Free and Open Source Software in SDR

Free and Open Source SoftwareSDR hardware popular in community SDR projects

Free Software SDR software

Free and Open Source Software in SDR

Harald Welte <[email protected]>

osmocom.orgsysmocom GmbH

June 29, SDR’12 - WInnForum Europe

Harald Welte <[email protected]> Free and Open Source Software in SDR



Outline

1 Free and Open Source Software

2 SDR hardware popular in community SDR projects

3 Free Software SDR software




About the speaker

Linux Kernel / bootloader / driver / firmware developmersince 1999IT security expert, focus on network protocol securityFormer core developer of Linux packet filternetfilter/iptablesBoard-level Electrical EngineeringAlways looking for interesting protocols (RFID, DECT,GSM)OpenPCD, Openmoko, deDECTed.org, OpenBSC,OsmocomBB, OsmoSGSN




About sysmocom GmbHsystems for mobile communications

small company, started by two Osmocom developers inBerlinprovides commercial R&d and support for professionalusers of Osmocom softwaredevelops its own products like sysmoBTS (inexpensive,small-form-factor, OpenBSC compatible BTS)runs a small webshop for Osmocom related hardware likeOsmocomBB compatible phones, SIMtrace, etc.




Where is FOSS todayFOSS and SDR

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is everywhereParticularly Servers and all areas of EmbeddedFOSS has fundamentally changed the software industrySystems architecture of products becomes more complexNobody can afford to build complex products from scratchEveryone builds products on existing FOSS components,particularly the Linux kernel and other OS-levelcomponents





Linux and Free Software (FOSS) everywhere





FOSS is not a technologyFOSS is not a productFOSS is not a companyFOSS is a development methodology and cultureOnly companies with sufficient FOSS experienceunderstand the value of how to interact with the widerFOSS communities





FOSS enables participationyou don’t have to work for a specific company in order todo OS developmentnobody has to have any formal relationship with theircollaborators, suppliers.any nobody can contribute, even so-called amateurs,hobbyists, studentsit doesn’t matter how deep your pockets aremeritocracy (the better your merits, the more you have asay in the development process)





FOSS: Democracy / Equal Access

The means of productions (Computers, OS, Compilers) areabundant and inexpensive (for the first world)Anyone can create and produce software, all you need isyour brainNo membership required in exclusive forums, industryclubs, consortia





Traditional Radio Engineering

Traditional radio development required electricalengineering in hardware. You have to

know analog / RF electronicsspin board revisions / prototypesactually physically build something

Aside from the skills, there is a significant non-HR costinvolved for actually doing this development





SDR and FOSS

SDR transforms radio engineering into the softwaredomainIn Software, all you need to do R&D is a bit ofgeneral-purpose hardware and your brainsWith inexpensive general-purpose SDR hardware, thesame conditions apply to development of radio software!Participatory, collaborative, community driven R&D




Fun Cube Dongle ProOsmoSDRrtl-sdr

When you (the audience) thinks of SDR, it’s probablymostly bleeding-edge high-end and high-costAt the same time, if you don’t have the same high-endrequirements, SDR receiver hardware is available cheapcommoditization effect





The USRP family

probably the most-used SDR hardware in the FOSS worldstill the primarily radio used with gnuradio todayat the low end of the ’professional sdr’ price segmentstill, typical configuration costs > 1000 USDnot everyone is able to spend that (students, hobbyists,especially outside first world countries)





Fun Cube Dongle Pro (2010)

64 MHz to 1700 Mhz USB SDR receiver (193 USD)limited to 96 kHz I/Q baseband samplinggreat for amateur radio and TETRA, but most othercommunications systems (like GSM introduced in 1992)use wider band-widthsgreat progress in terms of size and cost, but much morelimited than USRPHardware design and firmware sadly are proprietary





Fun Cube Dongle Pro (2010)





