------ SMALL CELLS TYPE OF SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE -------

Iub over IP:

This approach reuses the same cellsite protocols as for 3G macrocells running ov
er IP.
This is defined in the mobile standards by 3GPP Release 5 and connects the femto
cell directly to the RNC using the Iub interface. It allows existing RNC vendors
to reuse their products with minimum redevelopment to support femtocells.
There are some issues with this approach:
a) Timing and Synchronisation. The standard Iub interface is used for synchronis
ation and requires very high quality communication between the femtocell and the
RNC. It is intolerant to delay, jitter and packet loss as typically experienced
over the public internet.
b) Scalability of RNCs. These were designed to handle several hundred high capac
ity NodeBs connected via ATM, and may require substantial re-architecting to sup
port thousands or tens of thousands of femtocells via IP.
c) Managability. Macrocellular UTRANs are not designed to handle thousands of ce
llsite moves and changes per day.
d) Security: There is no standard in place to secure the IP connection between t
he femtocell and RNC, although an IPsec tunnel could be used for this purpose.
e) Vendor Interoperability: Often the Iub interface implementation is not standa
rd, and many vendors have added additional proprietary functions. This makes sup
port of multi-vendor femtocell deployments more difficult.
f) Network operator bypass: Iub implementations cannot easily be architected to
offload direct internet traffic at the femtocell itself, and instead would need
to tunnel all data traffic to the mobile operators core network.
Autonomous SIP based Solution:
This incorporates more functionality into the femtocell, including the SGSN and
GGSN core network functionality. Voice calls continue to be routed to the MSC ov
er Iub. If the end user is able to use Voice over IP (VoIP) application rather t
han the normal phone voice service, then this can be handled entirely as VoIP us
ing an IMS core. In this case, handover is handled using the VCC standard (Voice
Call Continuity), but typically this does not support data session handover. Of
fload of large data usage is possible and substantially reduces the load on the
core network. There are some issues with this approach
- Security: For prepaid users, the control and monitoring of charging requires t
he femtocell to provide accurate information. If this aspect of the femtocell wa
s hacked/intercepted, then potentially free calls/services may be obtained.
- Difficulty of use: The end-user experience of making and receiving calls on a
mobile phone today using VoIP is quite complex. Such users are already likely to
have low cost VoIP phones in their homes already, where the benefit arises when
making international or other high priced calls. The bundling of minutes within
the mobile phone tariff would reduce the benefit of low cost VoIP.
Motorola appears to be the main vendor promoting this solution, which is targete
d more at enterprise deployments within offices as well as home users.
UMA (Universal Mobile Access)
UMA is a fully standardised solution, where a standard interface into the mobile
core network (currently A/Gb, but soon to be Iub) allows access to all 2G and 3
G services as standard. This was originally developed to allow other types of ra
dio interface to be used with the GSM core network. It has been deployed by BT (
BT Fusion) and France Telecom (Uniq) for their dual-mode GSM/WiFi systems.
There is a standard Up interface between the UNC (the femtocell controller) and
the femtocells. This operates over a secure IP tunnel for privacy and security p
urposes.
Unlike the Iub over IP solution, this pushes more radio management functionality
down into the femtocells, which allows the solution to scale to higher capaciti
es and not rely on low-latency transmission and processing performance within th
e RNC.
UMA solutions were designed with the management of large numbers of access point
s in mind. Therefore discovery and registration techniques have been built in to
avoid the need to provision each femtocell individually.
There are some issues with this approach:
1. The Iu interface from the UNC into the core network has not yet been standard
ised, although this is work in progress. Currently the 2G interfaces (A and Gb)
are used instead, which limit the efficiency of GPRS data services and some adva
nced 3G services such as Video Calling.
2. UNC products have been developed by different vendors than the traditional RN
C suppliers, and thus operators need to incur additional costs and complexity of
integrating a new type of equipment into their operational and management syste
ms. However, new processes are required to sell and support femtocells regardles
s of vendor throughout the operational, billing and customer care and marketing
departments.