What are small cells and Home eNodeBs, and why does LTE support them?
Small cells are low-power base stations with tiny coverage areas that reuse the spectrum many times over; Home eNodeBs are small cells that individuals or companies install themselves, connected to the core network over the regular internet.
Small cells:
- Smaller cells = more spectrum reuse: the same frequencies can be reused in every cell, so shrinking cells multiplies total capacity per area
- Can be set up by companies, individuals, or the operator
- Pull the "more cells" lever of the performance framework
Home eNodeBs (femtocells):
- A miniature LTE base station for your home or office
- Connection path: Home eNodeB → gateway/router → internet → core network
- Gives perfect indoor coverage where the macro network is weak
The security angle: A Home eNodeB is trusted network infrastructure standing in someone's living room, reachable through the public internet. That changes the threat model fundamentally — the operator must assume the device can be physically tampered with, which is why femtocell traffic is authenticated and tunneled (IPsec) back to the core. Several published attacks have started from hacked femtocells.
Tip: Small cells are the quiet workhorse of capacity growth. Doubling spectrum is expensive and rare; halving cell size quadruples area capacity and can be done anywhere demand spikes.
Go deeper:
Home eNodeB (Wikipedia) — the femtocell that backhauls over the public internet, and why its traffic is IPsec-tunnelled to the core.