For me, personally, the sysmoBTS 1002 comes to mind. It is small, reliable and works very well with Osmocom. It's my favorite for 2G lab testing. Be aware that the manufacturer is also my employer, but this is my genuine opinion.
https://sysmocom.de/products/bts/
Otherwise, it sounds like you could actually use an SDR plus a good timing source, like the Ettus B200 with GPS -- more often than not, dedicated BTS models are also just an SDR inside. It's the easiest to purchase.
Check the intended coverage area / nr of users / desired level of reliability...
Ericsson stuff is large and heavy, and needs special setups (running the PCU alongside the BSC, E1 instead of IP based voice...) but is of course the more robust, industry proven workhorse with serious wattage.
~N
On Tue, Sep 05, 2023 at 01:11:15AM +0000, Ben Huntsman wrote:
Hi all- I'm trying to get a GPRS network set up to serve a few old phones I have, but I don't really need anything beyond that. There's a daunting array of choices and scant documentation out there, so I just thought I'd ask, does anyone have any recommendations for what the least expensive hardware solution to implement GPRS would be? In particular though, I'd like to go with commercial non-SDR hardware, and I'd rather spend a tiny bit more if it would get something smaller... Are there any good GPRS-capable femtocells that work well with the Osmo stack?
I'm looking at some old Ericsson gear but hoping for something more compact.
Thanks in advance!
-Ben