The Comparison between WLAN and Femtocell

Abstract

The communication link of femtocell may be one of Wide Area Network (WAN) technologies, such as, Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL). Femtocell used a public network to establish connectivity between femtocell and core network elements where there are a set of challenges to the operators. However, femtocells use IP Network as a backhaul architecture instead of conventional cellular network infrastructure, so that Femtocells and WiFi infrastructure networks can come to a compromise as they have a lot of common iterative and inter-related technologies and activities. This raises the question as to whether femtocell technology will substitute the existing WiFi technology. By carefully analyzing the similarities and differences between the two technologies one can find this answer. This chapter provides a technical comparison between Femtocells and WiFi in terms of architecture, operation, and standards.