Latest Osmocom Cellular Network Infrastructure (CNI) Release Gets Native LimeSDR Support

The Osmocom Project has announced the release of its latest open source Cellular Network Infrastructure (CNI) stack, which is the first to include direct native support for LimeSDR family software defined radios through the LimeSuite drivers.

An umbrella covering a range of projects relating to open source mobile communication capabilities, the Osmocom Cellular Network Infrastructure (CNI) software stack gathers together a range of utilities designed for implementing both circuit-switched and packet-switched cellular networks on commodity hardware platforms. While earlier releases had included support for Lime Microsystems' popular LimeSDR family of open software defined radios (SDRs), including those installed in the LimeNET family of all-in-one base stations, it did so through reliance on a chain of third party drivers including SoapySDR.

In its most recent release, the Osmocom CNI receives native support for LimeSuite-compatible devices, including the LimeSDR and LimeSDR Mini, with no reliance on third party driver stacks. Accessing this support is as simple as using the built-in "osmo-trx-lms" device on any system with a connected LimeSDR.

"Those new tagged/released versions contain half a year of work since the previous versions released during summer 2018," explains project maintainer Harald Welte of the new software versions. "The primary focus was on bug-fixing and stabilisation as well as some major new features, such as inter-BSC-handover support in osmo-bsc."

Other improvements introduced in the new release include a user manual for the OsmoTRX utility, support for SGsAP protocol encode and decode, improved logging capabilities, and numerous enhancements and bug fixes.

Full details on the release, and links to download source code and pre-compiled binaries, can be found on the official announcement.