25c3: Running your own GSM network

[Nytro]

[h=1]25c3: Running your own GSM network[/h]Speakers: Dieter Spaar, Harald Welte

This presentation will mark the first public release of a new GPL licensed Free Software project implementing the GSM fixed network, including the various minimal necessary functionality of BSC, MSC, HLR. It will introduce the respective standards and protocols, as well as a short demonstration of an actual phone call between two mobile phones registered to the base station.

On the Ethernet/IP based Internet, we are used to Free Software and general-purpose hardware. The worlds second largest communications network GSM couldn't be any more different. Even though the protocols are standardized and publicly available at the ETSI, all implementations are highly-guarded proprietary secrets of a few major players in the industry. The hardware is even more closed, as there is not a single GSM subscriber or base station chipset with even the least bit of publicly known information.

Nonetheless, in recent years there are a number of different projects working on driving a wedge of Openness into this world. You might have heard about other projects like the THC GSM sniffer project (pure wireshark-like functionality) and OpenBTS (a software defined radio based GSM base station interfacing with the Asterisk VOIP server).

This presentation is about yet another new GSM related Open Source project. A project that follows the GSM specs more closely and actually aims at interoperability with existing equipment such as hardware BTS hooked up via S2M interface to a Linux-running PC.

As part of the presentation we plan to show a live demonstration of a phone call using our own GSM network.

More information about the 25th Chaos Communication Congress can be found via the Chaos Communication Congress website: 25C3: 25th Chaos Communication Congress

Source: Conference Recordings - 25C3 Public Wiki