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Femto Forum publishes API specification for femtocell apps, places focus on 'awareness information'
As if the world needed one more association to keep up with, CTIA Wireless 2011 is delivering just that. The Femto Forum, which has done an excellent job remaining undercover of late, has just published an "industry-wide agreed set of API specifications" that will enable "advanced mobile applications based on femtocell technology." Truth be told, the first apps based on the specifications have already been built, and their currently available to the femtocell community. The specifications are for network-based APIs, which will purportedly "allow operators to drive the development of femtocell-powered open access, enterprise and consumer applications," and it'll also provide awareness information in order to allow developers the opportunity to incorporate enhanced presence, context and location-sensitive features into new and existing apps. Granted, we'd care a lot more about those location-based apps if we could drag our 3G MicroCell to Panama to use it to make free calls whilst on vacation, but hey -- maybe that's the next logical step. Not that we're much for passing along hints or anything.
3GPP publishes world's first femtocell standard
With femtocells slowly but surely making their way out to the major US operators, we'd say it's about time we got a handle on what exactly these things are comprised of. This week, the world's first femtocell standard has been published by the 3GPP, which will supposedly "pave the way for standardized femtocells to be produced in large volumes and enable interoperability between different vendors' access points and femto gateways." The new protocol covers a foursome of areas: network architecture; radio & interference aspects; femtocell management / provisioning and security. For those unaware, a femtocell is a small box that essentially acts as a mini cell tower within the home, piping cellphone signals through the internet and providing great signal in areas where it was previously a struggle to nab a single bar. Now, if only we could get a few of these things in carrier-agnostic form, we'd be set.[Via PCWorld]
Having yet to make a 3G impact, femtocell makers already looking to 4G
We're still waiting for our little ol' 3G femtocell around these parts; only Sprint has put any serious effort into bringing a unit to market with its Airave from Samsung, but even they're restricting it to just a couple markets at this point (lame). Be that as it may, the Femto Forum -- an industry group promoting the tech -- is already pushing ahead into the LTE and WiMAX realms with the hope of being "ready from day one." To that end, it has teamed up with the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance to make sure everyone's on the same page about how femtocells can and should be use in 4G networks. That's all well and good, and we're definitely glad these guys are on top of things, but can we just pause for one hot second and get a few more 3G cells in customers' hands, please?
