The Femto Forum, the operator association supporting femtocell deployment, has published a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) intended to facility the interoperability of Long Term Evolution (LTE) femtocell semiconductors from different vendors.
The APIs address three fundamental LTE femtocell functions:– RF modulation of the LTE radio signals, scheduling and assigning packets to frequency and time slots and network monitoring, to minimise interference.
“Femtocells could have a crucial role to play within LTE by providing users with the best possible user experience whether this is in the home, office or even outdoors in cities and rural areas,” said Alan Law, chairman of the Femto Forum’s LTE SIG.
“The publication of these APIs is an important first step,” said Law.
Chip supplier, picoChip has announced support for a set of the recently agreed Femto Forum LTE application programming interfaces (APIs).
The LTE APIs will be supported by picoChip’s PC8608/9 LTE products.
The API specifications are freely available from the Femto Forum’s website.