From Ivelin Ivanov: In this session we will demo a full open source based mobile network running in an office setting. From Android mobile devices to OpenBTS base station from Range Networks and Restcomm app server from Telestax.
I have an OpenBTS dev kit base station running Restcomm and two Android devices connected to my miniature mobile network. The mobile devices can call each other and send SMS between each other. They can also call customer service IVR, conference bridge and other services implemented as Restcomm apps.
This demo shows that a commercial grade end-to-end 2G mobile network is possible today with open source elements. The demo setup can be easily expanded to life size mobile network. The OpenBTS dev kit box can be replaced with production OpenBTS stations with powerful antennas (10+km radius) and a cluster of Restcomm instances running in the cloud.
Overlaying an area of OpenBTS 2G base stations with a mesh of WiFi hot spots presents a plausible interim alternative to prohibitively expensive and still limited in many ways 4G networks.
This type of systems are particularly appealing for person to person and IoT communications in rural areas, remote work sites such as oil rigs, manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, telemetrics, and telemedicine scenarios.