More details on NTT Docomo's Xi Femtocell

Japanese operator, NTT Docomo recently published some more details about its Xi Femtocell service. The Femtocell is a dual mode LTE-WCDMA femtocell. WCDMA is mainly used as a CS Fallback option when used with LTE device. In this case if the WCDMA part stops working for some reason then depending on the macro availability, it may hand the UE back to Macro or just keep using the LTE only service.

I could not completely figure out but it also looks like the Femtocell operates in co-channel with the Macro. During the power on, SON algorithms device the codes, the power of the femtocell, etc.

The complete article is embedded below:

W-CDMA/LTE dual-mode Ultra-compact Base Station (Xi Femtocell) from Zahid Ghadialy

Building a Sustainable HetNet - Telus, Canada

Came across this interesting presentation from the LTE World Summit 2013, one from Telus in Canada. The presentation is embedded below but here are couple of things that caught my attention:

One of the issues which is now becoming universal is the need to negotiate with the municipalities and local councils for the right to lamp posts and other street furniture. I blogged this earlier as well with regards to a presentation by EE here. This also encourages for a third party to provide small cells hosting as a service (SCaaS)

Metrocell Q&A: Dedicated or Shared carrier?

From Alcatel-Lucent techzine:

SHOULD I USE DEDICATED OR SHARED CARRIER?

While both dedicated and shared carrier solutions can be built, a selective dedicated carrier is always preferred over shared carrier for metro cell deployments, especially in outdoor environments where macro cell signal levels will be higher (Figure 6):

• With dedicated carrier, the MNO reserves a carrier for the exclusive use of metro cells in geographies that have been specifically targeted as needing extra capacity. In all other areas this same carrier may be used by macro cells. The use of a dedicated carrier avoids interference with the macro cell, which enables metro cells to cover wider areas and to absorb a larger amount of traffic off the macro network – greatly improving the TCO.