Small cells, once thought of as a solution for rural areas, are now being brought into urban residential and commercial areas to increase bandwidth. But the adoption of more small cells such as femtocells is creating a problem of its own.

An important industry merger, however, should help in easing the control plane issues that are cropping up as often as a new small cells deployment. Taqua (News - Alert), a company that is working toward IP convergence opportunities, recently acquired Tatara, a telecommunications company that assists mobile operators with deployment of broadband data infrastructure.


According to this Connected Planet (News - Alert) report, Taqua is a relatively new company, founded in 1998, that has become a key supplier of convergence switching, IP peering, and developments in small cells. In fact, it’s likely that a carrier in your area has utilized Taqua’s services. Taqua’s switching architecture, such as that built into the blade-based T7000, is a comprehensive solution for mobile switching center replacements.

Telecommunications companies are utilizing small cells known as the femtocell.  It’s a small cellular base station that can help connectivity issues within a building. It uses DSL/Cable to assist in mobile backhaul traffic. Using existing IP infrastructure, companies are able to deploy femtocell convergence solutions, which allows mobile operators to offer IP/SIP-based femtocell devices in VoIP networks.

Tatara was founded in 2001 and is run by communications veterans who know how to build products for mobile convergence markets. Tatara is a good fit for Taqua because it is known for providing robust SIP-based femtocell convergence solutions.

Tatara’s convergence servers, the TCS 12000 and the TCS 2000, offer strategic solutions to small cell convergence. Challenges such as single number voice and messaging convergence and security are handled easily with Tatara’s Convergence (News - Alert) Server.

The partnering of these two companies addresses issues in mobile bandwidth and mobile control plane availability. Because of the smartphone explosion, carriers are seeing bandwidth issues, creating user satisfaction challenges. The popularity of mobile web and mobile applications on these smartphones is hastening the need to address these bandwidth problems.

The adoption of femtocell technology helped ease connectivity problems, but what it didn’t do was ease the control plane problems. Just as important as extending the coverage for voice to areas that once had no signal is the reduction of core network’s loads. The apps in constant use on so many mobile devices are starving bandwidth, which is creating issues with voice support.

To address the issue, Tatara and Taqua’s servers are helping to take the load off signals and helping maintain feature parity. It truly is making small cells work to their full potential, allowing carriers to capitalize on current market opportunities. 




Edited by Jennifer Russell