RELIEF 12-4

This is a new page and still far from complete.

This is the public planning page for  RELIEF 12-4, 13-17 August 2012, Paso Robles, California. OpenBTS participants include:

•  Range Networks
•  Medwed
•  Null Team (remote support)
•  Tropo (remote support)

Favorite toys:

•  Ushahidi
•  Quick-Nets (a US Navy project that includes Ushahidi)
•  OpenStreetMap
• small, cheap (semi-disposable) UAVs
• portable cellular networks, including OpenBTS

Other participants:

•  Rogue Genius
•  US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
•  Mutual Link
•  US Naval Postgraduate School
•  LMN Solutions
•  Lockheed Martin
•  Team Rubicon
•  GeoIQ
•  Geocent
•  US National Defense University
•  Crisis Mappers
•  US Department of State
•  US Department of Homeland Security
•  Georgia Tech. Research Institute (part of the Georgia Institute of Technology)
•  GWOB
• lots of others TBD

This will be the largest RELIEF exercise to date. It will be based on reproducing and studying problems encountered by relief workers responding to the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

As a bonus, a security "red team" will be out trying to snoop, spoof and break our systems during part of the exercise.

General Deployment Plan

This section under construction.

The Core Range OpenBTS Network

IP Topology

OpenBTS Nodes

Node 1: Snap unit

• 1 W single-ARFCN 2.5G node
• man-portable push-up mast
• Solar-Stik kit
• hill overlooking McMillan
• backhaul to McMillan via NS5

Node 2: Snap unit

• 1 W 2-ARFCN 2.5G node
• man-portable push-up mast
• use grid power at McMillan field
• backhaul via McMillan's local ethernet

Node 3: 5150 unit

• 10 W 2-ARFCN 2.5G node
• Medweb's frame with easy-up mast
• co-locate with Medweb van for power and VSAT

Node 4: highly mobile

• 200 mW single-ARFCN (dev kit + duplexer)
• in a car with magnetic rooftop antenna
• powered from the car
• backhauled via BGAN? Can we use an NS5 and the wave-relay node?
• goot to take to the FOB

Yate Core Network

Tropo Call Routing

Fixed-Number Routing

Medweb IVR/SMS Support

WebRTC Applications

Robots

Conference Call Notes

There is a weekly planning call. Contact John Crowley for information.

25 June 2012 0900 PDT, "Comms" Thread

Challenge of tying things together:

• Multiple cellular networks. (L-M, OpenBTS, others?)
• Airfield area vs. cantonment areas vs. FOB

There is a wimax/wave-relay link on a hilltop near McMillan forming a relay between McMillan and the cantonment area.

There is VZN and AT&T commercial cellular coverage at the cantonment area. Commercial service at McMillan is spotty. No coverage at the FOB. There will also be bent-pipe relay in an aircraft at 5000' AGL giving IP service over a range of about 80 miles. It is an off-channel repeater, though, and probably not useful for standard cellular. What is the frequency range on that bent pipe? I missed it, but for cellular it probably doesn't matter.

Everyone wants live video streaming, even if it means using commercial cellular networks to carry it.

OpenBTS? We can make a GSM/GPRS footprint anywhere that has IP connectivity, at least in principle. In practice, IP routing can be a problem if we don't plan ahead. Likewise with numbering.

L-M is bringing their usual multi-standard COLT, plus a an extra portable BTS side site.

I propose:

• Letter from NDU or NPS for FCC application.
• Agree ahead of time about numbering for critical sites.

Actions:

• FCC application
• published frequency plan, participation in the "incident action plan"
• Do we want a unified numbering plan for SIP systems on-site?
• Range still needs to submit application and white paper.

5 July 2012 1000 PDT, "General" Thread

Data management was a big topic. The various imagery systems produce a lot of data, and managing it to maximum advantage is not trivial.

Logistics was another big topic. "We we want to do is like Travelocity for multi-modal HADR (humanitarian aid and disaster relief) cargo transport, with real time shipment updates." Like everything else in RELIEF, smooth cooperation among commercial freight operators, NGOs, and US DoD elements is the holy grail and complicated by differences in culture, systems and terminology.