Hello, UMTS support and HSS/HLR - OpenBSC

9 Jun 2010

Hi guys,

wow, finally found this project/list :).

First a bit of background: working at Fraunhofer FOKUS, in Berlin;
"maintaining" openimscore.org (when I still find the time); working on
openepc.net; currently doing some prototypes for the LTE access part -
MME/HSS/eNodeB - only Layer 3 and up.

What brings me here is that I have a need for getting a test-bed setup as
complete as possible, without black-boxes.The ultimate dream is to have
everything from radio to application layers running on COTS hardware for
test-bed purposes (nothing commercial).

Obviously I am coming from the upper layers to the lower ones, as we had to
satisfy first the Application Server guys. So far we've done prototypes for
P/I/S-CSCF, HSS(Cx,Sh) and some light MGCF, BGCF/etc with the OpenIMSCore.
With OpenEPC we are adding some PDN-Gw, ANGw(SGw/ePDG), PCRF, PCEF, BBERF,
ANDSF, HSS (Sp) and working on the afore-mentioned MME, HSS(S6a,etc),
eNodeB. Of course, all are prototypes, but we try to make them as
inter-operable as economically feasible.

Now I am also very interested in UMTS. We're demo-ing EPS hand-overs and the
sort between WiFi, LTE (just using it as an air bridge for now) and 3G, but
we use commercial 3G, which is quite frustrating as it seems to have a
directly proportional probability to fail with the number of phones present
in the demo room.

However, I do have an Oyster 3G femto from ip.access and would very much
like to explore on how can I use it in an environment completely under
control. I know about other BTS alternatives, but I really just need the PS
part and I need good data-rates. (CS is out of scope for me as it's supposed
to be phased out at a point and we have already the all-IP stuff on top,
even like 3GPP likes to see it)

I see that I am not the only one interested. Now I am still trying to get
some more documentation from ip.access. If any of you already figured out
how to do the basic operations or at least what is required, I would really
appreciate the pointers.

Then regarding the HLR - it seems that you have some troubles with it. Well,
we have done a couple of HSSs in the past 5 or so years, which is supposed
to be an HLR evolution suitable for all-IP environments. So we have all the
irrelevant, but required, DB back-end, provisioning interfaces or AKA
authentication sorted. Unfortunately it only has support for Diameter, with
RADIUS on the road-map due to integration with non-3GPP trusted access
networks (WPA with EAP-SIM/EAP-AKA). Also these days I am trying to add
support for LTE network attachments through the S6a Diameter interface.

If you can provide me with some quick requirements to what you need for the
HLR, I hope that we could help.

Cheers,
-Dragos