07 July 2010
Roke Manor develops wide area femtocell
Using picoChip's technology as a development platform, Roke Manor Research has created a femtocell which has up to 40,000 times the area covered by competitive devices. Alongside its wide area coverage, the femtocell also connectivity from vehicles moving at up to 120km/hr.
Roke believes its solution could be used to cost effectively serve sparsely populated rural areas that are conventionally thought of as uneconomic, or to quickly deploy cellular coverage.
The Wide Area Coverage Femtocell requires minimum infrastructure and, with significantly lower power consumption, is said to be a cost effective option for network operators. It supports up to 12 simultaneous users, with Release 5 HSDPA, and a software upgrade to Release 6 HSUPA. Roke has also developed custom firmware enhancements to picoChip's PC8208 femtocell solution.
Prasid Shah, business sector manager with Roke, said: "Previously, the best range femtocell technology could deliver was 2km, useful for wireless services on a campus, but uneconomic for network operators that would have to deploy large numbers in order to fill signal 'black holes' in the countryside.
"We are delighted that our team has worked successfully with picoChip to build on its femtocell platform and to develop a technology that enables wholly new types of cellular communications service."
Author
Graham Pitcher
Supporting Information
Websites
http://www.picochip.com
http://www.roke.co.uk
Companies
Picochip Designs Ltd
Roke Manor Research Ltd
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