OsmoSDR (2012)

small, low-power / low-cost USB SDR hardware (225 USD)higher bandwidth than FunCubeDonglePro (1.2 Ms/s /14bit)much lower cost than USRP, but more expensive thanFCDPOpen Hardware (schematics), software (FPGA, firmware)Undergoing another re-spin for 4.2 Ms/s @ 14bit





Realtek RTL2832U based DVB-T receivers

Realtek RTL2832U based DVB-T receivers are cheaplyavailable on the market (USD 20)RTL2832U implements ADC, DVB-T demodulator andhigh-speed USB deviceNormal mode of operation includes full DVB-T receiverinside RTL2832U hardware and only sends MPEG2-TS viaUSBReverse engineering the USB protocol and replayingcertain commands from custom libusb based code wasable to trigger the raw sample transmission to the host PC





RTL2832U based devices: EzTV 668





RTL2832U based devices: Hama nano1




Gnuradio

Philosophy: Implement SDR not as hand-craftedspecial-case hand-optimized assembly code in someobscure DSP, but on a general purpose PC

with modern x86 systems at multi-GHz clock speeds andwith many cores this becomes feasibleof course way too expensive for a mass-produced product,but very suitable for research, teaching and rapidprototyping

Implement various signal processing elements in C++assembly optimized libraries for low-level operationsprovide python bindings for all blocks

Python script to define interaction, relation, signal routingbetween blocks




gnuradio based waveform implementations

Of course plenty of gr-based implementations for thevarious analog modulation schemesCheck out CGRAN (comprehensive gnuradio archivenetwork): Includes 802.11, Zigbee, RDS, DECT, AIS, UHFRFID, ADS-BMany other projects out of academia and community, suchas OpenLTE (early stage of downlink Rx/Tx)




Osmocom / osmocom.org

Osmocom == Open Source Mobile CommunicationsClassic collaborative, community-driven FOSS projectGathers creative people who want to explore thisindustry-dominated closed mobile communications worldhttp://osmocom.org/

non-sdr sub-projects like L2/L3 protocol stackssdr sub-projects for mostly Rx side




OpenBSC

first Osmocom projectImplements GSM A-bis interface towards BTSSupports Siemens, ip.access, Ericsson and Nokia BTScan implement only BSC function (osmo-bsc) or a fullyautonomous self-contained GSM network (osmo-nitb) thatrequires no external MSC/VLR/AUC/HLR/EIRdeployed in > 200 installations world-wide, commercial andresearch




OsmocomBB

Full baseband processor firmware implementation of amobile phone (MS)We re-use existing phone hardware and re-wrote the L1,L2, L3 and higher level logicHigher layers reuse code from OpenBSC whereverpossibleUsed in a number of universities and other researchcontexts (including Ericsson Research)




OsmocomTETRA

SDR implementation of a TETRA radio-modem(PHY/MAC)Rx is fully implemented, Tx only partialCan be used for air interface interceptionAccompanied by wireshark dissectors for the TETRAprotocol stack




OsmocomGMR

ETSI GMR (Geo Mobile Radio) is "GSM for satellites"GMR-1 used by Thuraya satellite networkOsmocomGMR implements SDR based radiomodem +PHY/MAC (Rx)Partial wireshark dissectors for the protocol stackReverse engineered implementation of GMR-A5 cryptoSpeech codec is proprietary, still needs reverseengineering




OsmocomOP25

APCO25 is Professional PMR system used in the USCan be compared to TETRA in EuropeOsmocomOP25 is again SDR receiver + protocol analyzer




The OpenBTS Um - SIP bridge

OpenBTS is a SDR implementation of GSM Um radiointerfacedirectly bridges to SIP/RTP, no A-bis/BSC/A/MSCsuitable for research on air interface, but very different fromtraditional GSM networks




airprobe.org

SDR implementation of Um sniffersuitable for receiving GSM Um downlink and uplinkpredates all of the other projectsmore or less abandoned at this point




Thanks

Thanks for your attention. I hope we have time for Q&A.


Free and Open Source Software in SDR

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