Measurements in a Femtocell UMTS Indoor Network with Multiple Cells
Kankare, Miika (2013)
2013
Signaalinkäsittelyn ja tietoliikennetekniikan koulutusohjelma
Tieto- ja sähkötekniikan tiedekunta - Faculty of Computing and Electrical Engineering
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2013-06-05
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201306141218
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201306141218
Tiivistelmä
The user amounts of modern mobile radio networks have reached billions with 3G networks having a share of 1 billion. In addition, most of the data traffic is originating from indoor locations. At the same time the cost of residential broadband access has fallen. All of these amount to an ever-rising demand for capacity.
Beyond the demand for capacity, the operators are facing coverage issues in a multitude of environments. Fixing the issues in sparsely populated rural areas is expensive and in urban environments finding suitable cell site locations can be challenging for the network operators. Additional difficulties related to coverage are caused by new, extremely energyefficient buildings that are constructed from highly RF signal attenuating materials.
Indoor coverage and capacity problems have been solved in the past with the deployment of DASs and picocells, but both require planning and maintenance making them cost-inefficient to the operators. Femtocells are a new concept that rely on the end user for the deployment of the devices as well as the backhaul link. This uncontrolled deployment leads to potential issues especially in femtocells based on the interference limited WCDMA system.
This Thesis approaches femtocells from an empirical point-of-view by including results from a measurement campaign performed in a residential building. The main purpose of the measurements was to determine potential caveats in an arbitrary deployment in terms of usability, functionality and RF performance.
The usage of femtocells was challenging at times during the measurements, so they will need clear usage guidelines for the end user in future deployments. In the measurements the cell size and performance were clearly limited by interference. Through additional research it is possible to find optimal parameters for the system. Although the femtocell concept has its limitations, it certainly shows promising attributes and is a suitable technology for extending coverage and capacity. Overall, the femtocells are very usable now and most certainly in the future, but still require work to reach their maximum potential.
Beyond the demand for capacity, the operators are facing coverage issues in a multitude of environments. Fixing the issues in sparsely populated rural areas is expensive and in urban environments finding suitable cell site locations can be challenging for the network operators. Additional difficulties related to coverage are caused by new, extremely energyefficient buildings that are constructed from highly RF signal attenuating materials.
Indoor coverage and capacity problems have been solved in the past with the deployment of DASs and picocells, but both require planning and maintenance making them cost-inefficient to the operators. Femtocells are a new concept that rely on the end user for the deployment of the devices as well as the backhaul link. This uncontrolled deployment leads to potential issues especially in femtocells based on the interference limited WCDMA system.
This Thesis approaches femtocells from an empirical point-of-view by including results from a measurement campaign performed in a residential building. The main purpose of the measurements was to determine potential caveats in an arbitrary deployment in terms of usability, functionality and RF performance.
The usage of femtocells was challenging at times during the measurements, so they will need clear usage guidelines for the end user in future deployments. In the measurements the cell size and performance were clearly limited by interference. Through additional research it is possible to find optimal parameters for the system. Although the femtocell concept has its limitations, it certainly shows promising attributes and is a suitable technology for extending coverage and capacity. Overall, the femtocells are very usable now and most certainly in the future, but still require work to reach their maximum potential.