Ubiquisys, a developer of 3G femtocells, is claiming to have become the first femtocell vendor to announce its commitment to the 3GPP's emerging Iuh interface, providing standardised communications between femtocells and the gateways in mobile operators' networks. Ubiquisys will support this interface in its products ready for the planned approval of Iuh in December 2008.
The 3GPP's work on Iuh for UMTS is part of the same drive as the Femto Forum's work to agree a modular architecture for all radio technologies, announced last week. The speed and momentum of these initiatives illustrates the growing demands from operators for a single standard network interface for femtocells.
This interface represents an important milestone in the full commercialisation of femtocells, because it allows operators to select devices independently from the network gateway. This opens the door to the proven efficiencies of multi-sourcing, and removes the costs associated with being locked into a proprietary interface. Ubiquisys took a modular approach to network integration from day one: its femtocell already supports both Iu-based RAN Gateway and IMS-based protocols for connection to mobile operators' networks. The remote upgrade of currently deployed femtocells is made possible because the Iuh standard is very similar to the current Ubiquisys RAN Gateway solution.
The commercial effectiveness of Iuh relies to some extent on parallel progress towards an agreed mechanism for femtocell Operations, Administration and Management (OA&M). The Femto Forum is in an ideal position to drive industry consensus on this subject, which Ubiquisys is fully supporting. Today, most operators deploying femtocells employ systems based on the DSL Forum's proven TR-069 standard.
"We are delighted that operators and vendors, working within the 3GPP and the Femto Forum, are reaching consensus over this commercially vital interface," said Will Franks, CTO and Founder, Ubiquisys. "We are proud to be the first femtocell vendor to commit to Iuh, as it confirms our founding vision of a healthy femtocell ecosystem based on open standards. We are working closely with our network partners and customers to ensure a clean and seamless migration to the Iuh standard without holding up any of the planned trials and commercial deployments."