Femtocells Deliver 5-Times Speed of Macro Network in Operator Trials

Femtocell developer, Airvana has published results of performance tests of the company's HubBub CDMA femtocell which it says demonstrated dramatic improvements for indoor 3G coverage and performance when compared with using the existing macro-cellular network alone. Based on the results of side-by-side testing, a typical HubBub user can expect to achieve broadband data rates throughout their house of approximately five times that of the existing wireless macro network.

From a theoretical EVDO peak data rate of 3.1Mbps, femtocell data rates also proved to be significantly more consistent than the macro rates, exceeding 2 Mbps in all corners of the home on a statistically reliable basis.

Airvana's radio frequency (RF) engineering team developed custom testing hardware and software specifically for this analysis and measured Airvana's HubBub femtocell performance in a variety of single family homes, townhouses, and apartments in urban, suburban and rural settings, to simulate the full-range of subscriber dwellings. Testing was run three times in each location to compare pure macro coverage, pure femtocell coverage and a combination of the two. The results of the performance testing, which was conducted as part of a broader femtocell trial with a mobile operator, will be published in a white paper made available at at CTIA Wireless 2009.

While much of the discussion around femtocell benefits has focused on improved indoor coverage for voice services, Airvana's testing has demonstrated the significant benefits femtocells can bring to indoor data performance. Delivering improved coverage and performance for both voice and broadband data services is critical given statistics from Informa that show 36 percent of voice calling and 45 percent of mobile data usage happens within consumers' homes.

This case of realizing "deep coverage" in the home was also recently analyzed by the Signals Research Group (SRG) as part of a comprehensive business case study commissioned by the Femto Forum. SRG concluded that if an operator attempted to provide mobile broadband coverage indoors at 256 kbps uplink (approximately 2M--3Mbps downlink) in the 2100 MHz band on a statistically reliable basis they could spend in incremental capital three times what it would cost to deliver a similar experience via femtocells. J. Randolph Luening, vice president, Wireless Economics at SRG said, "Femtocells, because of their physical proximity to the end user, are able to deliver a consistent high speed data experience to small form factor devices in the home or office for a fraction of what an operator would need to invest in incremental coverage-related capital to deliver a similar experience - on a statistically reliable basis - via the wide area network, especially in the higher frequency bands."

"Through the User Labs program, we have demonstrated empirically that our HubBub femtocell has the power to transform the indoor mobile experience," said Sanjeev Verma, vice president, Femtocell Business and Corporate Development, Airvana. "The ability to consistently deliver 4G-like mobile broadband speeds from a 3G femtocell will open the door to greater mobile broadband adoption."

Posted to the site on 23rd March 2009