Fairwaves shows open-source base station On Hardware Freedom Day

Fairwaves UmTRX transceiver system is the industry’s first open-source professional-grade base station transceiver, with the launch of the device coincides with the second annual Hardware Freedom Day.

Fairwaves UmTRX transceiver system is the newest member of the open-source GSM ecosystem, which allows hobbyists and seasoned professionals to develop a complete base station from open-source pieces. The UmTRX enhances the open-source model beyond the present USRP systems, where typically schematics, not layout files were published and is designed for GSM.

Ebrahim Bushehri, Lime CEO said in a statement, "This is a really important innovation and I feel this could have a huge impact on the future deployment of wireless infrastructure, especially in the creation of low cost networks for the developing world."

The base station transceiver uses Lime Microsystem's LMS6002D field programmable RF (FPRF) transceiver IC. It can be configured to run on any communications frequency (0.3-3.8GHz) and any mobile communications standard (LTE (News - Alert), WCDMA, WiMAX...). The company believes that UmTRX is the easiest way of running OpenBTS and OsmoBTS in a lab. The UmTRX can work as transceiver for UmSITE, which is a complete base station, developed by Fairwaves.

The UmTRX for UmSITE has been tested and calibrated during manufacturing.

Fairwaves has done beta testing with some of its customers and the device has left beta testing. It is available to be obtained through web-shop.

Alexander Chemeris, Fairwaves CEO added that "UmTRX was created as a GSM base station transceiver, but the capabilities of the FPRF means that we can deploy it for LTE and other systems with a very small incremental cost. We are also using the UHD API, familiar to all USRP users, so people can use their existing applications with UmTRX.”