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65-403: (Redirected from Generic Access ) Generic access may refer to: Generic Access Network Generic access profile Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Generic access . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to

130-558: A de facto base station inside their premises. As a result of being relatively close to the femtocell, the mobile phone (user equipment) expends significantly less power for communication with it, thus increasing battery life. They may also get better voice quality (via HD voice ) depending on a number of factors such as operator/network support, customer contract/price plan, phone and operating system support. Some carriers may also offer more attractive tariffs, for example discounted calls from home. Femtocells are an alternative way to deliver

195-399: A "microcell". AT&T uses "AT&T 3G MicroCell" as a trademark and not necessarily the "microcell" technology, however. Femtocells are sold or loaned by a mobile network operator (MNO) to its residential or enterprise customers. A femtocell is typically the size of a residential gateway or smaller, and connects to the user's broadband line. Integrated femtocells (which include both

260-455: A 2G connection and all GAN enabled devices are dual-mode 2G/Wi-Fi. The specification, though, defined support for multimode handset operation. Therefore, 3G/2G/Wi-Fi handsets are supported in the standard. The first 3G/UMA devices were announced in the second half of 2008. A typical UMA/GAN handset will have four modes of operation: In all cases, the handset scans for GSM cells when it first turns on, to determine its location area. This allows

325-469: A DSL router and femtocell) also exist. Once plugged in, the femtocell connects to the MNO's mobile network, and provides extra coverage. From a user's perspective, it is plug and play , there is no specific installation or technical knowledge required—anyone can install a femtocell at home. In most cases, the user must then declare which mobile phone numbers are allowed to connect to their femtocell, usually via

390-401: A country where it is not licensed. Some manufacturers are using GPS within the equipment to lock the femtocell when it is moved to a different country; this approach is disputed , as GPS is often unable to obtain position indoors because of weak signal. Access Point Base Stations are also required, since carrying voice calls, to provide a 911 (or 999 , 112 , etc. ) emergency service, as

455-407: A group of operator and vendor companies. The initial specifications were published on 2 September 2004. The companies then contributed the specifications to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as part of 3GPP work item "Generic Access to A/Gb interfaces". On 8 April 2005, 3GPP approved specifications for Generic Access to A/Gb interfaces for 3GPP Release 6 and renamed the system to GAN. But

520-616: A home or small business. A broader term which is more widespread in the industry is small cell , with femtocell as a subset. It typically connects to the service provider's network via the Internet through a wired broadband link (such as DSL or cable ); current designs typically support four to eight simultaneously active mobile phones in a residential setting depending on version number and femtocell hardware, and eight to sixteen mobile phones in enterprise settings. A femtocell allows service providers to extend service coverage indoors or at

585-423: A much better user experience by enabling substantially higher data rates than can be obtained with a macro network and net throughputs that will be ultimately limited by backhaul in most cases (over 20 Mbps in 5 MHz). Access point base stations, in common with all other public communications systems, are required to comply with lawful interception requirements in most countries. Other regulatory issues relate to

650-465: A network access point over the internet, rather than over-the-air using GSM / GPRS , UMTS or similar. A separate device known as a "GAN Controller" (GANC) receives this data from the Internet and feeds it into the phone network as if it were coming from an antenna on a tower. Calls can be placed from or received to the handset as if it were connected over-the-air directly to the GANC's point of presence ;

715-410: A one-off fee) when they complain to the operator regarding a poor or non-existent signal at their location. Operators who have launched a femtocell service include SFR , AT&T , C Spire , Sprint Nextel , Verizon , Zain , Mobile TeleSystems , T-Mobile US , Orange , Vodafone , EE , O2 , Three , and others. In 3GPP terminology, a Home NodeB (HNB) is a 3G femtocell. A Home eNodeB (HeNB)

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780-419: A problem. We have tested femtocells extensively in real customer deployments of many thousands of femtocells, and we find that the mitigation techniques implemented successfully minimise and avoid interference. The more femtocells you deploy, the more uplink interference is reduced. The Femto Forum has some extensive reports on this subject, which have been produced together with 3GPP and 3GPP2. To quote from

