
World's First Fully Programmable and Open-Source Massive-MIMO Platform - rckoepke
https://renew-wireless.org/
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iagovar
I'm sorry, but what's this? Am Open Hardware RF initiative? Is it just
antennas? I'm sorry but the info is all over the place and I'm a bit confused.
I'm not native english speaker but I work on the ISP space. It would be easier
to compare it to standard ISP stack.

~~~
sasaf5
Their project is more focused on (but not limited to) the physical layer,
particularly for cellular wireless networks.

Usually in cellular (e.g. LTE, 5G) both the mobile phone and the cell towers
implement all of their PHY using a mixture of custom SoCs, FPGAs and DSPs, and
all the code behind of this is as closed as it gets (even the drivers).

What they are doing is basically implementing as much as possible of their
cellular network with code that is open. Literally getting the signal as close
as possible from the antennas, sampling, and processing everything with code
that can be studied and changed.

This openess makes it easier for researchers to develop new ideas for wireless
networks (just reprogram your CPU, instead of having to beg to a manufacturer
to provide SDKs for their super secretive equipment).

~~~
Abishek_Muthian
>This openess makes it easier for researchers to develop new ideas for
wireless networks

Could it be used as part of the stack to create city wide non-cellular
wireless network for Internet[1], Are there any such current projects
anywhere?

[1][https://needgap.com/problems/51-non-cellular-network-
mobile-...](https://needgap.com/problems/51-non-cellular-network-mobile-
internet-telecom-internet)

~~~
supertrope
Not really. The same economic and spectrum constraints apply. By the time
you've extended the Wi-Fi PHY and built out a network to cover most of a city
you've effectively reinvented LTE.

~~~
Abishek_Muthian
>The same economic and spectrum constraints apply

Single Indian Telecom (Airtel) paid ~ 2 Billion USD(current price) in 2016 for
173.8 Mhz spectrum across 1800/2100/2300 Mhz bands. Where as small YC
startup(Link in my parent comment) has created Bangalore city wide WiFi
Internet(2.4 Ghz/ 5 GHz has been made unregulated and free).

So, definitely telecom spectrum cannot be called same as WiFi as one requires
Billion dollar oligarchy to enter the space and the latter can be entered with
4 member startup team.

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LockAndLol
Does this mean a real possibility for user-defined, community 5G networks? If
so, that could usher in a new age of mesh networks to democratize the long-
range wireless network space. If the hardware is cheap and a protocol were
used that's anonymous and encrypted by default, this could be a game changer.

From an idealistic newbie's perspective, I imagine the possibility of users
buying routers with this tech, plugging them into their fiber or copper
connection, and creating or expanding an existing 5G meshnet + a home net.
Maybe it could drastically drop costs for 5G network operators as they
wouldn't need to put up extra receivers anywhere. They could simply offload
that burden to the consumer. Most routers are lent out anyway, so not only
would they make money, consumers wouldn't need to worry about which operator
they chose because they'd all be in the same meshnet anyway.

But eh... I'm sure there's some big thing I'm missing besides human greed.

~~~
namibj
Well, a LimeSDR based E-UTRA (LTE) Band 38 2x2 eNodeB could be had for a
couple hundred USD, depending on how cheap you can get the Host computer and
clock source.

I'd consider just injecting the clock via the fiber (running a dedicated
single-mode fiber from the next PoP (up to ~10 km away) to the eNodeB,
potentially exposing Ethernet service from the base station, just like the
typical monolithic DOCSIS wifi router), via one of two ways:

(1) run a separate wavelength via CWDM and just AM-modulate a sinusoidal
reference oscillator output onto it, or

(2) anchor the clock for the data link from the PoP to the eNodeB to your
reference oscillator, and just tap your reference clock (to feed into the
local VCXO-based master-PLL) off of the data link receiver's clock recovery
circuity. Some mild phase noise is acceptable thanks to the VCXO.

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ur-whale
There is a fairly high density of acronyms and domain specific jargon on this
page which makes it quite hard to understand what this is about and what is
cool about it.

Could someone ELI5?

~~~
baybal2
It is a first attempt to make a full solution open source radio that uses
multiple antennas.

I believe all current high performance radios in this space are super duper
proprietary, with near no data on how they work in open access.

~~~
apcragg
It's not so much that the high performance radios are proprietary as it is
that building one of these systems is expensive and requires lots of domain
specific knowledge. You could somewhat easily build one of these systems for
~$250k using CoT's hardware, in fact Lund University did a few years ago for
some of their MASSIVE MIMO research.

If you don't want to use CoT's hardware for some reason then you can roll your
own transceivers. You have a choice of Analog Devices chips or Lime
Microsystems. Xilinx has a new platform that would also work but it hasn't
been widely released yet. Lime's chip is cheap but it's performance is crap
and its drivers are even worse. ADI's chips are easy to use and have fantastic
performance but you pay for it. You also need to shell out for the massive
FPGA's to handle 64*6.4GB/s of streaming data and then you need a system
capable of processing it which will still probably be an FPGA or a DSP.

