Femtocell, a new wave technology to defend legacy technology and transform it becomes the new wave service delivery all at once.

Definition and aim

femtocell—originally known as an Access Point Base Station—is a small cellular base station, typically designed for use in residential or small business environments. It connects to the service provider’s network via broadband (such as DSL or cable); current designs typically support 5 to 100 mobile phones in a residential setting. A femtocell allows service providers to extend service coverage indoors, especially where access would otherwise be limited or unavailable. The femtocell incorporates the functionality of a typical base station but extends it to allow a simpler, self contained deployment; an example is a UMTS femtocell containing a Node B, RNC and GSN with Ethernet for backhaul. Although much attention is focussed on UMTS, the concept is applicable to all standards, including GSM, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA and WiMAX solutions.

Picture is taken from: http://www.picochip.com/

This article is dedicated to the company where I work for. For Information, Telkom is the biggest telecom carrier operator in Indonesia which has various Services such as PSTN (pots), PLMN (Telkomsel), FWA (Flexi), Broadband ADSL Access (Speedy) and now is preparing to keep up with WiMAX Development in Indonesia.

Defend the legacy technology i.e., POTS and FWA.

Telkom’s legacy technology such as PSTN (pots) and FWA (flexi) has approximately 22 million National users consists of 8 million pots users, and 14 million FWA users. And now this number is decreasing rapidly, because cellular penetration has swallow pots users with its advanced technology which is enable the user to mobile, connect (voice and data) almost anywhere.

Telkom has done a big innovation with its speedy Broadband ADSL connection. Speedy service, delivers new value for pots. In fact, it produces significant profit to the company now. But, as ADSL broadband access, we just can access it from certain place i.e., our desktop, except we add an additional access point behind it. Another limitation is it has only data connection ready, and doesn’t support voice communication over radio interface in a short range area (except using skype or gtalk that doesn’t guarantee voice quality and reliability).

FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) is quiet promising technology in Indonesia. Telkom now are developing FWA network with it’s flexi in all over Indonesian Islands. This FWA service is another Telkom’s strategy to draw pots user who has shifted to cellular service back to Telkom’s service. But this FWA technology is focused in voice communication only while the data communication which has big potential market on the future not yet well developed.

Femtocell’s role.

So, what Femtocell could do to defend this two legacy technology to compete with another advanced technology? As mentioned on the first paragraph, Femtocell could combine pots and FWA to extend its values and make a digital home environment. With femtocell indoor coverage in the house, it can deliver voice communication service based on FWA (CDMA2000) technology, and data connectivity anywhere in the house with WiFi. These two standards are applicable in Femtocell.

In other word, femtocell could improve wireless data connectivity and FWA’s coverage which is often has blank area in the indoor home environment. This technology also enables us to create a smart home system.

picture taken from http://www.femtoforum.org/

Compiled and written by:

pram

http://pram.web.id/blog

life : let it flow easily