845-675: A small carrier at the Femtocells World Summit in London. Additional significant deployments within the United States were by Sprint Nextel , Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless . Sprint started in the third quarter of 2007 as a limited rollout ( Denver and Indianapolis ) of a home-based femtocell built by Samsung Electronics called the Sprint Airave that works with any Sprint handset. From 17 August 2008,

910-408: A web interface provided by the MNO. This needs to be done only once. When these mobile phones arrive under coverage of the femtocell, they switch over from the macrocell (outdoor) to the femtocell automatically. Most MNOs provide a way for the user to know this has happened, for example by having a different network name appear on the mobile phone. All communications will then automatically go through

975-417: Is an LTE 4G femtocell. Theoretically the range of a standard base station may be up to 35 kilometres (22 mi), and in practice could be 5–10 km (3–6 mi), a microcell is less than two kilometers (1 mile) wide, a picocell is 200 meters (218.72 yards) or less, and a femtocell is in the order of 10 meters (10.94 yards), although AT&T calls its product, with a range of 40 feet (12 m),

1040-431: Is named or VoWiFi by a number of handset manufacturers, including Apple and Samsung , a move that is being mirrored by carriers like T-Mobile US and Vodafone . The service is dependent on IMS, IPsec, IWLAN and ePDG . The original Release 6 GAN specification supported a 2G (A/Gb) connection from the GANC into the mobile core network (MSC/GSN). Today all commercial GAN dual-mode handset deployments are based on

1105-409: Is nearly always associated with dual-mode GSM/Wi-Fi services, it is actually a ‘generic’ access network technology that provides a generic method for extending the services and applications in an operator's mobile core (voice, data, IMS) over IP and the public Internet. GAN defines a secure, managed connection from the mobile core (GANC) to different devices/access points over IP. UMA was developed by

1170-438: Is net gain for the cellular carrier. However, the user must provide and pay for an internet connection to route the femtocell traffic, and then (usually) pay an additional one-off or monthly fee to the cellular carrier. Some have objected to the idea that consumers are being asked to pay to help relieve network shortcomings. On the other hand, residential femtocells normally provide a ‘personal cell’ which provides benefits only to

1235-525: Is not the first system to allow the use of unlicensed spectrum to connect handsets to a GSM network. The GIP/IWP standard for DECT provides similar functionality, but requires a more direct connection to the GSM network from the base station. While dual-mode DECT/GSM phones have appeared, these have generally been functionally cordless phones with a GSM handset built-in (or vice versa, depending on your point of view), rather than phones implementing DECT/GIP, due to

1300-458: Is nothing preventing an operator from deploying micro- and pico-cells that use towers that connect with the home network over the Internet. Several companies have developed femtocell systems that do precisely that, broadcasting a "real" GSM or UMTS signal, bypassing the need for special handsets that require 802.11 technology. In theory, such systems are more universal, and again require lower power than 802.11, but their legality will vary depending on

1365-438: Is the case for VoIP phone providers in some jurisdictions. This service must meet the same requirements for availability as current wired telephone systems, such as functioning during a power failure. There are several ways to achieve this, such as alternative power sources or fallback to existing telephone infrastructure. When using an Ethernet or ADSL home backhaul connection, an Access Point Base Station must either share

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1430-471: The IEEE 1588 time synchronisation standard may address the issue. Also, Network Time Protocol (NTP) is being pursued by some developers as a possible solution to provide frequency stability. Conventional (macrocell) base stations often use GPS timing for synchronization and this could be used, although there are concerns on cost and the difficulty of ensuring good GPS coverage. Standards bodies have recognized

1495-553: The Summary Paper — Summary of Findings : The simulations performed in the Femto Forum WG2 and 3GPP RAN4 encompass a wide spectrum of possible deployment scenarios including shared channel and dedicated channel deployments. In addition, the studies looked at the impact in different morphologies, as well as in closed versus open access. The following are broad conclusions from the studies: The conclusions are common to