~~~
baybal2
Even this way, try to find a schematic in open access with software, and etc

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sargun
This is a really cool, valuable, important project. It's a little bit of a
bummer that they went down the USRP Route
([https://powderwireless.net/equipment](https://powderwireless.net/equipment)),
as USRPs are really not accessible to many people (price point). Something
like a Lime Microsystems radio, or the BladeRF 2.0 Micro
([https://www.nuand.com/bladerf-2-0-micro/](https://www.nuand.com/bladerf-2-0-micro/)),
would have been really nice.

~~~
nickysielicki
The Skylark Wireless radios are based on the Lime Microsystems chip. The lead
developer at Skylark is the guy who originally wrote Gnu Radio Companion and
went on to write SoapySDR and Pothosflow, as well as the first (useful) driver
for the LMS chips. Super smart guy at the core of a super smart team. They’re
big on open source and I know firsthand that the University of Utah is using
their radios. I believe that page is just old, there’s a picture on that page
that shows a box that I recognize as very early Skylark equipment.

(disclaimer: I used to work at Skylark.)

~~~
sargun
I guess what frustrates me is stuff like googling "ad9361 sync" gets you:
[https://wiki.analog.com/resources/eval/user-guides/ad-
fmcomm...](https://wiki.analog.com/resources/eval/user-guides/ad-
fmcomms5-ebz/multi-chip-sync)

Whereas googling this about the LMS7002 seems to show you can buy a very
expensive board to do this:
[https://www.crowdsupply.com/fairwaves/xync#synchronization-p...](https://www.crowdsupply.com/fairwaves/xync#synchronization-
phase-coherency)

Also, on the limesdr too: [https://discourse.myriadrf.org/t/synchronize-two-
limesdr/171...](https://discourse.myriadrf.org/t/synchronize-two-limesdr/1714)

it looks like you can chain reference clocks to get a fixed offset?
[https://wiki.myriadrf.org/LimeSDR-
USB_hardware_description](https://wiki.myriadrf.org/LimeSDR-
USB_hardware_description) and then get some external device to do reset on the
digital side for sync.

\----

Independently, I'd love to know more about Skylark's SDR product and play with
it.

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wiradikusuma
What's MIMO? I thought it was MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online).

~~~
feanaro
Multiple Input, Multiple Output.

~~~
amelius
Not very descriptive. Many things are that.

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zamadatix
For those confused what it is the YouTube video in the page breaks down what
it is, what they hope to do with it, and how they are testing with it at a
more general level than the text. It also breaks down some of the terms like
massive MIMO.

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m12k
Trying to read this on iOS, but the site is completely obscured by an expanded
menu that I can't seem to close in any way. Could anyone give a TL;DR of what
this is?

~~~
dvh
Reconfigurable Eco-system for Next-generation End-to-end Wireless Argos was
first developed at Rice in 2011 as a 64-antenna base station, becoming the
first Massive MIMO base station ever built. Since then, Argos has evolved with
two newer versions. The most recent version of Argos (ArgosV3) has been
already deployed around Rice campus as part of the ArgosNet project. Argosv3,
now known as Faros, is developed by Skylark Wireless and now commercially
available.

The RENEW platform aim is to serve three goals: 1) Integrate and deploy on the
POWDER platform, at the University of Utah campus and areas around the campus.
2) Empower custom testbeds, using Iris and Faros, to enable novel
applications. 3) Work closely with other open-source efforts, like
OpenAirInterface, to empower next-generation of wireless equipment.

The RENEW team will be part of the 1st international workshop on open software
defined wireless networks (colocated with MobiSys 2020)>>See more

Our team is launching the RENEW Visitors Program inviting the community to
come to Rice to work with us on the massive MIMO platform>>See more

Ashu Sabharwal will give a talk at the IEEE 5G World Forum's Workshop on 5G
Applications and Services in Dresden Germany>>See more

[https://renew-wireless.org/](https://renew-wireless.org/)

~~~
b4ke
Let’s pretend like this isn’t an attempt to REstore a network for
communicating over the head of the uninitiated.

~~~
b4ke
Powder absolutely couldn’t be referencing an illicit form of said SUBstance.
:)

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hummo56
The page is really bad. I am working in telecommunications and needed some
time to find what it exactly is...

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xellisx
Do they make a chip without the diplexer built in, so you can use different
antennas for RX and TX?

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john3333
It's free grid internet or what?

