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Femtocells and picocells are likely to form an integrated part of initial rollouts of LTE (long term evolution) networks, ABI Research reports. These cellular mini-base stations, featuring improved indoor wireless coverage, reportedly have been generating considerable interest in mobile wireless markets.

ABI senior analyst Nadine Manjaro expects LTE deployment to boost cellular equipment shipments and revenues. “In most parts of the world, LTE will be deployed using higher frequency bands,” Manjaro explains. “Higher frequencies penetrate structures less effectively than low frequencies, so femtocells and picocells offer an attractive way to compensate for lower indoor signal strength and provide LTE’s touted bandwidth. Our forecasts show an upswing in femtocell and picocell penetration that coincides with the expected LTE deployment timeframe.”

In Europe and other regions, LTE will operate in the 2.6 GHz band, although in the US it will largely be found in 700 MHz range, forecasts ABI. In China, TD-LTE will most likely be deployed in the 1880-1920 MHz and 2010-2025 MHz bands, so the need for femtocells may be considered less pressing in those areas.

In contrast to other 3G technologies that preceded the introduction of femtocells, when LTE arrives these products will have been available for some time, and will be included in the original planned LTE architecture, continues Manjaro. “We will see some macro network deployment of LTE, but not to the same extent that we saw with previous technologies. I think a large portion of it will deployed via femto and picocells alone, with macro deployments following later.”

Some observers even suggest that all LTE deployments will initially use femtocells alone, Manjaro adds.

According to ABI’s analysis, many manufacturers, such as Alcatel-Lucent and Motorola, are supporting a new interface — “Iu-h” — in the LTE architecture, which incorporates femtocells and femto gateways. Others such as picoChip, mimoON and Agilent are partnering on femtocell design and testing with LTE architecture.

ABI notes that there is a lot of buzz around LTE, for very good reasons: it seems to have the strength of the industry behind it. Although LTE’s MAC and upper layers remain to be finalized, chipsets, infrastructure, and devices are being developed for commercial launch in 2010.

According to ABI, the LTE standard is driven by operators, which is the key differentiator between it and preceding wireless technologies. CDMA operators and Asian operators that are early adopters will be the first to launch LTE, whereas existing UMTS operators will probably delay launch to extend the life of their existing HSPA networks and simplify the upgrade to LTE by slowly evolving their current architectures.

ABI’s new study, entitled “Long Term Evolution (LTE),” charts the LTE timeline, operators’ strategies, and migration plans. It discusses IPR, backhaul, and security; includes forecasts for subscribers, base stations, and femtocells; and lists planned LTE trials and deployments.

Further information about this study may be found here.

[This research brief is copyright © 2008 ABI Research. All rights reserved. Reproduced by DeviceGuru.com with permission.]