27 lines
1.3 KiB
Plaintext
27 lines
1.3 KiB
Plaintext
Free Software for GSM networks
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During its 25 year history, Free Software has ventured in many areas of
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computing, such as TCP/IP networks, Internet servers, personal computers,
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laptops, desktop computers, embedded devices, and so on.
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However, there are other areas of computing that - until very recently - have
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not yet seen any Free Software. One prime example is cellular telephony
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networks. More than 3 billion subscribers use GSM cellular phones around the
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world. All components in the public GSM networks are proprietary
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both on the network side and on the telephon side.
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The cellular networks consist of components like base stations, telephone
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switches, all running proprietary software.
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The cellular phones - even those running Free Software based operating systems
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liek Android - have a separate computer called "baseband processor" that
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interacts with the GSM network and runs proprietary software.
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Since 2009, projects like OpenBTS, OpenBSC and OsmocomBB have been created to
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change this. They all implement components of a GSM network as Free Software.
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Harald Welte is the founder of OpenBSC and OsmocomBB. He will discuss the
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proprietary nature of the GSM world, the progress of Free Software in GSM
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and how the GSM related Free Software projects can be used in research
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and production.
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