1560-413: The radio frequency signal with a high degree of precision. To do this over a long period of time is a major technical challenge. The solution to this problem is to use an external, accurate signal to constantly calibrate the oscillator to ensure it maintains its accuracy. This is not simple (broadband backhaul introduces issues of network jitter/wander and recovered clock accuracy), but technologies such as

1625-408: The 850 MHz and 2100 MHz bands that were simulated in the studies, and can be extrapolated to other mobile bands. With interference mitigation techniques successfully implemented, simulations show that femtocell deployments can enable very high capacity networks by providing between a 10 and 100 times increase in capacity with minimal deadzone impact and acceptable noise rise. Femtocells can also create

1690-569: The Airave was rolled out on a nationwide basis. Other operators in the United States have followed suit. In January 2009, Verizon rolled out its Wireless Network Extender, based on the same design as the Sprint/Samsung system. In late March 2010, AT&T announced nationwide roll-out of its 3G MicroCell, which commenced in April. The equipment is made by Cisco Systems and ip.access , and was

1755-692: The Femto Forum and ETSI conducted the first Plugfest to promote interoperability of the Iuh standard. The CDMA2000 standard released in March 2010 differs slightly by adopting the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to set up a connection between the femtocell and a femtocell convergence server (FCS). Voice calls are routed through the FCS which emulates an MSC. SIP is not required or used by

1820-526: The GAN system works over the internet, a UMA-capable handset can connect to its service provider from any location with internet access. This is particularly useful for travellers, who can connect to their provider's GANC and make calls into their home service area from anywhere in the world. This is subject to the quality of the internet connection, however, and may not work well over limited bandwidth or long-latency connection. To improve quality of service (QoS) in

1885-464: The MNO allows femtocells to operate in a different location depends on the MNO's policy. International location change of a femtocell is not permitted because the femtocell transmits licensed frequencies which belong to different network operators in different countries. The main benefits for an end user are the following: Femtocells can be used to give coverage in rural areas. The standards bodies have published formal specifications for femtocells for

1950-983: The UK initially on the Nokia Lumia 640 and Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge handsets. In March 2016, Vodafone Netherlands launched Wi-Fi Calling support along with VoLTE . Since the Autumn of 2016, Wifi Calling / Voice over Wifi has been available for customers of Telenor Denmark, including the ability to do handover to and from the 4G (VoLTE) network. This is available for several Samsung and Apple handsets. AT&T and Verizon are going to launch Wi-Fi calling in 2015. Industry organisation UMA Today tracks all operator activities and handset development. In September 2015, South African cellular network Cell C launched WiFi Calling on its South African network. In November 2024, Belgian cellular network Voo launched WiFi Calling on its Belgian network. GAN/UMA

2015-596: The UK. The announcement, the largest to date, covers more than 60m of Orange's mobile subscribers in the UK, France, Poland, Spain and the Netherlands. Cincinnati Bell announced the first UMA deployment in the United States. The service, originally called CB Home Run, allows users to transfer seamlessly from the Cincinnati Bell cellular network to a home wireless network or to Cincinnati Bell's WiFi HotSpots. It has since been rebranded as Fusion WiFi. This

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2080-415: The backhaul bandwidth with other services, such as Internet browsing, gaming consoles, set-top boxes and triple-play equipment in general, or alternatively directly replace these functions within an integrated unit. In shared-bandwidth approaches, which are the majority of designs currently being developed, the effect on quality of service may be an issue. The uptake of femtocell services will depend on

2145-501: The benefits of fixed–mobile convergence (FMC). The distinction is that most FMC architectures require a new dual-mode handset which works with existing unlicensed spectrum home/enterprise wireless access points , while a femtocell-based deployment will work with existing handsets but requires the installation of a new access point that uses licensed spectrum. Many operators worldwide offer a femtocell service, mainly targeted at businesses but also offered to individual customers (often for

