Burning Man Goes Open Source For Cell Phones 152
coondoggie passes along this excerpt from Network World:
"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. ... 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. ... 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. "
Missing the point (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Bummer (Score:2, Informative)
Theres always the Alaska Highway
Re:License? (Score:1, Informative)
TFA says they get a license for the bands they are using up there. Of course, they could be lying through their teeth. In either case, the FCC really doesn't do that much unless you are causing QRM to folks who do have licenses.
Re:Wait. (Score:2, Informative)
I've never been to Burning Man, I've been to other free-love-get-high-hippy-alt-fests so I "get" the point of it, but I don't understand how the Open Source community can stomach Burning Man's copyright claims.
Re:Oucheroo (Score:2, Informative)
What's unreal about that?
nobody is going to make you a GSM antenna/BTS/BSC in a box. (when somebody tries, expect "fm transmitter" quality)
there's always going to be a lot of work involved with making groups of people with unique requirements happy. this is LIGHT YEARS ahead of the last ten years, trying to get Motorola or Siemens to put up JUST a BTS, would have started at $250K + installation, and you still need all the signaling system / authentication hardware to go with it. to be able to put up a macro cell with > 10 subscribers allowed over it is revolutionary.
all said and done, to provide service in north america, you could put up about $25K worth of equipment, and get multi point coverage for a city of about 20K. (depending on density, the denser the better) couple that with a few redundant routers($10K a year) and redundant 100/100 internet connections (about $18K a month), plus a decent contract with a major PSTN termination provider estimate WAY high at $10K a month, and you could be supplying GSM cell service for unmodified phones, with unlimited voice, and unlimited data for a whopping cost of $2.00/month/subscriber. (that'll get you NEARLY unlimited capacity, for the few times you go over, take it out of your huge profit you'd be making at even $10/month/person.
that price is going to go up a bit, (tower rental space, installation, salaries, general business overhead) but a well run business would be able to automate most of the process, and start turning a profit in the first year. (likely in the first few months, with a decent ad campaign! )
compare that to modern cell companies, and I think you'll see how far we've come.
OpenBTS With FreeSWITCH (Score:3, Informative)
Some have inquired as to using OpenBTS with FreeSWITCH as well as Asterisk. Alberto Escudero (aka AEP) wrote this wiki page nearly a year ago:
http://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/OpenBTS [freeswitch.org]
It's slightly dated but the information is accurate.
-MC
Re:License? (Score:4, Informative)
The FCC grants them a temporary experimental license because they can't cause much interference out in the middle of the desert. If you fire up OpenBTS anywhere in civilization you're probably breaking the law. Fortunately the equipment is a bit more expensive than CB radio and the carriers have a real incentive to crack down on interferers, so I doubt there will be too many problems in the real world.
Re:License? (Score:4, Informative)
Their FAQ, http://pagalegba2010.wikispaces.com/FAQ [wikispaces.com], has a link to the experimental FCC license: http://openbts.sourceforge.net/FieldTest3/STAGrant.pdf [sourceforge.net]
Re:License? (Score:5, Informative)
Ummm, I'm confused. The frequencies that GSM uses are licensed by the FCC to specific operators. The phones are used under the control of the operator, who has a license for each and every cell site.
It's the confusion born from not RTFAing.
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."
I'm guessing the person who modded you up didn't RTFA either.
Re:Encryption? (Score:5, Informative)
Have you ever been? It is the population density of a city, modulo the multistory units (except for the nuts who do build those). I don't know what the plan this year is (I'm missing it this year, sniff), but last year, the camp radius was 2100 feet [burningman.com], putting the vast bulk of those 50K people in a 1-mile diameter area. Not many people camp in "deep playa" (the burner term for the area outside of the radial roads but inside the trash perimeter).
Back on topic, there's been signal there for at least the last three years, but it became useless once the gates opened and the hordes descended. My take is that cell service during the main event is going to be a net negative, but it is inevitable. It will become something akin to the ongoing war on glow sticks - a bunch of us will mercilessly mock glow-stuck cellphone users and try to shame them into putting the fucking things down and be present, and it mostly won't work.
Those of us who do LNT (Leave No Trace, the massive cleanup effort post event) will get to ground score cellphones, though. People lose everything else.
Re:ehhh! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Wait. (Score:4, Informative)
It's a non-commercial event. You can't sell food there. You can't sell photos of the event. You can't go take pictures of the human carcass wash or critical tits ride. If there were photographers, these events couldn't happen. There are no "observer" tickets for the event -- it's not a concert.
Why is it that people always bitch about privacy, and about Google putting up photos of their house or their friends online, a non-profit bans this practice and everyone gets up in arms? I've taken numerous pictures at the event, and as long as you don't try to sell them, you don't get hassled.
Especially when the policy's author is was the lead council for the Electronic Freedom Frontier.
Re:I may have read that one wrong (Score:4, Informative)
Steve Jobs was a coke dealer.
No, it was John Scully and Pepsi
Re:Wait. (Score:4, Informative)
How exactly is Burning Man, a for-profit CORPORTION, hosting an event you must BUY tickets to, in any way described as 'non-commercial?'
It's a bunch of dumb hippies paying to get together and do drugs (excuseme, "EXPRESS THEMELVES") in the desert.