Re: [Openbts-discuss] Run OpenBTS on Nokia N900

[Sylvain M. <24...@gm...>]

Hi,

> Just discovering this very interesting project that is OpenBTS. I did
> not go into the technical details of the hardware components required
> to run it and was wondering, given that the Nokia N900 is a Linux
> phone running on a Debian-like distribution, and has capabilities to
> Tx/Rx on GSM/UMTS frequencies, would it be possible to run an OpenBTS
> on this phone?

Short answer "No".


Long answer:

Altough your phone tx/rx on GSM frequencies, you have _NO_ control at
all. All that is done in the baseband processor which is completely
closed. Some functions of the phone can even be hardcoded in hardware
(like RX band filters most likely) ...
There are also things a BTS must be able to do (full duplex on RF),
that a phone never has to do (and so the hw most likely doesn't
support it). You can workaround some of those or push the hw to do
stuff it's not spec'd for to get someting "bts-like" (but not a full
bts) that _might_ (not even sure) work. But that's months of work for
an experienced gsm engineer with full access to the specs (which you
will never get unless you have the cash to buy Nokia ?)

So ... realistically : "no".


Cheers,

     Sylvain