An Open-source Framework for Robust Portable Cellular Network

Abstract

There are several situations wherein a radio network’s availability is critical. The situations could arise based on natural disasters or other man-made catastrophes, and they may involve destruction to the radio service infrastructure too. In recent years, the efforts to address this challenge have gained momentum. In this paper, we present an Open-source framework and a roadmap for a robust and portable cellular network – created by an embedded system which can itself be moving. We report on the successful completion of the first milestone in this journey – establishing a Base Transceiver System based on reconfigurable Software Defined Radio, supporting voice calls and text messaging.