The open source "Desa" cellular network in a Papua, Indonesia village was set up by researchers from Cal Berkeley's TIER center. Facebook wants to spur the further spread of cellular networks to isolated communities through open source hardware contributed to its Telecom Infra Project. (credit: University of California at Berkeley - TIER)
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Facebook announced the launch of a new open source hardware effort to extend cellular wireless service and hopefully accelerate the scaling up of telecommunications infrastructure and the development of new wireless broadband technologies, including 5G wireless. The program, called the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), is also working on providing currently unserved rural communities with wireless network efforts. A pilot 4G network is already underway in the Philippines, and Facebook has a project in planning for the Scottish Highlands.
Modeled on the Open Compute Project, which tackled data center computing and networking hardware, TIP already has 30 participating members (including a number of telecommunications and networking hardware providers alongside global and regional telecommunications carriers). TIP will focus on open designs for three areas of telecommunications hardware and software: access points, the backhaul network to connect them, and network core and management systems.
"We know from our experience with the Open Compute Project that the best way to accelerate the pace of innovation is for companies to collaborate and to work in the open," Jay Parikh, Global Head of Engineering and Infrastructure at Facebook, wrote in a post announcing TIP. "To kick-start this work, TIP members such as Facebook, Intel, and Nokia have pledged to contribute an initial suite of reference designs, while other members such as operators Deutsche Telekom and SK Telecom will help define and deploy the technology as it fits their needs."
Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments
No comments:
Post a Comment