IEEE 1st International Workshop on Femtocell Networks (FEMnet) 2010

Conventional cellular architectures are designed to provide coverage over large areas and support many users. Unfortunately, the conventional cellular architecture has yet to provide the expected throughputs at the cell edge, where users are far from the base station and experience significant interference. This problem is most acute on the uplink, due to constraints on the transmit power of the mobile devices and deployment of aggressive frequency reuse. Another limitation of the macrocell approach is the poor indoor penetration and the presence of dead-spots due to shadowing. Femtocells, small cellular access points in residential homes and offices, are one solution to the problem of improving area spectral efficiency in cellular systems. Femtocell networks can potentially improve spatial reuse by allowing future cellular systems to achieve data-rates comparable to wireless local area networks while retaining the seamless connectivity and mobility of cellular networks.