Lime has championed the open source movement for Software-Defined Radio from its beginnings, with our sustained determination to open source our hardware designs and core software demonstrating our commitment to enabling disruption in radio access network technology. As part of this effort we launched Myriad-RF in 2012 as an open source program to make available a range of low cost RF boards, together with their design files, supporting software, associated documentation and collaboration tools. Applications developed by the community now include 2G and 4G cellular base stations, a weather satellite monitor and HDTV broadcasting, to name but a few.
Software-defined radio for everyone
We recognise the vital importance of engineers at all levels, students, and enthusiasts experimenting with SDR, and being empowered to develop applications with only a modest investment in specialist hardware. Our Crowd Supply campaigns have enabled this, delivering advanced platforms at an unprecedented price point, with significant developer engagement, having receiving pledges in total from over 10,000 supporters. In addition EE backed the LimeSDR crowdfunding project, with Vodafone backing LimeNET, and the European Space Agency supporting the LimeSDR Mini campaign.
LimeSDR hardware designs, together with gateware and software sources, are all published via the Myriad-RF GitHub organisation, with documentation provided on the Myriad-RF wiki, and support and general discussion via highly active forums.
Broader participation
Lime is also participating in broader industry initiatives to encourage infrastructure owners to embrace open source and virtualised networks. Lime is a member of CORD (Central Office Re-architected as a Datacenter), an open source project led by the Linux Foundation and ON.Lab to introduce cloud and virtualisation to telco infrastructure. CORD members include some of the world’s largest operators, including AT&T, SK Telecom, NTT and Telefonica. More recently Lime has also joined Facebook’s Telecom Infrastructure Project (TIP), which is tasked with reimagining the traditional approach to telecom infrastructure and giving access to the ‘4.5 billion unconnected’.
