Alcatel-Lucent and Sagem to Jointly Develop 3G Femto Cell Base Stations

Alcatel-Lucent and France's Sagem say that they are collaborating on the commercial development of a3G femto cell base station platform. Based on Alcatel-Lucent's "flat IP (Internet Protocol)" architecture, the UMTS/HSPA BSR Femto flattens the mobile network by integrating and collapsing the UMTS/HSPA radio access network elements, including the base station and radio network controller (RNC), into a single, small unit about the size of a TV set-top box.

"The UMTS/HSPA BSR Femto offers significant advantages over competing solutions due to the fact that it combines all radio access functions into a single, compact device, eliminating the need to deploy additional RNCs," said Alain Biston, president of Alcatel-Lucent's W-CDMA activities.

"By taking advantage of Sagem Communications' expertise in the development of consumer electronics products to help package and manufacture the BSR Femto for mass market consumption, we will realize significant time to market and cost benefits," Biston added.

Through this collaboration, Alcatel-Lucent and Sagem Communications have already achieved significant milestones in the BSR Femto development effort, including the completion of voice and data calls, lab demonstrations with key customers and the establishment of a program of field trials (to be conducted in the fourth quarter of this year).

Under the collaboration agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will provide its flat IP and UMTS/HSPA expertise, networking equipment and software and end-to-end integration and support for the development of the BSR Femto. Sagem Communications will lend its enhanced home networking capabilities and expertise in developing IP, VoIP and DSL solutions for the mass market. The BSR Femto uses a DSL connection in a home or office building to backhaul voice and data traffic onto an operator's existing UMTS/HSPA network, enabling operators to offload traffic from the macro-network. It supports circuit-switched voice and data applications, packet-switched data applications, HSPA and IP-Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)-based networks. It also works with all 3GPP-compliant UMTS/HSPA handsets.

Two versions of the BSR Femto are planned for UMTS/HSPA networks -- a standalone 3G unit with Ethernet connectivity to a DSL modem and an integrated unit that supports UMTS/HSPA, DSL and WiFi. Alcatel-Lucent is also developing a CDMA/EV-DO based BSR Femto.

Posted to the site on 9th October 2007