Cell Broadcast » History » Version 1
laforge, 05/29/2017 05:36 PM
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| 3 | h1. Cell Broadcast |
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| 5 | Normally, all user plane data in GSM/GPRS networks are sent in point-to-point channels from the network to the user. Those are called "dedicated" radio channels whcih exist between the network and one given phone/subscriber at a time. |
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| 7 | Cell Broadcast is an exception to that rule. It permits user data (so-called SMS-CB data) to be broadcast by the network in a way that can be received by all phones in the coverage area of the given [[BTS]] simultaneously. |
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| 9 | More high-level information can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_Broadcast and the related specification is found at "3GPP TS 23.041 Technical realization of Cell Broadcast Service (CBS)":http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/html-info/23041.htm |
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| 12 | h2. Osmocom Cell Broadcast support |
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| 14 | * [[OsmoBTS:]] implements the "SMS BROADCAST COMMAND" Message in RSL according to Section 8.5.8 of 3GPP TS 08.58 |
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| 15 | * [[OsmoNITB:]] and [[OsmoBSC:]] implement a VTY command @bts <0-255> smscb-command <1-4> HEXSTRING@ to send a given hex-formatted cell broadcast message to a specified BTS |
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| 17 | This is sufficient for manual transmission of cell-broadcast messages in a lab environment or in small networks. The functionality has been developed and "used at the 31st annual CCC congress (31C3) to deliver spoofed "Presidential Level Alert" messages":https://twitter.com/2b_as/status/549695235207737344/photo/1 |
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| 19 | h3. What's missing (for production operation in larger networks) |
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| 21 | * mechanism to broadcast one (set of) cell broadcast messages from the BSC to multiple/all BTSs, rather than one BTS individually |
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| 22 | * BTS reporting of current CBCH load |
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| 23 | * BSC scheduler scheduling multiple alternating sets of CBCH messages based on the current CBCH load reported by BTS |
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| 24 | * external interface from BSC to a Cell Broadcast Center (CBC), e.g. according to 3GPP TS 48.049 |
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| 25 | * an Osmocom implementation of the Cell Broadcast Center (OsmoCBC) which can manage and dsitribute messages to multiple BSCs and which has an external interface by which cell-broadcast can be entered into the network |
