Femtocell access control strategy in UMTS and LTE

Femtocells have become an attractive device for operators to offer extended services on their licensed UMTS/LTE spectrum. In this article we focus on the access control strategy - a crucial aspect for operators to give preferential access to femtocells for their subscribers. The general issue of supporting femtocells in pre-Release 8 UMTS networks with pre-Release 8 UE is first outlined in order to help the reader understand the motivation behind some concepts introduced in 3GPP Release 8 to support femtocells. A description of the femtocell access control strategy for UMTS and LTE is then provided based on 3GPP Release 8 specifications. Finally, the issue of LTE physical cell identity confusion associated with inbound handover to femtocells (which is expected to be resolved within the 3GPP Release 9 timeline) is discussed.