CTIA: Vendors collaborate on LTE picocells, femtocells

The first long-term evolution macrocells haven’t yet gone live in the US, but vendors are already hard at work on the pico- and femtocells that will eventually augment those wide-area 4G networks. Today AirWalk Communications, Mindspeed (NASDAQ:MSPD) and Aricent said they have collaborated to create a proof-of-concept LTE picocell, which they plan to show off at CTIA Wireless next week.

Using Mindspeed silicon and Aricent software, AirWalk built the prototype picocell and plans to utilize its two partners’ expertise in designing a future LTE femtocell. However, it doesn’t plan to start offering a commercial LTE pico until next year with its femto product following sometime after.

Picocells are designed to add additional capacity to hotspot areas as well as fill in areas the macro-network misses indoors or in dead zones in the outdoor network. But picocells usefulness in the LTE network may be dwindling as distributed antenna and radio technologies start to gain more ground. Distributed antenna system (DAS) maker ADC (NYSE:ADC) and DAS integrator NextG Networks have both reported a sizable increase in interest in distributed architectures from US wireless operators driven by new LTE deployments.

Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) in particular is aggressively pursuing DAS to augment indoor coverage, according to ADC vice president of product management John Spindler. Meanwhile all of the wireless operators are facing increase resistance to new cell site deployments from zoning boards and permit authorities, forcing them to look for less obtrusive ways of deploying outdoor networks, said Bo Piekarski, NextG vice president of product management and marketing. NextG, which secures right-of-way and builds fiber networks for distributed cellular rollouts, built whole urban networks for Leap Wireless (NASDAQ:LEAP) and MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS) using DAS system and is in detailed discussions with AT&T and Verizon about deploying outdoor DAS systems in their future LTE networks, Piekarski said.

Unlike DAS systems, which allow operators to install their base stations far remotely from their antennas, picocells act as miniature self-contained cell sites, incorporating radio and baseband into the same compact unit. The major vendors, however, have been developing their own alternatives to both DAS and picocells, splitting their base stations into remote radio and baseband units. Vendors have come close to perfecting those designed, and many operators are now beginning to deploy remote radio head architectures for 4G, while ‘hoteling’ their base stations in a single site, Piekarski said.

On the femto front, AirWalk might have a much bigger market. While picocells add coverage to the wide area network, femtos create what amounts to a private network for a home or business. As data usage surges, the Femto Forum is projecting that femtocells will become a key component in offloading traffic off of the macro network.