On 12/8/22 01:26, Mychaela Falconia wrote:
My point was (and still remains) that I see the very idea of virtual RAN as utterly pointless. Sure, it is a "cool" hack, you can feel all awesome and proud that you did it, but what in the world does it actually accomplish?*Especially* if we are talking about*voice* testing - surely voice is the one test scenario in which a virtual setup is at its*most* useless? I can kinda-sorta-see some signaling test scenarios where your virtual setup would provide some limited value: you've made some change to OsmoBSC or OsmoMSC or OsmoHLR, and while a test with an MS implementation that isn't your own is still required later, you could do a first-pass sanity check with your own MS - so I will grant you that use case.
Quick answer: testing. Back in 2017 fake_trx.py was just a hack to test trxcon against OsmoRAN/OsmoCNI stack, while ptrkrysik was independently working on the gr-gsm based PHY. At some point Sysmocom started writing conformance tests for osmo-bts-trx based on fake_trx.py + trxcon, which eventually evolved into a decent testsuite (260 test cases) [1][2].
In 2018 Harald gave a talk about "the state Osmocom TTCN-3 Test Suites" [3], where among the other testsuites he covered ttcn3-bts-test.
The virtual setup was also useful for testing voice calls because recently I worked on integrating GAPK I/O into the mobile app. This is a part of the SDR PHY project we are currently working on. I did some tests with a Motorola C1xx, but I actually needed to make sure that voice works when using trxcon.
[1] https://cgit.osmocom.org/osmo-ttcn3-hacks/tree/bts [2] https://jenkins.osmocom.org/jenkins/view/TTCN3/job/ttcn3-bts-test/ [3] https://media.ccc.de/v/UGHHW3
Does your mobile app now feature integration with libosmogapk and various codec libs plus ALSA, to the point where your PC speakers and mic become the speaker+mic set of the virtual MS? If the answer to that last question is yes, then I can see how you could do some voice testing (although still not replacing further testing with a standard phone) with your virtual MS *if* the other end of the test call is a PSTN gateway or a PBX with melody and echo test numbers, etc. But you were suggesting a test scenario with*two* instances of mobile app, one calling the other - just where is the actual test,*what* would be tested (and how, if both run on the same PC that has only one speaker output and only one mic input) in this specific scenario which you included?
Yes, it does [4][5]. Some patches are still in Gerrit waiting for code review, but in general it's already in a good shape. As I said above, I needed to make sure that trxcon handles TCH stuff properly.
[4] https://osmocom.org/issues/3400 [5] https://cgit.osmocom.org/osmocom-bb/commit/?id=df7fa3e296d97332161ed78be95cb...
But I think I see where I may have gone astray in my response to your post: you said "you guys", and I failed to grasp your intent behind that wording. You see, I made the innocent mistake of assuming that you said "you guys" when really meaning plural-you of all genders - but now I am thinking that I was wrong in my interpretation, you probably meant "you guys" as explicitly excluding women. [...]
No, I don't really care about genders here. All I wanted to discuss is voice testing, not limiting nor discriminating potential participants in any way. I am not a native English speaker, but reading the Internet I see there is no consensus on whether "guys" is gender-neutral. Maybe "you folks" would have been a better fit.
Yes, we know. It's not the first time you're advertising it here.
And what exactly is wrong with it? ThemWi system sw is an add-on to OsmoCNI, it was developed specifically to work together with OsmoCNI and can't work without it, hence I argue that it should be on-topic here. Furthermore, you yourself always include links to code repositories in your own posts, even when they are Osmocom repos which everyone on this ML would be presumed to know about (e.g., your link to gapk repo in your previous follow-up) - therefore, if there is a discussion involving an area where ThemWi additions to OsmoCNI are relevant and useful, I will remind people of the existence and availability of this option.
Because you're known to hijack threads on this (and not only this) mailing list and turn them into propaganda of your projects. Even in this thread I see lengthy description of what your software is capable of, which components exist, how they talk to each other, and why e.g. osmo-sip-connector is not as good as your alternatives...
I was not following FreeCalypso mailing lists from the beginning, but I don't remember seeing anybody from Osmocom joining there and saying: "hey, your approach is not as good as mine, look at our alternatives".
Of course, valid criticism is always welcome, as well as patches are. And I love to see people sharing here what they are working on, but IMO it should not be that aggressively advertised as you do sometimes.
I am not entitled to teach you how to behave in mailing lists nor I am given the right to force any rules here. I could simply ignore your lengthy mails and focus on feedback from the other participants, but I would rather be explicit here.
All in all, it's not about whoever likes or dislikes you, whoever likes or dislikes your development preferences, and not about gender discrimination. Let's stay close to the topic and be nice to each other. Thanks for your understanding!