16 Nov 2009

Node-H Shows 16 Calls, 14Mbps and Iu-h Interface at Femtocells Americas in San Diego

Node-H is showing its femtocell software supporting up to 16 voice or video calls and 14 Mbps of high speed data at the Femtocells Americas conference in San Diego. Node-H is the first independent software vendor to be able to support these features.

Coronado, CA (PRWEB) November 16, 2009 – Node-H is showing 16 simultaneous calls and 14Mbps high speed data on a femtocell using its protocol software at the Femtocells Americas conference in San Diego. The femtocell is based on the Percello PRC6500 femtocell SoC (System on a Chip). The femtocell interface is implemented according to the new Iu-h interface specified by the 3GPP for Home Node-B devices.

Femtocells until now have typically supported 4 calls and data rates in the low Mbps range. The performance achieved by Node-H far exceeds this and is considered by carriers to be sufficient for many years to come.

“There is still serious interoperability testing ahead before the carriers can pull the trigger on massive Iu-h rollout, but from this point on it is just a matter of hard work. There are no technical or business ‘gotchas’ lying in wait”, said Mike Cronin, CEO of Node-H. “Companies in the femtocell industry need to co-operate closely over the coming months to realize the goal of the Femto Forum to enable the widespread adoption and deployment of femtocells by telecom operators around the world.”

The femtocell is demonstrated using Node-H’s core network and gateway simulator. The interface between the femtocell and the core network and gateway simulator is fully compliant with the 3GPP Iu-h standard.

Node-H provides the simulation and analysis tools to its licensees to allow them to economically test and demonstrate their femtocell and residential gateway devices.

The core network simulator contains an integrated gateway which can route circuit and packet switched calls to the internet. It can route calls either locally within the network or to the public network. Users experience the quality of a femtocell on a call to a PSTN or mobile phone anywhere in the world.

"Our service aware QoS system design allows all the performance to be extracted from the available hardware", says Eric Mrozinski, Customer Engineering Manager of Node-H. "As a result we can maintain 15 circuit switched calls whilst achieving concurrent data transfers of 8Mbps."

Demonstrations of Node-H femtocell features can be viewed at the Node-H website http://www.node-h.com/showcase.html.

A femtocell is a tiny cellular access point, suitable for the home or office. It connects to the operator’s network through a broadband connection. The operator can offer improved coverage and capacity indoors as well as offloading capacity from the expensive macro network. Consumers will benefit from excellent mobile coverage indoors, additional services and bandwidth as though they had the whole network to themselves.

Femtocell manufacturers are under pressure from operators to speed up the roll-out of low-cost femtocells. Silicon and pre-integrated software allows them to accelerate their time-to-market. Specialized software companies like Node-H allow new entrants to enter the femtocell space more easily.

About Node-H GmbH

Node-H GmbH is a pure-play 3GPP femtocell protocol software company. The company’s portable Iu-H based protocol software runs to the maximum platform capability on the leading chipset platforms. The high-performance fully integrated software was designed for cost-optimized SoC femtocell platforms to help femtocell and residential gateway manufacturers achieve fast time-to-market with a high-quality solution. Node-H is a member of the Femto Forum. Node-H is privately funded and based in Munich, Germany. For more information about Node-H, please visit http://www.node-h.com.