An independent industry association supporting femtocell deployment around the world has launched a programme to help harmonise the integration of femtocells into mobile core networks.

A number of new members have formerly joined the Forum, these include: BT, Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, NXP Semiconductors, Samsung and Vodafone.

According to the Femto Forum, operator demand to launch femtocells quickly has led to the development of many different methods for integrating potentially millions of femtocells into the network core.

“Although this is not holding up the commercial deployment of femtocells, this programme will help unite these different approaches in the longer term and set the stage for the development of future standards,” said the Femto Forum.

At the Femto Forum's next plenary in March, a variety of approaches to femtocell network integration will be put forward by members.

The Forum has already agreed a reference architecture for comparison between the different network integration options.  

“Femtocells have got off to a flying start and more deployments will take place in the near future but it is crucial that all the players in the market begin to plan together for the longer term,” said Simon Saunders, chairman of the Femto Forum.  

“Operators have been vocal about their desire for a more unified approach to femtocell network integration as the scale of deployments increases,” said Saunders.