2210-444: The carrier to route the call to the nearest GANC, set the correct rate plan, and comply with existing roaming agreements. At the end of 2007, the GAN specification was enhanced to support 3G (Iu) interfaces from the GANC to the mobile core network (MSC/GSN). This native 3G interface can be used for dual-mode handset as well as 3G femtocell service delivery. The GAN release 8 documentation describes these new capabilities. While UMA

2275-406: The cell edge, especially where access would otherwise be limited or unavailable. Although much attention is focused on WCDMA , the concept is applicable to all standards, including GSM , CDMA2000 , TD-SCDMA , WiMAX and LTE solutions. The use of femtocells allows network coverage in places where the signal to the main network cells might be too weak. Furthermore, femtocells lower contention on

2340-516: The challenge of this and the implications on device cost. For example, 3GPP has relaxed the 50ppb parts per billion precision to 100ppb for indoor base stations in Release 6 and a further loosening to 250ppb for Home Node B in Release 8. At the 2013 Black Hat hacker conference in Las Vegas, NV, a trio of security researchers detailed their ability to use a Verizon femtocell to secretly intercept

2405-569: The commercial focus seems to have been on the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), the concept is equally applicable to all air-interfaces. Indeed, the first commercial deployment was the CDMA2000 Airave in 2007 by Sprint. Femtocells are also under development or commercially available for GSM , TD-SCDMA , WiMAX and LTE . The H(e)NB functionality and interfaces are basically

2470-576: The common WCDMA femtocells, this is defined as the Iuh interface. In the Iuh architecture, the femtocell gateway sits between the femtocell and the core network and performs the necessary translations to ensure the femtocells appear as a radio network controller to existing mobile switching centres (MSCs). Each femtocell talks to the femtocell gateway and femtocell gateways talk to the Core Network Elements (CNE) (MSC for circuit-switched calls, SGSN for packet-switched calls). This model

2535-426: The end of 2010. Research firm Berg Insight estimates that the shipments will grow to 12 million units worldwide in 2014. Within the United States, Cellcom (Wisconsin), was the first CDMA carrier in the U.S. to be a member of the non-profit organization founded in 2007 to promote worldwide femtocell deployment. In 2009, Cellcom received the first Femtocell Industry Award for significant progress or commercial launch by

2600-447: The femtocell to intercept the messages. They also demonstrated it was possible to "clone" a cell phone that runs on a CDMA network by remotely collecting its device ID number through the femtocell, in spite of added security measures to prevent against cloning of CDMA phones. The impact of a femtocell is most often to improve cellular coverage, without the cellular carrier needing to improve their infrastructure (cell towers, etc.). This

2665-399: The femtocell. When the user leaves the femtocell coverage (whether in a call or not) area, their phone hands over seamlessly to the macro network. Femtocells require specific hardware, so existing WiFi or DSL routers cannot be upgraded to a femtocell. Once installed in a specific location, most femtocells have protection mechanisms so that a location change will be reported to the MNO. Whether

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2730-608: The first 3G femtocell in US, supporting both voice and data HSPA . Both Sprint and Verizon upgraded to 3G CDMA femtocells during 2010, with capacity for more concurrent calls and much higher data rates. In November 2015, T-Mobile US began deployment of 4G LTE femtocells manufactured by Alcatel Lucent . In Asia, several service providers have rolled out femtocell networks. In Japan, SoftBank launched its residential 3G femtocell service in January 2009 with devices provided by Ubiquisys. In

2795-592: The home or office, some providers also supply a specially programmed wireless access point that prioritizes UMA packets. Another benefit of Wi-Fi calling is that mobile calls can be made through the internet using the same native calling client; it does not require third-party Voice over IP (VoIP) closed services like WhatsApp or Skype , relying instead on the mobile cellular operator. The GAN protocol that extends mobile voice, data and multimedia ( IP Multimedia Subsystem / Session Initiation Protocol (IMS/SIP)) applications over IP networks. The latest generation system

2860-452: The home or workplace. Hence, the effects of any third-party ISP broadband network issues or traffic management policies need to be very closely monitored and the ramifications quickly communicated to subscribers. A key issue recently identified is active traffic shaping by many ISPs on the underlying transport protocol IPSec . To meet Federal Communications Commission (FCC) / Ofcom spectrum mask requirements, femtocells must generate

