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Presentation given during Bossa Conference, held in Porto de Galinhas - Brazil in March 11th 2009
Abstract: As we see an increased use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in mobile devices, some of them with GSM or UMTS cellular network connection, this FOSS adoption exclusively happens on the "Application Processor" side. To the contrary, the GSM protocol stack on the 'digital baseband' CPU is typically treated like if it was the biggest invention since sliced bread, and a most valuable and proprietary one.
In fact, the entire GSM and UMTS protocol are specified in public documents, available free of cost to anyone from the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standardization Institute) or the 3GPP.
So there is no lacking information preventing any FOSS implementation of
those protocols. It is merely the fact how the cellular industry is currently structured. It's an oligopol, with very few players in the market, and artificial entry barriers for anyone who would want to compete with any part of the stack.
In 2007, the THC GSM project developed tools called gsm-tvoid, gssm and gsmsp as first humble attempts of an Open Source implementation of a GSM protocol analyzer, based on the USRP and gnuradio software defined radio (SDR) platform.
In 2008, two independent Free Software projects for the GSM network side have been release: OpenBTS and OpenBSC.
In 2009, Harald has been starting to work on the detailed hardware and software architecture of an open source GSM development board, capable of running both the MS (cellphone) and BTS (cell tower) side.
This presentation gives an overview about the existing FOSS efforts on the GSM protocol side, their current status and future directions.
