rather than an end in itself. Secondly, the deployment is on a national scale, which given the US market’s size adds an additional layer of complexity,” agreed the judges.

Category 7: Contribution to femtocell standards

Shortlists:

* Airvana - Airvana Standards Team led by Doug Knisely, VP of technology

* Alcatel Lucent - Martin Warner- A catalyst in driving 3GPP femtocell specifications

* Nokia Siemens Networks - Driver for open standards, in standard setting bodies and realization

Winner:

Airvana - Standards Team led by Doug Knisely, VP of technology

“There have been many outstanding contributions to femtocell standards and selecting one above another proved very difficult for the judges – indeed this was one of the closest categories of all. After much discussion the judges decided that they would prefer the spirit of this award to tend more towards clear individual contributions and on that basis the work of Doug Knisely stood out as being particularly important and demonstrating great dedication over extended periods. The femtocell industry is indeed in his debt,” agreed the judges.

Category 8: Enabling technology

Shortlists:

* Airvana - UMTS Femtocell Beacon

* Continuous Computing & picoChip - The world’s first LTE femtocell reference design

* picoChip - picoXcell™ PC323 - The complete next generation femtocell solution

Winner:

Continuous Computing & picoChip - The world’s first LTE femtocell reference design

“The Continuous Computing and picoChip LTE reference design is a great example of an enabling technology that is necessary to kick start development of LTE femtocells. The timing of this reference design is critical for the introduction of LTE femtocells as operators begin to rollout the first LTE networks. At the same time there is a growing understanding of the importance of multi-tier cellular architectures as we move from 3G to 4G and as networks begin to cope with user demand for capacity. The judges wanted to recognize the role of this crucial component in what is likely to become a necessary part of future 4G networks,” agreed the judges.

Category 9: Judges’ Choice

Shortlists:

* Alcatel Lucent - Wilson Street: Alcatel-Lucent’s wireless technology showcasing smallcells living and working with macrocells for the community of Wilson Street

* Ubiquisys - The World’s First Sub-$100 Femtocell - the G3-mini

* Vodafone - Vodafone Sure Signal

Winner:

Vodafone - Sure Signal

“While we in the industry have known about femtocells for many years, the wider public have been unaware of their existence and benefits. The Vodafone marketing campaign changed all that. In a well-crafted and multi-faceted campaign they showed consumers how they could achieve coverage in their home and changed the role and perception of cellular communications. They have done a great deal to advance the success of femtocells and fully deserve to be recognised for this,” agreed the judges.

Category 10: Individual contribution to Femto Forum activities

Shortlists:

* Joshua Adelson, Airvana

* Gibson Ang, GENBAND

* Gordon Mansfield, AT&T

* Mona Mustapha, Vodafone

* Clare Somerville, picoChip

* Fabio Chiussi, Airvana & Mark Walker, Ubiquisys

Winner:

Gordon Mansfield, AT&T

“The Femto Forum’s work is driven mainly by the efforts of individuals from within our member organisations. From an impressive shortlist, the judging panel selected Gordon Mansfield, Executive Director at AT&T, as the individual who has made the single biggest difference to the progress of the Forum. Gordon has been a major force in developing consensus positions among operators and other stakeholders on a range of femtocell related issues. He has been a regular contributor at Femto Forum plenaries and sponsored conferences, as well as being a tireless promoter of femtocells to the wireless industry as a whole by speaking in support of femtocells at numerous industry events. Besides his own time commitments he has worked to assign the right AT&T individuals to contribute in the working groups and SIGs of the Femto Forum. We are very pleased to be able to recognise his dedication to the worldwide acceptance of femtocell technology through this award,” said Simon Saunders, Chairman of the Femto Forum.

Category 11: Chairman’s award

Winner:

Karim Sharf, TraC

"Most of the Femto Forum’s work is driven by the efforts of individuals from within our member organisations and a huge number have contributed their time and skills to the Forum in the past year and all deserve my considerable thanks. However, one of our key goals we had in the last year was to make tangible progress towards our vision of an open, interoperable ecosystem for femtocells. To that end, in March we ran the first plugfest for UMTS femtocells, which was widely supported by over 20 vendors. Karim Sharf was instrumental in supporting and coordinating that process and his level of contribution to the Forum's aims has been outstanding,” said Simon Saunders, Chairman of the Femto Forum.

Round up of the Femtocells World Summit 2010

David Chambers of Think Femtocell has provided an excellent summary of the Femtocell World Summit 2010 that concluded today. Please follow the links below to read more:

Day 1 Roundup

Day 2 Roundup

Day 3 Roundup

If interested, you can check the complete programme here.