2017 - a year of change

Osmocom CNI (Cellular Network Infrastructure) has changed a lot:

software changes
team / developer changes
sysmocom company focus changes

2017 - CNI Software changes

OsmoBSC migration from SCCPlite to 3GPP AoIP
OsmoMGW as integral part of both BSC and MSC
NITB split into separate MSC, HLR, BSC
3G (IuCS, IuPS) goes mainline

2016/2017/2018 - Team changes

Q1 2016: Jacob Erlbeck leaves sysmocom
- unfortunately a complete loss to Osmocom, particularly OsmoPCU
2017: Holger Freyther leaves sysmocom
- unfortunately also shift of focus away from Osmocom :(
- immense loss to the project in terms of skill and capacity
Q1 2018: Max Suraev leaves sysmocom
- another loss of lots of Osmocom knowledge

sysmocom changes

we used to have to do lots of non-Osmocom work to cross-subsidize Osmocom
- big distraction of resources in 2014/2015, now gone
we used to cross-subsidize Osmocom development by hardware sales
- not happening as much anymore
we now work almost 100% on Osmocom
- R&D projects, support contracts and grants

split NITB aftermath (the good parts)

biggest architectural change since we started in 2008
lots of good reasons and design improvements
- finite state machines with proper timeouts / clean-up
- proper 3GPP AoIP with interoperability tesing
- no synchronous HLR database access
- HLR access from OsmoMSC and OsmoSGSN
- 2G/3G authentication over GERAN and UTRAN

split NITB aftermath (the bad parts)

never-ending list of breakage
- actual regressions of things that used to work before
- things that were known omissions during the restructuring
some commercial users stuck with SCCPlite and thus old @osmo-bsc-sccplite@
- almost none of the new features or bug fixes there
- no automatic testing
- back-ports time-consuming

split NITB aftermath (lessons learned)

overall complexity of Osomcoom cellular is quite stunning now
absence of proper functional testing has caused massive fall-out
the split architecture allows for betteer testing of smaller parts of the system
my personal main focus of the last 5+ months:
- testing, testing, testing, testing
- testing, testing, testing, testing
- some more testing
- even more testing

Osmocom CNI testing (1/2)

unit test (autotest, like we always had)
- test individual functions / APIs of libraries / programs
- executed during "make check" and hence before any patch can get merged
automatized functional tests in TTCN-3
- test external visible behavior on interfaces such as Abis, A, GSUP, GTP, MNCC, PCUIF, CTRL, VTY, …
- executed nightly by Jenkins (could be more frequently)

Osmocom CNI testing (2/2)

osmo-gsm-tester
- tests entire Osmoocom network with BTS/BSC/MSC/HLR/PCU/SGSN/GGSN/…
- uses real BTS + MS hardware (over coaxial cable)
- automatic execution multiple times per day
interop tests
- against NG40 RAN + CN simulator from NG4% (A / Gb / Iu level)
- not fully automatized yet

Osmocom project health (CNI)

lots of funded developments, but
- primarily enterprise features required by professional users
dominance of sysmocom is problematic
- sustainable FOSS has no single point of failure!
we need more contributions from third parties
- particularly those that benefit commercially from Osmocom

Osmocom project health (other projects)

OsmocomTETRA dead since 2012, occasional small fixes
No OsmocomBB ports to other PHY/chip yet
OsmocomDECT completely dead
Erlang core network projects dead
Smalltalk projects dead (AFAICT)
SIMtrace dead for years, about to be resurrected

Osmocom project health (other projects)

gr-osmosdr very low commit ratio
rtl-sdr no commits in 2015-2017
but it’s not that bad… (see next slide)

Osmocom project health (other projects)

gr-gsm, fake_trx and trxcon a welcome change in OsmocomBB
osmocom-analog (jolly to the rescue)
osmo-fl2k (soon! now! this year!)

Osmocom status (CNI)

CS RAN (BTS, BSC) is quite strong/complete these days
- ready to be used with 3rd party CN
PS RAN (PCU) suffers from lack of attention
- lack of automatic testsuite with decent coverage
- lack of uplink multi-slot any many EGPRS features
CS CN (MSC, HLR)
- in halthy state, but lack of TCAP/MAP interface limits us to non-roaming networks
PS CN (SGSN, GGSN)
- in good health, now with IPv6 supoprt and kernel GTP acceleration

Osmocom outlook (CNI)

2G still in demand by lots of use cases (rural, maritime, …)
- if we had TCAP/MAP interface, many more deployments possible
3G has some users but lack of FOSS RNC limits us to femtocells
4G is deployed in parallel to 2G in many scenarios
- Osmocom 2G stack needs 2G-4G integration (SGs, DIAMETER)
- Osmocom needs to contribute to FOSS 4G projects (nextepc, srsLTE)
irony: Now that it’s possible to do properly funded Osmocom development, we have less people involved than in the early days :(

If we don’t manage to focus on 4G soon, interest in 2G will diminish soon

Osmocom outlook (other projects)

activity of original/traditional Osmocom developers decreased
without attracting more developers, a lot of projects will remain dormant and/or never realize their potential
I’d love to work on TETRA, DMR or other mobile communications technology
- but lack of developers and contributors even for 2G makes me stuck in 2G CNI land :(

Personal Request

Osmocom needs you!
we’ve lost too many friends already
please don’t leave Osmocom; please don’t leave me

EOF

End of File

Year 2017 Osmocom retrospective

2017 - a year of change

2017 - CNI Software changes

2016/2017/2018 - Team changes

sysmocom changes

split NITB aftermath (the good parts)

split NITB aftermath (the bad parts)

split NITB aftermath (lessons learned)

Osmocom CNI testing (1/2)

Osmocom CNI testing (2/2)

Osmocom project health (CNI)

Osmocom project health (other projects)

Osmocom project health (other projects)

Osmocom project health (other projects)

Osmocom status (CNI)

Osmocom outlook (CNI)

Osmocom outlook (other projects)

Personal Request

Further Reading

EOF