[Commotion-dev] Commotion-OpenBTS ready for testing

[Paul Gardner-Stephen]

Hi Dan, All,

Fantastic work. I look forward to playing with this when I get a spare moment.

Not entirely related, and I can't remember what I have shared already,
but we have done further testing with our Mesh Helper devices.  This
includes links of >3KM, and almost a mile in a rural valley with trees
and general obstructions:

http://servalpaul.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/3km-mesh-link-using-mesh-helper.html
http://servalpaul.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/testing-serval-mesh-helper-prototypes.html

While we need to do more work on the firmware of the radios we are
using to get full ad-hoc style mesh operation, these ranges are _very_
encouraging, especially the 1.27KM in the valley, as this is a real
community with real rural obstacles and inter-dwelling distances.

We also had what looked like an almost-link at 27KM, which is not out
of the question with the link budget of these radios.  We think the
forward error correction let us down on that occasion, but further
testing will be required to know for sure.  We might have to go down
to the beach here, and see how far we can walk along the coast from a
mesh helper placed on a pier.

These ranges were all using omni antennae, so no careful aiming was
required.  This is a big advantage for setup.  In fact, one use-case
of the mesh helpers is to share the GPS location data of each unit, so
that WiFi point-to-point links can be aimed to establish high-bit-rate
links between them, where possible.

I say where possible, because in one test we were able to get link
through about 200m of vegetation with Mesh Helpers with omnis where it
was impossible to get 5GHz Ruckus directional units to establish link.
It took about 2 minutes to find a nice spot with good link strength
with the Mesh Helper, and about 3 hours to eventually give up with the
Ruckus unit.

It would be quite easy to add support for the Mesh Helper radios into
this OS image, as it is just a case of looking at any USB serial ports
that come up, and adding them to serval.conf, after optionally making
sure the radios are appropriately configured for local regulations
(frequency, TX power etc).

This would eventually allow SMS/MeshMS, voicemail and VoMP voice call
traffic between phones on the mesh, as well as provide a means for
pushing config/software updates among nodes distributed over a wide
area.

Together, this utility, along with the ease of setting up the links
over longer distances, including as a way to make it easier to setup
subsequent WiFi long-shots, strikes me as offering a big missing piece
to making the Commotion kit really easy to setup.

While the prototype units are currently "bucket sized" the core
electronics is pocket sized (TP-LINK WR703N + small radio,USB stick
and USB2serial adapter), and it would be possible to make pocket sized
units with similar ranges, just with a smaller battery (the current
big battery can last several days, and that is without us optimising
power consumption at all).  This, as well as improving the radio
firmware to offer true "ad-hoc" meshing are the two main areas that we
would like to work on to improve the Mesh Helpers.

Of course, this is my view from close-up and creating these things.
So I would be very interested in hearing others perspectives on this,
and whether you feel that it would make a valuable part of Commotion.

Paul.

On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 7:49 AM, Dan Staples
<danstaples at opentechinstitute.org> wrote:
> I've put together a custom x86 Ubuntu live image with the components
> needed to make voice calls over a Commotion mesh. This includes Serval,
> OLSRd, OpenBTS, and Asterisk. When you boot into the image, you are
> presented with a configuration wizard that asks you to select which GSM
> hardware you have, and it will automatically configure the proper
> transceiver driver and start everything up. Supported hardware includes
> the Range RAD1 and the Ettus USRP1, USRP2, N200 series, B100 series, and
> E100 series.
>
> After running the wizard, you should be able to make calls between GSM
> phones, and between Serval and GSM phones.
>
> If anyone with GSM hardware could test this, that would be very helpful.
> I haven't been able to do testing due to lack of hardware. The image is
> hosted here:
> http://files.commotionwireless.net/Commotion-OpenBTS-x86.iso. Just put
> it on a USB drive with unetbootin or the tool of your choice, and boot
> from that.
>
> cheers,
> Dan
>
> --
> Dan Staples
>
> Open Technology Institute
> https://commotionwireless.net
>
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