Sep 23, 2010

LTE Diaries: Development Update

by Dennis Cox

You are probably wondering how our LTE development progress is coming along, so I wanted to provide an update. Let me take each development in the same order as my original blog post:

SCTP Support

We have finished our SCTP implementation and have successfully interfaced with an MME (Mobility Management Entity). Along the way we have found a few interesting tidbits -- including the need to support checksums other than CRC32 in order to be compatible with all sorts of gear.

DHCP Support

In terms of DHCP, not only did we add DHCP Client support, but we are going ahead and adding DHCP Server support as well. This is a nice little bonus feature for those wanting to validate their DHCP Clients or emulate a full DHCP network.

GTP Support

Our progress on implementing GTP slowed down a bit due to the recent 2.1 firmware update. That update includes the Lawful Intercept Lab and much more, but once that's out the door, we can finish GTP.

S1AP Support

Our S1AP implementation is making great progress, especially in terms of the common call flows. We can now register an eNodeB to an MME and are currently debugging our establishment of a default barrier for the UE (check out my first post for more details on these topics). The establishment of a default barrier requires some GTP and DHCP functionality, so, having read the above updates, you can see why there’s been a hold-up in this area. Once we get past that, we can start working on mobility, deregistering UEs from the network, and then onto FUZZING!

Overall, our LTE progress is great. We added some new functionality and learned, during the process, quite a bit of what customers are really looking for in LTE.