LTE APIs enable the rapidly growing number of femtocell semiconductor manufacturers to ensure their products operate effectively in all LTE femtocell products. Project overseen by LTE Special Interest Group (SIG), which is now chaired by Vodafone.
London, UK – 18th October 2010– The Femto Forum, the independent industry and operator association that supports femtocell deployment worldwide, today published a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) which help enable Long Term Evolution (LTE) femtocell semiconductors and protocol software stacks from different vendors to interoperate. Compatible interfaces of this type will help create a more competitive marketplace by ensuring that femtocell device manufacturers can cost-effectively source these critical components from multiple suppliers while also maximising the market for semiconductor manufacturers.
The APIs address three fundamental LTE femtocell functions:– RF modulation (to generate LTE radio signals), scheduling (to accurately assign packets to frequency and time slots) and network monitoring (to minimise interference with the macro network and optimise femtocell coverage). Crucially, the APIs support vendors’ unique approaches to these three key areas, which essentially differentiate their products, while helping ensure their solutions are compatible with all other femtocell components.
“Femtocells could have a crucial role to play within LTE by providing users with the best possible user experience whether this is in the home, office or even outdoors in cities and rural areas,” said Alan Law, Chairman of the Femto Forum’s LTE SIG. “We are taking the lead in the LTE SIG in order to help ensure this vision becomes a reality. The publication of these APIs is an important first step.”
The publication of the LTE femtocell APIs comes at a time when major telecommunication manufacturers are ramping up their participation in the femtocell market due to increasing deployment activity. Together with the LTE femtocell specification encapsulated in 3GPP’s release 8 and 9, these APIs will help enable devices from different vendors to interoperate.
The API specifications are freely available from the Femto Forum’s website.
Alan Law, LTE and Innovative Product Manager, from Vodafone Group is the newly appointed chairman of the Femto Forum’s LTE SIG.
About The Femto Forum
Femtocells are low-power wireless access points that operate in licensed spectrum to connect standard mobile devices to a mobile operator’s network using residential DSL or cable broadband connections. The Femto Forum (www.femtoforum.org) has been set up to promote the wide-scale adoption of femtocells. It has over 130 members including over 55 operators representing 1.4 billion mobile subscribers – 27% of the global total. The Forum supports and drives the adoption of industry wide standards and common architectures to enable the widespread adoption & deployment of femtocells by operators around the world. It also directs and implements a multi-faceted marketing campaign to raise the profile, drives technology development & deployment and promotes the potential of femto solutions among industry stakeholders, journalists, analysts, regulators, special interest groups, standards bodies and consumers.
Media Contacts
Femto Forum:
Oliver Chapman
oliver@femtoforum.org
+ 44 (0) 7713 404 571
