IEEE 2nd International Workshop on Femtocell Networks (FEMnet)

in conjunction with IEEE GLOBECOM 2011, Houston, TX, USA

Workshop Date: Monday, 5 December 2011

Femtocells, which are low-powered cellular access points deployed in residential homes and offices, are one solution to the problem of enhancing indoor coverage and improving area spectral efficiency in cellular systems by reducing the distance between transmitters and receivers and alleviating the traffic burden on the macrocell base stations. In this way, femtocell networks can potentially improve spatial reuse. Femtocells may also reduce deployment costs and provide energy savings. This new networking topology, however, also comes with its own challenges. There are significant technical problems that need to be addressed for the successful deployment and operation of femtocells. In particular, due to lack of coordination with the rest of the network, interference management is a fundamental issue. By exploiting ideas from traditional multi-cell power control, cognitive radio and dynamic spectrum access, femtocell base stations can be designed to react, based on their interference conditions, by adapting their signaling strategy or opportunistically accessing shared radio resources. Recent advances in the understanding of interference channels, cooperative games and distributed optimization theory could also be useful for novel designs of future femtocells. Finally, research on femtocell networks could benefit from backhaul coordinated multi-point transmission schemes wherein multiple base stations steer their beams through array processing to minimize interference.

This workshop will bring together academic and industrial researchers/engineers to identify and discuss technical challenges and recent results related to femtocell networks. Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

• Downlink and uplink PHY/MAC design for femtocells in 3G-HSPA/EV-DO, WiMAX, and LTE systems, as well as beyond 4G communication systems

• Indoor/outdoor radio propagation models.

• Interference analysis, avoidance, and mitigation

• Coexistence between a macrocell network and femtocell network

• Resource allocation techniques

• Load balancing

• Closed subscriber group (CSG) versus open-access femtocells

• Power control and power saving mechanisms (e.g., sleep/idle mode etc.)

• Mobility support and handover

• Time synchronization

• Cognitive femtocell networks

• Fundamental trade-offs between femtocells, picocells, small cells, relay networks, and distributed antenna systems

• Comparison with other fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) approaches

• Self organizing networks and issues in self maintenance and self install

• Issues related to enterprise femtocells

• Spectrum sensing issues

• Reduction in energy consumption

• Back-hauling and quality of service issues

All submissions should be written in English. The maximum number of pages for a paper is 6; 5 pages plus 1 additional page allowed with a charge for the one additional page of USD100 if accepted. Papers exceeding 6 pages will not be accepted at EDAS, nor reviewed at all. For further details, please visit http://www.ieee-globecom.org/authors.html.

Important Dates:

-          Full Paper Submission Deadline: 19 July 2011

-          Acceptance Notification: 15 August 2011

-          Camera-Ready Submission: 31 August 2011

-          Workshop Date: 6 December 2011