[[PageOutline]] = Welcome to Community Update page = Here is the digest of most interesting happenings in and around OpenBTS community for given periods. All community members are more then welcome to participate in generating news and putting them here! ;) ''Note: Material in this wiki refers to work in the public release and on unofficial forks of the public release. For information on commercially supported features of OpenBTS, please contact [http://www.rangenetworks.com Range Networks] directly.''' = September 2012 = == Events == * Alexander Chemeris of [http://fairwaves.ru Fairwaves] demonstrated OpenBTS working with [http://code.google.com/p/umtrx/ UmTRX] at the [http://wirelesssummit.org/ International Summit for Community Wireless Networks] in Barcelona, Spain. = September 2012 = == Events == * Participants from Range Networks, UC Berkeley TIER, Voxeo and others operated a 5-site OpenBTS network at Burning Man 2012. Results are written up [http://papalegba2012.wikispaces.com/Results here]. There has also been coverage in * [http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/02/what-we-learned-running-a-mobile-network-at-burning-man TechCrunch] and * [http://www.voipusersconference.org/2012/tim-pantons-burning-man-report/ on the Voice Users' Conference] * Alexander Chemeris of [http://fairwaves.ru Fairwaves] demonstrated OpenBTS working with [http://code.google.com/p/umtrx/ UmTRX] at the [http://www.trondeau.com/gnu-radio-conference-2012/ GnuRadio Conference] in Atlanta, GA, USA and at the [http://summit.oshwa.org/ Open Hardware Summit], New Yourk, NY, USA. = August 2012 = == Events == * Range Networks and Medweb brought a multi-site BTS network to the [http://www.nps.edu/Academics/Schools/GSOIS/Departments/IS/Research/FX/docs/12-4%20Newsletter.pdf RELIEF 12-4] disaster response exercise. == Development == * Pure '''handover''' thread seems to be ready here [https://github.com/dmisol/openbts-p2.8/tree/handover-thread-only/ git]. It is free from any disputable SIP-related fantasies yet, while Jet and Dmitri are still working on the whole procedure. Internal SIP testing is in process ;) = July 2012 = == General news and highlights == * It sounds like [http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57481871-83/hackers-build-private-ninja-tel-phone-network-at-defcon/ NinjaTel] is having big fun with OpenBTS at Defcon 20. = June, 2012 = == General news and highlights == == Events == * [http://www.tropo.com Tropo] and [http://tethr.com Tethr] will be using OpenBTS are part of their [http://tethr.tumblr.com/post/25513708436/tethr-and-tropo-in-the-google-i-o-sandbox sandbox at Google IO] in San Francisco in the last week of June. * [http://www.rangenetworks.com Range], [http://www.medweb.com MedWeb], [http://www.voxeo.com Voxeo], [http://null.ro Null Team] and several volunteers are starting to plan a large test network for Burning Man 2012. Details [http://papalegba2012.wikispaces.com here]. * [http://www.rangenetworks.com Range], [http://www.medweb.com MedWeb] and [http://www.voxeo.com Voxeo] will be operating an OpenBTS network at [wiki:RELIEF12-4 RELIEF 12-4]. * UmTRX [http://lists.osmocom.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/umtrx mailing list] was publicly announced. == Development == * '''Automatic extension/phone number assignment''' has been implemented at [https://github.com/nolanke/openbts-p2.8] by Keith Nolan (CTVR). * For Asterisk users using this branch, you no longer have to manually insert IMSIs and extension numbers into the Asterisk sqlite3.db database. New and returning users (if selected) will receive a 'welcome' text message that now includes their assigned extension/phone number for use on the OpenBTS network. To support this change, two new configuration options were added to the OpenBTS.db configuration database: * '''Control.LUR.Registration.Extension.Start''' specifies the start of the assigned extension number range [default: 3000]. * '''Control.LUR.Registration.Extension.Message''' specifies the message to be included in the Welcome text message that precedes the assigned extension number [default: 'Your phone number is'] * This code has been successfully tested using Asterisk 10 and a USRP N210 at [http://openhere.data.ie/workshops/the-mobile-commons-open-source-gsm-network/] where it supported 85 different phones. * '''Experimental encryption support''' has been successfully tested at [https://github.com/zabbal/openbts-p2.8], '''authenc''' branch. There are numerous issues to be resolved: * Open registration support * Ofono testing (regular phones seems to work fine) * Rigorous testing * Add Milenage support == Blogs, press and other media == = mid. April - end of May, 2012 = == Events == * Video recordings from '''!OsmoDevCon''' are now [http://openbsc.