Re: [Openbts-discuss] Device doesn't see network at all (openbts-uhd + usrp2 + wbx)

[David A. B. <dbu...@jc...>]

OK, so here's a message to everyone who is trying to run OpenBTS on a stock USRP and trying to get their everyday cellphone to camp to it: STOP BEING STUPID.  What Kurtis suggests below is a strongly recommended mode of operation: Do not run OpenBTS in a band that is also used by public networks in your area.  I say this routinely.  I put it in a wiki.  Nobody is listening.  At least once a week, some kid trying to run OpenBTS on a stock USRP in the same band as their local cellular carriers posts to the list saying "OpenBTS doesn't work".  It doesn't work because you didn't bother to read the wiki or understand the technology before turing on a radio transmitter in a licensed band, a band used to provide a critical public service, and, whether you know it or not, inviting all of your neighbors' phones (not just your own) to jump on to your little network.  (See my other recent post, "you were warned".)

Besides making clocking much less of an issue, operation in a non-standard band also greatly decreases the likelihood that you will end up in prison or paying heavy fines for disrupting a public network.  This is no joke and your local public cellular network is not a toy.  This kind of clueless, careless  operation is what makes me constantly question continued support for the USRP in the public release: it makes the barrier to access too low to keep out irresponsible people.  When someone runs OpenBTS in their local public-carrier cellular band (usually just because they are too cheap/lazy to get a proper multi-band unlocked phone) they are creating a real threat to public safety and those of us responsible for offering this source code to the public do not care to be a party to that.  I have tried before to give friendly advice to push people in the right direction and already know from experience that it is a waste of time, so the next someone disregards this advice I will try something new: deleting threads from the archive and banning people from the list.

To the rest of the OpenBTS community, I apologize, but we need to start enforcing some standards for responsible operation.


On Jun 12, 2011, at 3:15 PM, Kurtis Heimerl wrote:

> As a suggestion, if you have a phone that reads only in the non-local
> GSM bands (900 here in the US, 850 in europe), running OpenBTS in
> those bands would cause that handset to see ONLY your BTS, simplifying
> the clock issue significantly. That's been my goto way to debug clock
> issues.
>