Femtocells are small, user-installed base stations that enhance coverage for in-building cellular services. The new paradigm introduced by femtocells also brings unique challenges, namely (i) unplanned deployment, (ii) user-installation, (iii) restricted access, and (iv) inter-operability with existing handsets and infrastructure. 

This paper describes the impact of these challenges on different deployment aspects such as interference management, mobility management, and self-configuration. Potential solutions to address the challenges are subsequently discussed. In addition, the standardized femtocell architectures for the UMTS and cdma2000 families of access technologies are introduced and compared.

Download paper