Capacity Improvement in Wireless Networks using Femtocells

The capacity of a wireless system can be increased by locating the transmitter and receiver close together, which results in improving the quality of the wireless links. This has the disadvantage of requiring more infrastructure, especially when the network consists of wandering nodes. Femtocells, sometimes called as home base stations, provide an attractive solution to this problem. The deployment of femtocells provides the multiple benefits which include improved coverage, reduced backhaul traffic, capacity enhancements and reduced battery drain. In order to accommodate the ever increasing demand for Quality of Service(QoS) and high data rates, this paper studies the utilization of femtocells in Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access(WiMAX), Wireless-Fidelity (Wi-Fi) and compares with Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The paper shows that femtocells provide improved system performance in terms of increased throughput and reduced delay in WiMAX, when compared to the other two technologies.