Open source, cost optimised and future-proofing flexibility

UmTRX is a dual-channel wide-band SDR platform with gigabit Ethernet connectivity, that is developed by Fairwaves and designed to be used as a transceiver (TRX) with OpenBTS and OsmoBTS GSM base stations.

Given its SDR architecture UmTRX can easily be used with many other RF applications, and a combination of FPGA and FPRF (Field-Programmable RF) technology plus the ability to process data on a CPU or a DSP, makes it an extraordinarily flexible platform.

Key features

  • Two full duplex channels that can tune from 300MHz to 3.8GHz 1
  • 100mW @ 900MHz, 50mW @ 1800MHz RF output power 2
  • Integrated TCXO and GPS for frequency stability
  • Thermal sensors for temperature based calibration
  • Optimised for industrial use and high MTBF
  • 1GbE Ethernet connectivity to a computer

1GSM: Quad-band and dual-ARFCN support.
2GSM: 100-200m coverage with an external duplexer and a small omnidirectional antenna, and >2km coverage with the addition of an external 2W amplifier and a patch antenna.

For more details see UmTRX v2.3.1 datasheet.

Licensing

UmTRX is open source hardware and Altium Designer schematic and board layout files are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.

FPGA HDL and host driver sources are made available under the GPL v3 license.

Ecosystem

UmTRX is part of the Osmocom family of open source projects, and is also a partner project of Myriad-RF. As such it benefits from being part of an ever-growing ecosystem of complementary hardware and software for mobile communications and more.

Contributors

  • Alexander Chemeris — project leader
  • Andrey Sviyazov — hardware design
  • Jean-Samuel Najnudel — hardware design and manufacturing
  • Josh Blum — FPGA HDL, initial host-side code
  • Sylvain Munaut — various improvements
  • Eric Wild — host-side code
  • Andrey Sviyazov, Sergey Kostanbaev — debugging
  • Andrey Bakhmat — logo, diagrams and photos
  • Andrew Karpenkov – FPGA development
  • Andrew Back — community management

Thanks

UmTRX uses its own version of the UHD firmware/driver platform and we would like to thank Ettus Research and all those who have contributed to UHD development.

Commercial solutions

UmTRX is a transceiver only. Turnkey base stations and the associated core network servers, along with consultancy services and support, are available from Fairwaves.