2925-413: The intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Generic_access&oldid=932839715 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Generic Access Network Essentially, GAN/UMA allows cell phone packets to be forwarded to

2990-521: The jurisdiction, and will require the cooperation of the operator. Further, users may be charged at higher cell phone rates, even though they are paying for the DSL or other network that ultimately carries their traffic; in contrast, GAN/UMA providers charge reduced rates when making calls off the providers cellular phone network. Femtocell In telecommunications , a femtocell is a small, low-power cellular base station , typically designed for use in

3055-404: The lack of suitable infrastructure to hook DECT base-stations supporting GIP to GSM networks on an ad-hoc basis. GAN/UMA's ability to use the Internet to provide the "last mile" connection to the GSM network solves the major issue that DECT/GIP has faced. Had GIP emerged as a practical standard, the low power usage of DECT technology when idle would have been an advantage compared to GAN. There

3120-415: The main network cells, by forming a connection from the end user, through an internet connection, to the operator's private network infrastructure elsewhere. The lowering of contention to the main cells plays a part in breathing , where connections are offloaded based on physical distance to cell towers. Consumers and small businesses benefit from greatly improved coverage and signal strength since they have

3185-581: The mobile device itself. In the SIP architecture, the femtocell connects to a core network of the mobile operator that is based on the SIP/IMS architecture. This is achieved by having the femtocells behave toward the SIP/IMS network like a SIP/IMS client by converting the circuit-switched 3G signaling to SIP/IMS signaling, and by transporting the voice traffic over RTP as defined in the IETF standards. Although much of

3250-509: The mobile operator. According to market research firm Informa and the Femto Forum, as of December 2010 18 operators have launched commercial femtocell services, with a total of 30 committed to deployment. At the end of 2011, femtocell shipments had reached roughly 2 million units deployed annually, and the market is expected to grow rapidly with distinct segments for consumer, enterprise, and carrier-grade femtocell deployments. Femtocell shipments are estimated to have reached almost 2 million at

3315-413: The most popular technologies, namely WCDMA , CDMA2000 , LTE and WiMAX . These all broadly conform to an architecture with three major elements: The key interface in these architectures is that between the femtocell access points and the femtocell gateway. Standardisation enables a wider choice of femtocell products to be used with any gateway, increasing competitive pressure and driving costs down. For

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3380-470: The owner's family and friends. The difference is also that while mobile coverage is provided through subscriptions from an operator with one business model, a fixed fibre or cable may work with a completely different business model. For example, mobile operators may imply restrictions on services which an operator on a fixed may not. Also, WiFi connects to a local network such as home servers and media players. This network should possibly not be within reach of

3445-404: The reliability and quality of both the cellular operator's network and the third-party broadband connection, and the broadband connection's subscriber understanding the concept of bandwidth utilization by different applications a subscriber may use. When things go wrong, subscribers will turn to cellular operators for support even if the root cause of the problem lies with the broadband connection to

3510-421: The requirement in most countries for the operator of a network to be able to show exactly where each base-station is located, and for E911 requirements to provide the registered location of the equipment to the emergency services. There are issues in this regard for access point base stations sold to consumers for home installation, for example. Further, a consumer might try to carry their base station with them to

3575-415: The same as for regular High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) or LTE base stations except few additional functions. The differences are mostly to support differences in access control to support closed access for residential deployment or open access for enterprise deployment, as well as handover functionality for active subscribers and cell selection procedures for idle subscribers. For LTE additional functionality

3640-456: The same year, the operator launched a project to deploy femtocells to deliver outdoor services in rural environments where existing coverage is limited. In May 2010, SoftBank Mobile launched the first free femtocell offer, providing open access femtocells free of charge to its residential and business customers. In Singapore, Starhub rolled out its first nationwide commercial 3G femtocell services with devices provided by Huawei Technologies , though

