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If you wonder about real world use cases for open source LTE stacks like srsLTE: They’re great for deploying small ad-hoc cells e.g. in vehicular and rescue sce
by pgorczak 8y ago
If you wonder about real world use cases for open source LTE stacks like srsLTE: They’re great for deploying small ad-hoc cells e.g. in vehicular and rescue scenarios like in our work from earlier this year: https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.09262 https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.09262
- Jhsto 8y agoInteresting research! One question: what would you test given you'd have access to a regulated spectrum?
- pgorczak 8y agoChiming in from GP: I think mobile setups like base stations mounted on drones or high altitude platforms are really interesting. We’re currently looking at providing cellular connectivity to rescuers and rescuees at sea using a fixed wing drone.
- jcims 8y agoWhat do you have to do to get a run of the mill android or iphone to work on a network like this?
- AnonymousRider 8y agoThat is the first question that jumped into mind for me. How is this useful to me now. I assume that the LTE chip in our devices will handshake with these networks seamlessly.
- pgorczak 8y agoThey do and pretty reliably. The devs of the srsLTE stack even have this neat CI setup where they test the codebase against commercial hardware: http://www.softwareradiosystems.com/pipermail/srslte-users/2018-March/001460.html http://www.softwareradiosystems.com/pipermail/srslte-users/2...
- pgorczak 8y agoNot much actually. You need to make auth work which means knowing some secrets stored on the SIM card. You can buy your own custom cards or probably use eSIM (however I haven’t tried option 2).
- Nokinside 8y agoIt's estimated that private LTE-networks will become $27 billion market by 2024. That's roughly 330 thousand LTE base stations for private networks. 5G is specially designed this kid of industry in mind, so more advanced applications come in addition to the LTE markets. For example, many factories can replace their physical networks with 5G private networks for automation and robotics.
- sargun 8y agoI haven't read the "5G" 3GPP spec yet. I was super interested in using LTE to replace WiFi in offices, because centralized multiplexing seems like such an attractive approach.
- josephg 8y agoThat’s a great idea! What do you need to connect to a homebrew LTE / 5g network? Can you provision your own SIM cards? Does anyone know what it would take to configure a dual-sim phone to connect to a local LTE network at home / in the office?
- 123919239 8y agoYes you need to burn a SIM card, but that's it basically. srsLTE and other "homebrew" eNodeB software is standards-compliant and your smartphone will most likely connect. In practice, you need to worry about legal restrictions -- you're not allowed to transmit on common LTE bands. Not sure how this will actually look in the future. Is the office mobile network physically separated, or do you use the public network with special SIM cards that connect to a virtually separated mobile network?
- Jhsto 8y agoOne idea is that commercial installations rely on unlicensed spectrum (like 6Ghz) to transmit LTE. Check out MuLTEfire for this. As far as I know, there are no LTE base stations transmitting these frequencies available for purchase. With 5G some countries have also taken into concern a more liberal spectrum policy, which could result in more mobile network operators. One idea follows is that the spectrum would be "oversold" by selling the same frequency to organizations tied to particular cities, for example. Finally, there is the notion of virtual SIM cards. And as far as I know, alternatively you could also just hack the LTE server to accept each incoming connection (with any SIM) and use a challenge after the Internet connection is established, and then just kick out any device which doesn't send the magic packet.
- danellis 8y agoIn an ad hoc situation like a rescue, what would the backhaul be?
- jandrese 8y agoSatellite or long haul radio. Or they'll find one of the few remaining working trunk lines and serve it from there.
- fyfy18 8y agoI used to volunteer for a first aid organisation and often we would be providing support for large events like county shows or sports events. The radios we used were simple VHF radios on licensed frequencies. There was no encryption which meant anyone could listen in, so obviously we weren't allowed to discuss personal details over the radio. Depending on the actual event we may be covering a large area or uneven terrain, so the radios may not always work. For backhaul we'd either use our phone if we needed to call the emergency services or for larger events we'd have them onsite so they would forward the message on - for example to warn a hospital of an incoming patient (often it was in remote areas where the nearest hospital had limited A&E facilities) or to call an air ambulance.
- ralgozino 8y agoHuawei's got a portable LTE Network that happens to be just for things like this. They call the technology eLTE (enterprise LTE) and the portable solution rapid eLTE. For backhaul you can use Fiber, Radio, Ethernet or Satellite, pretty much anything. the solution supports sending multimedia over the handys, voice, video, gps and data. They also offer a trunking solution over eLTE.
- arkadiyt 8y agoCould someone use this to build an open source Stingray?