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[Discuss-gnuradio] Economist: Wireless broadband: Open spectrum, closed
From: |
John Gilmore |
Subject: |
[Discuss-gnuradio] Economist: Wireless broadband: Open spectrum, closed chips |
Date: |
Wed, 19 Jan 2005 01:52:56 -0800 |
[This is part of why GNU Radio and unconstrained research hardware are so
important. And why the right to reverse-engineer is also critical. --gnu]
http://economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3535732
*Wireless broadband*
*Shan't!*
Jan 6th 2005
*Computer chips for open-spectrum devices are a closed book*
TELECOMMUNICATIONS used to be a closed game, from the copper and fibre
that carried the messages, to the phones themselves. Now, openness
reigns in the world of wires. Networks must interconnect with those of
competitors, and users can plug in their own devices as they will. One
result of this openness has been a lot of innovation.
Openness is coming to the wireless world, too. Cheap and powerful
devices that use unlicensed and lightly regulated parts of the radio
spectrum are proliferating. But there is a problem. Though the spectrum
is open, the microprocessor chips that drive the devices which use it
are not. The interface informationthe technical data needed to write
software that would allow those chips to be used in novel waysis
normally kept secret by manufacturers. The result could be a lot less
innovation in the open wireless world than in the open wired one.
Take, for example, the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network
(CUWiN), in Illinois. This group is trying to create a so-called meshed
Wi-Fi network. Wi-Fi is a wireless technology that allows broadband
internet communication over a range of about 50 metres. That range
could, however, be extended if the devices in an area were configured to
act as platforms that both receive and transmit signals. Messages
would then hop from one platform to another until they got to their
destination. That would allow such things as neighbourhood mobile-phone
companies and a plethora of radio and TV stations, and all for almost no
cost. But to make such goodies work, CUWiN needs to tweak the underlying
capabilities of Wi-Fi chips in special ways.
<http://economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3535732>
When its engineers requested the interface information from the firms
that furnish the chips, however, they were often rebuffed. A few
companies with low-end, older technology supplied it. But Broadcom and
Atheros, the two producers of the sophisticated chips that CUWiN needs
if its system is to sing properly, refused. Nor is CUWiN alone in its
enforced ignorance. SeattleWireless and NYCwireless, among other groups,
have similar ideas, but are similarly stymied. Christian Sandvig of the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who has been studying the
brouhaha, believes regulators ought to enforce more openness.
Broadcom and Atheros say that making the interface information public
would be illegal, because it could allow users to change the parameters
of a chip in ways that violate the rules for using unlicensed spectrum
(for example, by increasing its power or changing its operating
frequency). That is a worry, but it depends on rather a conservative
interpretation of the law. The current rules apply to so-called
software-defined radios (where the ability to send and receive signals
is modifiable on the chip), and do not apply directly to Wi-Fi. Also, by
supplying the data, manufacturers would not be held liable if a user
chose to tweak the chip in unlawful ways. And in any case, if the firms
are really worried, they could release most of the interface, keeping
back those features that are legally sensitive.
Nor is the interface information commercially sensitive. Engineers are
not asking for the computer code that drives the interfaces, merely for
the means to talk to them. And having the interface information in the
public domain should eventually result in more chips being sold. So it
is hard to see what the problem is beyond a dog-in-the-mangerish desire
not to give anything away. Time to open it up, boys.
- [Discuss-gnuradio] Economist: Wireless broadband: Open spectrum, closed chips,
John Gilmore <=