3705-402: The system is essentially invisible to the network as a whole. This can be useful in locations with poor cell coverage where some other form of internet access is available, especially at the home or office. The system offers seamless handoff , so the user can move from cell to Wi-Fi and back again with the same invisibility that the cell network offers when moving from tower to tower. Since

3770-443: The term GAN is little known outside the 3GPP community, and the term UMA is more common in marketing. For carriers: For subscribers: The first service launch was BT with BT Fusion in the autumn of 2005. The service is based on pre-3GPP GAN standard technology. Initially, BT Fusion used UMA over Bluetooth with phones from Motorola . From January 2007, it used UMA over 802.11 with phones from Nokia, Motorola and Samsung and

3835-932: The uptake is low, while Singtel's offering is targeted at small medium enterprises. In 2009, China Unicom announced its own femtocell network. NTT DoCoMo in Japan launched their own femtocell service on 10 November 2009. In July 2009, Vodafone released the first femtocell network in Europe, the Vodafone Access Gateway provided by Alcatel-Lucent. This was rebranded as SureSignal in January 2010, after which Vodafone also launched service in Spain, Greece, New Zealand, Italy, Ireland, Hungary and The Netherlands. Other operators in Europe have followed since then. From 2019 onwards, all 3 French carriers still proposing Femtocell retired their offering, focusing instead on using

3900-448: The voice calls, data, and SMS text messages of any handset that connects to the device. During a demonstration of their exploit, they showed how they could begin recording audio from a cell phone even before the call began. The recording included both sides of the conversation. They also demonstrated how it could trick Apple's iMessage–which encrypts texts sent over its network using SSL to render them unreadable to snoopers, to SMS—allowing

3965-718: Was added in 3GPP Release 9 which is summarized in. The placement of a femtocell has a critical effect on the performance of the wider network, and this is the key issue to be addressed for successful deployment. Because femtocells can use the same frequency bands as the conventional cellular network, there has been the worry that rather than improving the situation they could potentially cause problems. Femtocells incorporate interference mitigation techniques—detecting macrocells, adjusting power and scrambling codes accordingly. Ralph de la Vega, AT&T President, reported in June 2011 they recommended against using femtocells where signal strength

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4030-469: Was branded as a "Wi-Fi mobile service". BT has since discontinued the service. On August 28, 2006, TeliaSonera was the first to launch an 802.11 based UMA service called "Home Free". The service started in Denmark but is no longer offered. On September 25, 2006 Orange announced its "Unik service", also known as Signal Boost in the UK. However this service is no longer available to new customers in

4095-734: Was followed shortly by T-Mobile US on June 27, 2007. T-Mobile's service, originally named "Hotspot Calling", and rebranded to "Wi-Fi Calling" in 2009, allows users to seamlessly transfer from the T-Mobile cellular network to an 802.11x wireless network or T-Mobile HotSpot in the United States. In Canada, both Fido and Rogers Wireless launched UMA plans under the names UNO and Rogers Home Calling Zone (later rebranded Talkspot, and subsequently rebranded again as Wi-Fi Calling), respectively, on May 6, 2008. In Australia, GAN has been implemented by Vodafone, Optus and Telstra. Since 10 April 2015, Wi-Fi Calling has been available for customers of EE in

4160-512: Was middle or strong because of interference problems they discovered after widescale deployment. This differs from previous opinions expressed by AT&T and others. A good example is the comments made by Gordon Mansfield, executive director of RAN Delivery, AT&T, speaking at the Femtozone at CTIA March 2010: We have deployed femtocells co-carrier with both the hopping channels for GSM macrocells and with UMTS macrocells. Interference isn't

4225-642: Was proposed by 3GPP and the Femto Forum. New protocols ( HNBAP and RUA [RANAP User Adaptation]) have been derived; HNBAP is used for the control signaling between the HNB and HNB-GW while RUA is a lightweight mechanism to replace the Signalling Connection Control Part (SCCP) and M3UA protocols in the Radio Network Controller (RNC); its primary function is transparent transfer of RANAP messages. In March 2010,

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