Building and Running Community Cellular Networks with OpenBTS
Channel: Engineering for Change
Date: 04/12/2013

Learn to design and deploy "telcos in a box" that provide voice, SMS or data connectivity to regions without network coverage. Kurtis Heimerl leads this E4C Webinar that highlights some of the projects that are possible with OpenBTS cellular networks, then he shows how to build basic systems. 

The webinar discusses four technologies:

OpenBTS: An open-source GSM/SIP gateway that converts 2G GSM into standard VoIP protocols. 

FreeSWITCH: An open-source PBX/SIP Switch that routes all SIP traffic in the network.

smqueue: An open-source Short Message Service Center (SMSC) that routes SMS messages. 

sipauthserve: An open-source Home Location Register (HLR) that maintains the Subscriber Registry (SR)

These four open-source software packages encompass an entire telco worth of infrastructure and everything needed to run a complete telecommunications company. 

Heimerl is a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley working under Eric Brewer in EECS and Tapan Parikh in the iSchool. His work focuses primarily on cellular systems and their intersection with international development.