A Portable GSM Base Station Solution for Military Communications in Hostile Environments

Emerging software-defined radio system (SDR) is a solution for new military operational concepts that require advanced communication capabilities. SDR may also provide more flexible and possibly cheaper multi-standard terminals for military communications in hostile environments. In this context, the standard of Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) is implemented in SDR, by using a universal software radio peripheral (USRP) N-210 and the existing tools like OpenBTS and Docker. This joint implementation is suitable for laboratory experimentation. However, for practical applications, as military communications, an amplification stage is necessary. Hence, the theoretical link budget is analyzed, and experimental measurements bear out the results. Finally, a mean opinion score is performed for evaluating voice quality. The results show that OpenBTS implemented in the USRP with an adequate amplification is suitable for long-range communications with little distortion.