Managing and measuring performance of large femtocell networks

Using Informatics to Manage and Measure Performance of Large Femtocell Networks

“…Managing and monitoring a network approaching one million units is not feasible using standard network management analytics technology used to manage macrocellular networks of a few thousand base stations [6] [7]. A new approach that can scale to potentially one million or more femtocells is required.…”

Measurements of Inter-femtocell Reverse Link Interference

“…Residential smallcell technology (also known as femtocell) has rapidly evolved from research, development and operator trials [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] to deployments exceeding one million units [11]. Small cells now represent an important tool for mobile operators seeking to provide high quality indoor coverage required for data enabled smart phones in suburban and rural residences that are not close to a macrocell.…”

“…Early researchers modeled the deployment of femtocells as uniform within the macrocell coverage area, but research described in Ref. [11], illustrates that femtocell placement tends to be concentrated in the annular region at the fringe of macro cell coverage. The models used in the literature also asserted that the placement of one femtocell was totally independent of the next femtocell.…”

“…Data presented in Ref. [11] show statistics of the distance between nearest neighbor femtocells taken from one of the major operators. It shows that there are now a relatively large number of femtocells within the mutual coverage and interference zone of each other (50 meters or less).…”