Fem2cell technology
Tyrone Miles
Has anyone looked at the fem2cell technology, and can this become part
of the Mesh Potato to introduce basic gsm radio signal to the nework.
I am very aware of the ettus openbts project.
Thanks.
Song, Stephen
Femtocells have come up a number of times in the group. See
http://groups.google.com/group/village-telco-dev/search?group=village-telco-dev&q=femtocell&qt_g=Search+this+group
The basic limitation of femtocells is that they use GSM spectrum and
thus your use of them is generally constrained by whatever the mobile
operators dictate.
Magic Jack in the U.S. did try to go it alone with a very cheap
femtocell, then tried to partner with a mobile operator, and now have
apparently given up. See
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Magic-Jack-Femtocell-Device-On-Hold-109999
Cheers... Steve
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Steve Song
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http://villagetelco.org
Tyrone Miles
I was thinking of offering this as an option to get cellphone onto the
mesh with asterisk routing the calls. I also looked at the BelAir100SP
Strand Picocell, and it's concept. Take a look here,
http://www.belairnetworks.com/products/index.cfm/intProductID/23
Thanks.
> Femtocells have come up a number of times in the group. Seehttp://groups.google.com/group/village-telco-dev/search?group=village...
> The basic limitation of femtocells is that they use GSM spectrum and
> thus your use of them is generally constrained by whatever the mobile
> operators dictate.
>
> Magic Jack in the U.S. did try to go it alone with a very cheap
> femtocell, then tried to partner with a mobile operator, and now have
> apparently given up. See
>
>
> Cheers... Steve
David A. Burgess
OpenBTS is not an "ettus" project. OpenBTS is a project of Range Networks, Inc., whose founders have done or sponsored, and funded, nearly all of the publicly-released work to date. OpenBTS is also a registered trademark of Range Networks. Ettus has not sponsored the project in any way and does not have special rights to any part of it. Range founders used Ettus hardware for early prototypes and Range still uses the National Instruments hardware for development kits, however for more advanced, commercial offerings, Range Networks uses their own, purposed-built hardware. (For more information about Range products, please send a message to in...@ragnenetworks.com. Range provides micro- and macro-base stations as well as embedded base stations suitable for residential, enterprise and industrial applications).
As for fem2cell technology, I'll assume you mean "femtocell". There are some problems with conventional femotcells:
1) They still use licensed spectrum, so you still need a carrier partner or a license of your own. Certain countries in the EU have created new unlicensed GSM band segments as well.
2) Unlike OpenBTS nodes, femtocells do not plug directly into a VoIP network. You'll need a lot of "glue" to make it work. It's not just a matter of mapping GSM/ISDN to/from SIP (which is what OpenBTS does). It's also a matter of provisioning and managing all of those little devices, each of which is about as complex as a full-sized macro-cell site. That's so much work that big carriers have learned to hate femtocells.
3) That ~US$200 price tag on the typical femtocell is a no-profit, subsidized cost. By the time the carrier finishes provisioning the device they have lost several hundred dollars unless they can lock in the customer for an extended contract. Carriers can only afford to do that when the femtocell installation helps them retain a subscriber who typically pays well over US$100/mo on a cellphone bill. Conventional femtocells are the products of an economy that is irrelevant to the kinds of places that Village-Telco is trying to operate. Conventional femtocells are designed to be part of a high-cost, centrally-micro-managed system that requires specialized training, big staffs and a large core network. This is exactly the opposite of what Village-Telco, the Mesh Potato, OpenBTS and Range Networks all represent.
Full disclosure: I am a founder and CTO at Range Networks and the lead developer of both the 2.6 public release of OpenBTS and the private 2.8 release used in Range's product offerings.
-- David
Tyrone Miles
Well put sir, and thank you for clarifying. I'm very interested in
learning more about the OpenBTS / Range Network platform, and would
like to get info if possible.
Thanks.
> OpenBTS is not an "ettus" project. OpenBTS is a project of Range Networks, Inc., whose founders have done or sponsored, and funded, nearly all of the publicly-released work to date. OpenBTS is also a registered trademark of Range Networks. Ettus has not sponsored the project in any way and does not have special rights to any part of it. Range founders used Ettus hardware for early prototypes and Range still uses the National Instruments hardware for development kits, however for more advanced, commercial offerings, Range Networks uses their own, purposed-built hardware. (For more information about Range products, please send a message to i...@ragnenetworks.com. Range provides micro- and macro-base stations as well as embedded base stations suitable for residential, enterprise and industrial applications).