Femtocell
A femtocell (English femto cell) is a radio cell with minimal spatial extent. It is a small transmitting and receiving station that comes in relatively small, some private areas, such as in their own homes or individual rooms within buildings, used and expanded the power of the respective mobile service provider.
Femtocells are used inter alia in the following wireless networks:
- Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS ) to the area of data and voice communications.
- CDMA2000, primarily in the North American region.
- WiMAX or 3GPP Long Term Evolution ( LTE) wireless data transmission
The use is possible with each subscriber unit, the appropriate standard is supported. The benefits of femtocells lies in the development of radio technology difficult accessible places, but especially in the capacity expansion in already -served areas. Often femtocells are installed in stores of mobile operators around the power supply to produce or improve for the purpose of demonstration of offered devices.
Femtocells may be (CSG -open femto cell / open access femto cell) or a closed user group (CSG -closed femto cell / closed access femto cell) Subject to the General Terms available.
The femtocell is additionally involved in public mobile communications networks, so that a seamless handover of connections between the cell and neighboring cells occurs. The connection to the core network of the mobile operator via a private broadband internet connection. The femtocell is doing ( usually in the form of a DSL modem ) connected wired to the Private Internet Gateway. The data transmission between the femtocell and the core network is encrypted.
Since the connection to the core network of the mobile operator via existing private broadband connections (usually ADSL ) is accomplished, the UMTS provider saves the cost of leased lines, which he could pass on to the customer.
Products
Since August 2007, the following companies have announced products for home
- Alcatel- Lucent
- Ericsson
- Ip.access Oyster 3G ( HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, among others )
- Ubiquisys: Zone Gate
- NEC Germany (in cooperation with Ubiquisys )
- Nokia Siemens Networks (in cooperation with Airvana )
- Mobilkom Austria announces the expansion in the second quarter of 2009 of the UMTS / HSDPA network with up to 28 Mbit / s, with the support of femtocells.
- Tecom
- Vodafone Sure Signal 3G ( offered in UK and now also in Germany under the name Super Signal)
- Vodafone GmbH: Vodafone Sure Signal in Germany ( since August 2012 for business customers only )
- Telefónica Germany GmbH: Signal Box Signal Box S and M ( since May, 2013, for business customers only )
- Sunrise Switzerland offers since May 2011 for business customers this service. Since February 2014 for private customers free of charge.
Hacker attack
In the UK, Vodafone UK has emerged a huge security issue for 2010 by the femtocell technology. Hackers of the group The Hacker's Choice ( THC) has succeeded by femtocells, Vodafone UK sells under the name " Sure Signal", the network of Vodafone UK to crack. So it is now possible to make calls at the expense of a victim or his caller ID instead of your own to send out. Likewise, there is now a course in a position to listen and to receive his SMS voicemail of the user. The worst, however predominates that it would be an operator of a hacked femtocell possible, all telephone calls are routed via "his" power to eavesdrop or record them. In this case, these users abusing the technology of the femtocell. This fact provides as described above, to extend the wireless network of a provider through its own small cells. The traffic of the mobile user is running then of course entirely to its own port ( femtocell Box & ADSL line ), which in cracked encryption eavesdropping is easily possible. So it is abused the basically "good" idea of the femtocell. The problem was solved with the help of a security patch.
The now introduced in Germany version of the femtocell based on the hardware from another manufacturer and was examined by multi-level security audits and penetration tests by various external security provider.
Picocells
Private base stations, pico cells already exist in the business customer segment for better mobile coverage in large buildings.
Naming
The prefix femto is a SI prefix meaning trillionth of.