Applications and Simulation of Femtocells in a Cognitive Radio Environment

Abstract

Femtocells are small base stations that provide radio coverage for mobile devices in offices or homes.Throughout our project work we put forth a femtocell based cognitive radio architecture for enabling efficient multi-tiered access in next generation broadband wireless systems. The key requirements for femtocell deployment, its benefits, the usage model, design challenges and market issues will be investigated. This architecture combines the conventional femtocell concept with an infrastructure based overlay of a cognitive network. The merits of using a femtocell is enhanced coverage minimized interference and increased capacity. By incorporating a femtocell in a cognitive radio environment problems such as spectrum under-utilization can be solve. This is achieved by allowing secondary users to use the free and available spectrum. We provide experimental results to demonstrate the feasibility of such a model. The advantages and several bottlenecks in administering this concept are also illustrated. The purpose of this project is to explore the use of femtocells in present cellular systems to provide better coverage and deal with resource allocation by employing it in a cognitive radio environment.