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Written by David Chambers
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Tuesday, 07 October 2008 19:38 |
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 Self-installation is all the rage now. Broadband internet, TV, cordless
phones, computers...... all "plug and play". Instead of sending a technician round to your home
to install, setup and configure the equipment, its simply delivered to
your door or collected from the shop. This has enabled dramatically
reduced prices and rapid growth in these markets.
The cable industry is
still somewhat different, sending a technician out to install your
set-top box even when you've just taken moved in and are reconnecting
to the same cable service.
Femtocells are very much in the former category, being designed for
self installation to keep costs down and we can expect this approach to
work in at least 90% of cases.
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Written by David Chambers
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Friday, 19 September 2008 07:53 |
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I
used to run a Linux box with a webserver on it from home. It helped me understand aspects of
setting up and maintaining a server and some of the issues associated with
them.
I was shocked when I looked through the access log report - the
sheer volume of continuous exploits trying to bypass security (at that
time mainly Windows server issues) was
enormous. I've heard it said that any unprotected PC can be attacked
within a
minute, so that installing the original Windows XP (without Service
Pack 2 or 3
preintegrated) is virtually impossible to do because by the time you've
downloaded the latest security patches, your system will already have
been
infected.
So its a nasty, harsh environment to work in. What can operators do to protect both their own
networks and their customers femtocells from attack?
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Written by David Chambers
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Sunday, 07 September 2008 20:53 |
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 Early marketing promotion of femtocells highlighted their compatibility with existing 3G mobile phones. Unlike home access points which use WiFi, femtocells would not require the user to change their phone, and choose from a limited range of capable devices limited range of capable devices.
But is this still the case? |
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Written by David Chambers
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Sunday, 07 September 2008 20:08 |
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 I came across the OpenBTS project which is building a GSM basestation using Open Source software and hardware. Call processing is handled using the popular Open Source Asterisk PBX, with lower protocol layers written from the 3GPP specs. Open source hardware from the USRP project provides a software programmable radio solution – the hardware kit costs $700. Prototypes have been tested (with appropriate spectrum test licences from the FCC) and calls have been made. There’s no obvious technical reason why this project couldn’t be embedded into a PC or linux server.
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Written by David Chambers
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Wednesday, 30 July 2008 21:42 |
 The traditional GSM/UMTS cellular operators have mandated that femtocells connect directly to existing core network elements using a standard Iu interface. This allows seamless handover between femtocells and existing 2G/3G cellular networks, with the same services, phone numbers and ease of use that we are all used to. It is also compatible with existing mobile phones - no changes or upgrades are required. |
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