FCC's Technical Advisory Committee Recommends Ways to Ease Wireless Congestion

The explosion in smartphones, tablets, and other wireless devices is leading to a spectrum crunch. To ease congestion, the FCC's Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) recommends the use of femtocell technology to move wireless traffic onto the wired network as quickly as possible.

Femtocells — a type of small cell — provide reception in network-dense areas with portable, consumer accessible technologies.

Femtocells and picocells are providing powerful alternatives to the large microwave transceivers used by cellular networks to transmit data. The cells, which can be built into portable devices, allow mobile phones to connect to their networks through broadband connections. They can increase coverage and capacity indoors, where reception can be weakest.

The success of these technologies is rooted in a robust broadband wired network that can support mobile communications. To support these networks, the TAC also recommends new metrics to measure broadband network quality.

Current parameters for measuring broadband quality rely on gauging broadband throughput speed. In order to keep up with quickly expanding roles of broadband networks the FCC should enable "extended" quality standards. According to the TAC:

"[These standards] can support the subset of applications that require not only fast, but precise, timely and reliable broadband networks. Simply measuring broadband networks by throughput speed does not provide a full picture nor set sufficient performance parameters to support uses with "extended" quality requirements such as healthcare monitoring, emergency services, alarms, etc."

The TAC goals illustrate a practical approach to meeting the demands for expanded broadband across the country. The suggestions are designed to have the greatest near-term impact on the nation's economy and help entrepreneurs, businesses, and local governments take advantage of broadband opportunities.

Technical Advisory Council Memorandum to the FCC