Widespread LTE (News - Alert) commitments from a growing number of global operators have resulted in strong uptake of small cell LTE APIs from the vendor community, according to the Femto Forum.

The Forum says that 17 manufacturers have already adopted their APIs, which are used to enable interoperability between LTE femtocell semiconductors and protocol software from various vendors.

Manufacturers that are already utilizing the APIs include Airvana, AirWalk (News - Alert) Communications, Broadcom, Cisco, Radisys and Texas Instruments, among other big names. The Femto Forum credits the rising adoption rates to recent small cell commitments from the likes of China Mobile, Vodafone, SK Telecom (News - Alert) and NTT DoCoMo.

"As operators plan LTE networks, small cells, including femtocells, could play a critical role in enabling the fastest possible data services in metropolitan and rural public spaces, as well as in private homes and offices," Alan Law, Chairman of the Femto Forum's (News - Alert) LTE SIG, noted in a statement. "This positive uptake of the Forum's LTE API is one more sign of the growing importance of small cells."

Nick Johnson, CTO of ip.access and chair of the Femto Forum's Radio and Physical Layer Working Group, says that the recent uptake of APIs is due to their ability to enable interoperability between a host of different products – which don't always come from the same source – while also providing unique time-to-market advantages.

"Where small cells once comprised a telecoms niche, they are now at the epicenter of mobile broadband thinking," he added.

With small cell LTE APIs in hand, operators can purchase components from several different vendors without having to worry about performance or operability issues. Specifically, the APIs support vendor approaches to physical layer control, scheduling and network monitoring.

Informa Telecoms & Media (News - Alert) found that 60 percent of operators deploying LTE networks believe small cells to be more critical than macrocells.

Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Rich Steeves