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/OsmoDevCon2012#Videorecordings available]. * Alexander Chemeris and Ivan Kluchnikov ran OpenBTS setup during '''[http://phdays.com/ PHDays'12]''' conference. == Development == * '''Handover implementation''' has been started at [https://github.com/dmisol/openbts-p2.8] by Dmitri Soloviev of Fairwaves. * Handover is initiated manually, to the next timeslot on the same ARFCN (intra-BTS handover). * Normal case: HO command -> HO access -> Physical Information -> Handover Complete. * Handover has been tested with USRP1 only, but should be compatible with UHD devices as well. * This is still in lab use only: Physical Information is sent in a wrong way, no threads at target site, etc. * '''[wiki:GPRS] implementation''' by Ivan Kluchnikov of Fairwaves. * '''First successful data transfer! ''' * Improvement of logging system in PCU, now it is more informative. * PDP context activation is implemented. * A lot of bugs in PDU segmentation and assembly has been fixed. * The next step is to implement data transfer and USF management to support several mobile phones at the same time. * Source code available from git://github.com/chemeris/openbts-p2.8.git (gprs-exp branch). * '''Authentication and encryption''' implementation by Max Suraev. * Fixed CKSN exchange with sipauthserve and implemented missing L3 messages parsing. * The code is still in alpha stage - no actual encrypted calls possible yet. * Next steps - sort-out call processing. * Source code available from git://github.com/zabbal/openbts-p2.8.git (authenc branch). * Range pushed core support for '''Multi-ARFCN''' into public repository. Support for Multi-ARFCN in the Transceiver52M, created by Thomas Tsou, is not merged with this code yet. * Range pushed it's own implementation of the '''remote CLI''' (which is different from the remote CLI in the UHD fork). == Blogs, press and other media == * [http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2012/05/19/#20120519-sysmoBTS-goes-public sysmoBTS] announced by Harald Welte. Not directly related to OpenBTS (plus closed-source L1 and hardware) but it will be inevitably compared with whatever OpenBTS product out there so it's worth reading anyway. = mid. March - mid. April, 2012 = == General news and highlights == * [http://opensigtran.org/ OpenSigtran] project [http://opensigtran.blogspot.com/2012/04/pcb-design-seems-to-be-done_13.html announced] PCB design completion. == Events == * [http://openbsc.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/OsmoDevCon2012 OsmoDevCon 2012] was held in Berlin and gathered many of Osmocom developers led by Harald Welte and some of OpenBTS developers, including David Burgess, Alexander Chemeris, Ivan Kluchnikov and Dmitri Soloviev. See number of reports in blogs/press section below. This event was so successful that it has inspired discussion on [http://baseband-devel.722152.n3.nabble.com/Regular-Osmocom-meeting-in-Berlin-tt3868041.html regular Berlin meeting]. == Development == '''Official release development:''' * '''r3457''' FPGA code for the !RangeNetworks RAD1 hardware is published. * Various fixes to !SubscriberRegistry and Freeswitch configuration for OpenBTS. '''Community development:''' * According to Tom Cooper, [http://github.com/tacooper/Osmo-USRP/downloads Osmo-USRP] project uses Transceiver and L1FEC from OpenBTS to interface to OpenBSC via OsmoBTS. Code available for testing on [http://github.com/tacooper Github repo]. * Dmitri Soloviev finally started with handover. Tiny progress: a mobile is jumping to the neighbour timeslot (triggered from CLI). Patches will be published soon. * Ivan Kluchnikov is going on with the GPRS implementation. Progress for the last month: Implementation of L1 interface between PCU and OpenBTS is completed. GPRS Attach procedure is implemented, but it should be tested with different mobile phones. Next step is to implement procedures for PDP context activation and data transfer. * Thomas Tsou continues to refine his Multi-ARFCN implementation. Currently it supports UHD devices only and he has started to work on USRP1 support. Also he started to pushing out his NEON optimized code for OpenBTS transceiver. All Thomas' new code is in https://github.com/ttsou/openbts-multi-arfcn repo. == Blogs, press and other media == * [http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2012/03/26/#20120326-osmodevcon Harald Welte's] outlook on [http://openbsc.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/OsmoDevCon2012 OsmoDevCon]. * [http://openbts.blogspot.com/2012/04/terminal-state-of-telecom-industry.html David Burgess'] notes on [http://openbsc.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/OsmoDevCon2012 OsmoDevCon]. Both posts contains musings on possible future of open source telecom. = mid. February - mid. March, 2012 = == General news and highlights == * [http://www.rangenetworks.com Range Networks] releases new [http://kestrelsignalprocessing.mybigcommerce.com/openbts-hardware-made-by-range-networks/ RAD1-based dev kit]. * As per Kurtis Heimerl, our [wiki:GSoCIdeasPage Google Summer of Code application] is rejected. :( May be next time. == Events == * Both [http://fairwaves.ru Fairwaves] and [http://www.rangenetworks.com Range Networks] were promoting their OpenBTS based solutions at the [http://www.mobileworldcongress.com Mobile World Congress] with great success. Stay tuned for more news. * Several groups were operating a mix of commercial and public versions of OpenBTS at [wiki:RELIEF12-2] (29.02-02.03). See that page for more details. * David Burgess, Alexander Chemeris and Ivan Kluchnikov will represent OpenBTS at [http://openbsc.