The Femto Forum, the independent industry association that supports femtocell deployment worldwide, has received widespread vendor support for a comprehensive interoperability testing program to validate the new 3GPP Release 9 femtocell standard. The program will continue with the ‘4th Femto Forum UMTS Femtocell Plugfest’ which is set to take place in February 2012 in co-operation with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and with the technicall support of France Telecom.
The program will demonstrate how effectively the new standard facilitates the interoperability of products from different vendors. In turn this will provide operators and consumers with greater interoperable equipment choice from multiple vendors while also widening the market for vendors themselves.

Test Programme
What is the objective of this Plugfest?

This plugfest will cover a “zero-touch” femtocell install from delivery to remote configuration to making the first call and macro-mobility through the femtocell access point. The program will involve interoperability tests between femtocell network gateways, security gateways, femtocell access points and chipsets from all key vendors to verify the 3GPP’s Iuh interface as defined in release 9. The program will also test the IPsec/IKEv2 security protocols that allow femtocells to communicate over the public Internet to system operators’ core networks in a highly secure manner.

What is in the standard?
The standards under test are 3GPP Release 9 femtocell standard and Broadband Forum TR-196 Issue 2. Iuh Release 9 interface standardization provides the interface between femtocell access points and femtocell network gateways in the core network. TR-196 provides the data model for TR-069 controlled femto access points.

What is the format of this Plugfest?
Testing at this event will be based on the Iuh IOT test specification developed by the Femto Forum. The plugfest will have access to an actual core network provided by France Telecom.
The plugfest will be a “hosted model” allowing vendors of equipment other than Access Points to connect remotely into the plugfest. In this case, there must be at least one representative on site during the entire event for communication and logistical purposes.

For further information on the test specification please contact the IOT SIG Chair, karim.sharf@tracglobal.com karim.sharf@tracglobal.com

Who can participate in this Plugfest?
Registration and participation is only open to full and board members of Femto Forum as current at the time of registration and at the time of the event itself as confirmed to ETSI by Femto Forum.