Re: nano cell site [telecom]

through the cell company air network.

I don't know the specific details about how the "femtocell" base station which connects via a broadband internet connection works, but Robert Neville has done a good job at explaining the difference between this device and the cellular "boosters" (repeaters) which use a high gain antenna to provide a connection to the existing wireless cellular network.

I tried one of these repeater devices made by Zboost

because my home is poorly served by AT&T's wireless signal. (There are three AT&T towers nearby, but because of a strange quirk of geography and fate, my location is shielded from each by relatively a small rock out-cropping, dense forest, and the shadow of a hillside. For that reason, I am now using Verizon -- without the Zboost -- because it has one tower which is just high enough to provide a signal over the intervening hillside.)

Quoting from the Zboost manual:

(The full manual for this device is may be found online in PDF format at

)

Worth noting is that the Zboost does some clever stuff in choosing which frequencies to use so that it minimizes the likelihood that it will feedback its own signal. That means that if it is communicating with the local cell tower one channel, it will use a different channel to communicate with your handset. This gets even more interesting, because the Zboost will also try to confirm that the channel is available and not it use by your next door neighbor communicating directly with the cell tower -- something which would cause an obvious conflict.

It would seem that any "femtocell" device would need to do similar signal processing to assure that it was not stepping on a channel in use by another nearby femtocell device (say, your upstairs neighbor in an apartment building) or on a signal from the phone company's own cell towers in the area.

In other words, the problem of integrating femtocells into an existing cellular network is not trivial and is more complicated than just connecting a cordless phone base station to a VoIP interface device.

I'd also be curious to know if one can set up a femtocell device to recognize only one's own handset(s) or if the femtocell is promiscuous and available for use by anyone within its range. Specific situations might determine how one would want one's femtocell configured: to keep one's neighbors from using one's limited backhaul bandwidth or to allow friends to be able to make and receive calls using their own handsets when visiting.

Just some thoughts.

Regards, Will

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Posted 5 years ago by Will Roberts in General Telecommunications Forum

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