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/OsmoDevCon2012 OsmoDevCon] - the first ever conference on the open-source telecom software and hardware. == Development == * '''New''' Thomas Tsou is working on the Multi-ARFCN support for the OpenBTS. Check out his [https://github.com/ttsou/openbts-multi-arfcn/commits/master gihub repo] and the spectrum pictures [https://twitter.com/#!/ttsou/status/176420876684763136 1], [https://twitter.com/#!/ttsou/status/177282050334785536 2]. * '''r3202''' The issue with Location Update Request (LUR) timeout with turned on RRLP has been fixed in trunk. Now we query RRLP ''after'' LUR is completed. * '''r3288''' A long standing bug in !BitVector implementation was spotted and fixed by Harvind Samra. * '''r3309''' Another long standing bug in Transceiver52M is fixed - we set Rx gain when we should have set Tx gain. Thanks to Robin Coxe for spotting this! * Various smaller fixes to OpenBTS, !SubscriberRegistry mostly related to SIP call flows and transaction handing. * Multiple people has reported "loss of monolitic time" error with the Transceiver52M when using USRP B100. Reason for this issue is not known yet. * [https://github.com/ttsou/kalibrate-uhd Kalibrate-UHD] has been updated to correctly work with the USRP external clock reference and support UHD >= 003.004. * GPRS implementation. Code re-factoring has been done to optimize internal logic. Structure and list for TBFs and TBF allocation are implemented. Basic functionality of L1 interface between PCU and OpenBTS is implemented. GPRS Attach procedure is at the final stage of implementation and hopefully will be finished by the end of the month. == Blogs, press and other media == * Interview with Alexander Chemeris about UmTRX hardware for OpenBTS is published at [http://www.hack4fun.eu/2012/03/umtrx-open-source-hardware-transceiver-for-gsm/ hack4fun.eu blog]. * Max Suraev's grumbling on his experience with implementing authentication support for OpenBTS has been [http://openbts.chemeris.ru/2012/03/max-suraev-implementing-authentication-and-encryption-for-openbts-part-1/ published]. = New Year - mid. February, 2012 = == General news and highlights == * Authentication\Encryption implementation Source code is available from https://github.com/zabbal/openbts-p2.8 (authenc branch). Authentication is implemented (much testing is still required though). Protocol for communicating encryption key and related stuff is under review at [wiki:A3A8A5]. Encryption implementation is in progress. * GPRS implementation We implemented Network Service protocol and BSSGP for integration with osmoSGSN and OpenGGSN (for that we use libgb from OpenBSC). We added Uplink and Downlink TBF Establishment and Release of Uplink and Downlink TBF. Now we are finishing separation of GPRS application from main OpenBTS code and full implementation of GPRS Attach procedure. Source code available from git://github.com/chemeris/openbts-p2.8.git (gprs-work branch). * Ubuntu 11.10 build fixed (thanks Robin Coxe) * RRLP in OpenBTS 2.8 Curious bug with ephemeris handling discovered (thanks Refik). Another (same?) bug cause phones to fail registration if RRLP request processing takes too long. Both bugs are under investigation. * [http://ttsou.github.com/kalibrate-uhd/ kalibrate-uhd] now works with all USRP versions (thanks Felipe Zimmerle) * Improved web UI has been proposed Source code available at https://github.com/zabbal/openbts-p2.8 (webui branch). This code is far from being complete - it's more an illustration of possibility to use jQuery+SSI instead of .cgi to create eye-candy interface. * iPhone 3G fix Patch to properly handle GPRS suspension request was merged - this helps to workaround iPhone 3G behavior when phone was previously logged on a 3G or to a GSM EDGE and data connection was used. * !ClockTamers are back in stock: http://shop.fairwaves.ru/clock-tamer * SMS in Freeswitch Arghyadip Paul is hardworking on SMS support for OpenBTS connected to Freeswitch - core functionality is working. == Events == * UmTRX hackathon, Moscow (04.02-12.02) UmTRX is open and inexpensive hardware for OpenBTS currently under developments. The main focus was on testing first hardware revision and adding support to UHD. Information about the hardware will available soon at http://code.google.com/p/umtrx/ Software sources available via: https://github.com/chemeris/UHD-Fairwaves * Mobile World Congress 2012 (27.02-01.03) Fairwaves will be at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona showcasing their UmTRX hardware for OpenBTS. This will be the first public demonstration of the UmTRX. Contact Alexander Chemeris if you want to meet there and see UmTRX. * Google Summer of Code (application opens 27.02) The idea to apply for GSoC was discussed in ML including description of possible tasks for students. Fairwaves volunteered as backup organization to file application if Range Networks couldn't do it. The GSoC administrator to handle application formalities is yet to be appointed.