Macro-femto heterogeneous network deployment and management: from business models to technical solutions

The femtocell technique can address the poor in-building coverage problem and increase network capacity cost efficiently. At present, some wireless service providers have launched their femtocell services, although there are still plenty of challenges unsettled. In this article we discuss the business mode in macro-femto heterogeneous networks. We propose three frameworks according to the deployment types of femtocells, which are joint deployment, WSP deployment, and user deployment frameworks. Their unique characteristics, corresponding challenges, and potential solutions are further investigated to provide deeper insight systematically. We also present two schemes for WSP revenue maximization under the WSP deployment framework. The first scheme jointly handles the interference and users' demand satisfaction via cross-tier channel allocation, and the second scheme further considers the optimal pricing selection for accessing different networks.