[p2p-research] Fwd: [BSA] Open Source solar powered GSM Cell phone system - ideal for university R&E MVNO networks

Wed Sep 1 07:43:30 CEST 2010

*full article*
**
*From: *"[BSA]" <noreply at greenstarnetwork.com>
*Date: *August 31, 2010 4:56:04 PM EDT
*To: *cook at cookreport.com
*Subject: **[BSA] Open Source solar powered GSM Cell phone system - ideal
for university R&E MVNO networks*

[I am working with a couple R&E networks that are looking at deploying
their MVNO cell phone network integrated with campus WiFi facilities
for data offload. This announcement open source, solar powered cell
phone system will be a boom for R&E networks that want to utilize
their fiber facilities and provide national (and international) cell
phone services for researchers and students not available from
traditional cell phone companies. No more usurious roaming and data
charges. For more information please see my past blogs on building 5G
networks—BSA]

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/083010-open-source-voip-cell-phones-at-burning-man.html

Today I bring you a story that has it all: a solar-powered, low-cost,
open source cellular network that's revolutionizing coverage in
underprivileged and off-grid spots. It uses VoIP yet works with
existing cell phones. It has pedigreed founders. Best of all, it is
part of the sex, drugs and art collectively known as Burning Man.
Where do you want me to begin?

"We make GSM look like a wireless access point. We make it that
simple," describes one of the project's three founders, Glenn Edens.

The technology starts with the "they-said-it-couldn't-be-done" open
source software,OpenBTS. OpenBTS is built on Linux and distributed via
the AGPLv3 license. When used with a software-defined radio such as
the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP), it presents a GSM air
interface ("Um") to any standard GSM cell phone, with no modification
whatsoever required of the phone. It uses open source Asterisk VoIP
software as the PBX to connect calls, though it can be used with other
soft switches, too. (More stats in a minute that I promise will blow
away your inner network engineer.)

This is the third year its founders have decided to trial-by-fire the
system by offering free cell phone service to the 50,000-ish attendees
at Burning Man, which begins today in Black Rock City, Nevada. I've
posted a few photos of the set-up here. But the project is still new
and mostly unheard-of. The second-generation hardware is in beta and
the project’s commercial start-up, Range Networks, won't emerge from
stealth mode until September (at theDEMO conference).

Two of OpenBTS's three founders are a duo of wireless design gurus
that make up Kestrel Signal Processing: David Burgess and Harvind
Samra. The third is industry luminary Glenn Edens, the same Edens who
founded Grid Systems, maker of the first laptop in the early ‘80s,
who is also known as the former director of Sun Microsystem’s
Laboratories (among his other credentials). He is Range Networks’
CEO.

Burning Man has become a brutal, but great test vehicle. "There are
not too many places you can go where tens of thousands of people show
up, all of them with cell phones, in a hostile physical environment
– lots of heat and dust, with no power and no cell service," Edens
says.

GSM operates on licensed bandwidth, so for any U.S. installation, the
OpenBTS crew always obtains a FCC license and works with the local
carrier to coordinate frequency use. When attendees get into range and
power up their phones, the system sends them a text that says “Reply
to this message with your phone number and you can send and receive
text messages and make voice calls.”

Edens notes: "You can also make phone calls to any number, but you
can’t receive them, except from other people at Burning Man. We
don’t have a roaming agreement in place with any carriers yet. So
calls from people out of range from Burning Man will go to voicemail
… but you can check your voicemail." (You can follow the progress of
the system setup onBurgess's blog).

Edens jokes that Kestrel gets an equal number of compliments and
complaints for making cell phones accessible at the event. You win
some and you lose some.

Certainly, the potential of OpenBTS is a winner. The system is only
"as big as a shoebox," Edens says, and requires a mere 50 watts of
power "instead of a couple of thousand" so it is easily supported by
solar or wind power, or batteries. It performs as well as any other
GSM base station which has a maximum range of 35 kilometers and a
typical range of 20 kilometers, depending on geography, antennae
height, etc.

It can use a wireless backhaul, too. "We’re working with UC
Berkeley on a really interesting project on super long distance
wireless backhaul. We can also use private microwave and all the usual
backhaul technologies," Edens says. A full power base station with
software costs around $10,000. Compare that to the typical $50,000 -
$100,000 investment for base station controllers, mobile switching
centers and "a whole lot of plumbing" to bring in power, backhaul,
etc., in a traditional cellular network.

Like other GSM cell networks, OpenBTS networks can connect to the
public switched network and the Internet. Because it converts to VoIP,
it "makes every cell phone look like a SIP end point … and every
cell phone looks like an IP device. But we don’t touch anything in
the phone … any GSM phone will work, from a $15 refurbished cell
phone all the way up to iPhones and Androids." Low cost phones are
particularly important for projects in impoverished areas, where
people can benefit most from better communications services.

"The UN and ITU studies show that when you bring communications
services to an area, healthcare goes up, economic well being goes up,
education goes up," Edens says, noting that costs and power needs are
low enough that even a small earthquake, we sent a system that was
installed at the main hospital in Port Au Prince. They had it working
an hour after unpacking it from the box. The hospital PBX was down.
They used it as their phone system for about two weeks."

Kestral has sold about 150 units, hardware and software, since last
January, with trial systems installed in India, Africa, the South
Pacific and a number of other countries. The team has also done a few
private installations like oil fields, farms, and ships at sea. They
are also providing a system to the Australian Base in Antarctica. Plus
OpenBTS has been downloaded about 4,000 times, mostly by researchers
able to build their own base stations. It is also of interest for
military communications, law enforcement and DARPA projects.

[…]

------

email: Bill.St.Arnaud at gmail.com

twitter: BillStArnaud

blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/

skype: Pocketpro

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