nanoBTS question

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Sylvain Munaut 246tnt at gmail.com
Tue Sep 21 16:50:49 UTC 2010


> With SDR (software defined radio) would it not be possible to design /
> develop a cheap GSM basestation?

See OpenBTS. It uses the USRP wich brings down to ~1000 eur.

Several company are working on custom hardware for OpenBTS, but for a
really low price, you need large quantity ...

> I am a total noob on hardware development but I suppose there is a large
> market for this.

You need a license ... so I'd assume the bulk of the market is
operators. And for them 2-5k EUR is already dead cheap for a BTS.

> Or maybe somebody already working on reverse engineering other base stations
> like the nanobts?

There are not that many IP based BTS on GSM (not talking 3g here).

> Or might something simpler be possible with modifying a router and with a
> different antenna on 1800mhz?

Not a chance, you need either:
 - custom hw dedicated to GSM: Doesn't exist cheap yet because of qty.
(might happen since some company are working on it using openbts, but
no price/data yet).
 - or something flexible enough like the USRP (but then, it's not a
'consumer' product and so not _that_ cheap).




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