|
NewsGlobe: Currents
Femto Forum initiative pushes core interoperability
Initiative aimed at reducing network clutter, facilitating consumer use
by Jim Barthold
Femtocells are boons for mobile carriers pushing third and
fourth generation broadband applications into mobile devices
and residences. They’re also network nightmares cluttered
with myriad proprietary protocols and interfaces linking the on-
premise devices into the core network.
Since femtocells receive and operate on carrier frequencies,
there’s probably nothing that can be done about the
proprietary nature of on-premise devices. Once the signals
leave the home, however, something can and must be done,
and the core network and the Femto Forum is taking steps to
do it.
“We’ve created a new initiative very much in response to the
operators we have in the Femto Forum (who) have very active
programs of trialing and working towards launching femtocells
in various forms. They want to see that the way the femtocells
are integrated with their core network needs to become
increasingly standardized,” said Simon Saunders, chairman of
the Femto Forum.
The Forum got its first inkling of this demand during a
plenary session in December. It will unveil its strategy to
reduce and consolidate the number of proprietary network
approaches — including some standardized approaches like
SIP IMS and UMA — during its next session in March.
“We’ll be assessing each of those architectures against the
big headline requirements that the vendors have, like
interoperability and support for single operation and
management systems and so forth and we’ll set the ball
rolling in terms of bringing the actual number of architectures
down and making sure operators have some commonality,”
Saunders said.
For the most part — or at least most publicly — those operators
include non-U.S.-based wireless carriers like BT, Vodafone
and Telecom Italia which all recently have joined the Forum.
“There are different requirements for the European market or
Asian market,” he said.
That doesn’t mean there’s no market in the U.S., although
U.S. carriers are notably absent from the Femto Forum
membership rolls.
“We were very active in Dallas with a number of U.S. carriers
who are getting involved in different ways and different stages
of the femto launch and I’m sure you’ll be seeing more
activity in that domain,” Saunders said. “We’re seeing a lot of
activity and the technical work already from members who are
very focused on the U.S. environment.”
The end game for all the work is to build an international
femto market at retail where each carrier can continue to
differentiate its offerings but where the network in the
background will be more singular.
“To the consumer there will be a great deal of choice, a great
deal of styles of femtos to support these different carriers.
They may look a bit proprietary from that side of things, but
as far as the interface back into the network is concerned, it
should be both standard and very efficiently carried out,”
Saunders said.
|
