Femtocell networks: a survey

TLDR

Femtocells, or home base stations, provide a cost‑effective way to boost indoor voice and data coverage by bringing the transmitter and receiver closer together, thereby increasing link quality and spatial reuse. The article surveys the technical and business arguments for femtocells and reviews the current state of the art. The authors outline key technical challenges in femtocell networks and propose preliminary solutions.

Abstract

The surest way to increase the system capacity of a wireless link is by getting the transmitter and receiver closer to each other, which creates the dual benefits of higher-quality links and more spatial reuse. In a network with nomadic users, this inevitably involves deploying more infrastructure, typically in the form of microcells, hot spots, distributed antennas, or relays. A less expensive alternative is the recent concept of femtocells - also called home base stations - which are data access points installed by home users to get better indoor voice and data coverage. In this article we overview the technical and business arguments for femtocells and describe the state of the art on each front. We also describe the technical challenges facing femtocell networks and give some preliminary ideas for how to overcome them.