In a move that validates the progress of the femtocell wireless movement, three companies are conducting a working demonstration this week of the 3GPP Iuh standard, which is a key part of the femtocell community's standards drive.

The three firms presenting live demonstrations of the Iuh standard are Starent Networks, which is utilizing its ST40 platform, picoChip, which is supplying silicon and PHY software, and Continuous Computing, which is contributing its Trillium femtocell software. The Iuh interface resides between the 3G Home Node-B and 3G Home-node B Gateway. The demos, which the companies involved say are the first to validate the Iuh 3GPP standard, are being conducted at the Femtocells World Summit in London this week.

The faster standardization of the femtocell market is accomplished, the faster the indoor high-speed mobile technology will come to market and this week's successful demo indicates that significant progress is being made. Standardization will enable a multi-vendor femtocell environment to develop.

"Interoperability and standards compliance are crucial to the success of femtocell technology, and are important aims for member of the Femto Forum," said Simon Saunders, the forum's chairman, in a statement.

A key milestone along the way to eventual market acceptance of femtocells, the Iuh spec will aid in solving the difficulties by which large numbers of small wireless cell sites -- femtocells -- will need to communicate back into an operator's network.

The commercial launch of femtocell products is rapidly approaching and executives of the three companies cooperating in this week's demo have also been outlining their vision of the industry's needs for high-volume deployment of femtocells.

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