Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Vodafone unveils prototype 5G network built on a Raspberry Pi computer

vodafone.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 110 posts

Re: Vodafone unveils prototype 5G network built on a Raspberry Pi computer

#11

Post by secondcoming »

What's the benefit over a normal 5G router? I'd imagine SDR is somewhat power hungry, not ideal in the current energy climate in some countries.

I did try using a bog-standard 5G mobile phone as a dedicated hotspot, but there's quite a speed drop so I assume Android isn't optimised at all for this use-case, which is a shame since 5G routers are essentially stripped down mobile phones.

Huawei seem to dominate the 5G router space (I have one as they were the only ones supplying one at the time I needed one), Nokia have a 'Fast Mile' offering but it seems it's not for the end consumer. They're missing a trick here IMO.

I also would be very reluctant to use equipment from an MNO, epecially since they all seem to be onboard with TrustPid [0] for marketing purposes bullshit.

[0] https://www.trustpid.com/

Re: Vodafone unveils prototype 5G network built on a Raspberry Pi computer

#12

Post by EwanToo »

Schattenbaer wrote: post #8
hinkley wrote: post #4

If we could get an off the shelf SOC that's powerful enough to manage a PCIe daughter card, that would make me so happy. Software defined radio, offloaded eBPF, RAID controllers, are just the most obvious compute peripherals but there are a million others that could exist but don't. edit: acronym typo

We maybe come from different worlds but I have soc == security operations centre and ebnf == extended Backus-Naur form. What are these in the context of your comment, though?

SoC in this case is a system on a chip - despite the "a" it's abbreviated the same

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_on_a_chip

Re: Vodafone unveils prototype 5G network built on a Raspberry Pi computer

#13

Post by deusum »

radicaldreamer wrote: post #5
polalavik wrote: post #2

> Vodafone is now looking at ways to democratise MPNs and extend their benefits to micro and small business owners whilst lowering the entry cost and reducing the resources needed to experience new digital services oh like... maybe making it open source? Or democratization as in "sell as many as possible"?

Sell as many as possible and require an on-going service/support contract or charge by usage.

Software updates discontinued after twelve months.

New hardware required for modest improvement.

Re: Vodafone unveils prototype 5G network built on a Raspberry Pi computer

#15

Post by monocasa »

miniman1337 wrote: post #7
hinkley wrote: post #4

If we could get an off the shelf SOC that's powerful enough to manage a PCIe daughter card, that would make me so happy. Software defined radio, offloaded eBPF, RAID controllers, are just the most obvious compute peripherals but there are a million others that could exist but don't. edit: acronym typo

CM4 supports it, although its just 1x and PCIe 2.0

The RPi4 SoC has a lot constraints wrt PCIe and frankly appears to not implement the PCIe spec completely or correctly. A lot PCIe devices simply don't work with it.

Re: Vodafone unveils prototype 5G network built on a Raspberry Pi computer

#16

Post by jbverschoor »

borland wrote: post #10

Isn't this just "Now you can pay to purchase and operate hardware to compensate for our crappy coverage, so we don't have to improve it ourselves?"

They already sell 5g stations to use in your home when they don't have coverage.

Re: Vodafone unveils prototype 5G network built on a Raspberry Pi computer

#17

Post by jbverschoor »

Schattenbaer wrote: post #8
hinkley wrote: post #4

If we could get an off the shelf SOC that's powerful enough to manage a PCIe daughter card, that would make me so happy. Software defined radio, offloaded eBPF, RAID controllers, are just the most obvious compute peripherals but there are a million others that could exist but don't. edit: acronym typo

We maybe come from different worlds but I have soc == security operations centre and ebnf == extended Backus-Naur form. What are these in the context of your comment, though?

CaPiTaLiZaTiOn

Re: Vodafone unveils prototype 5G network built on a Raspberry Pi computer

#18

Post by tjohns »

secondcoming wrote: post #11

What's the benefit over a normal 5G router? I'd imagine SDR is somewhat power hungry, not ideal in the current energy climate in some countries. I did try using a bog-standard 5G mobile phone as a dedicated hotspot, but there's quite a speed drop so I assume Android isn't optimised at all for this use-case, which is a shame since 5G routers are essentially stripped down mobile phones. Huawei seem to dominate the 5G r…

You have the use case backwards. This device emulates a (private, short range) cell tower.

Re: Vodafone unveils prototype 5G network built on a Raspberry Pi computer

#20

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

deusum wrote: post #13
radicaldreamer wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sell as many as possible and require an on-going service/support contract or charge by usage.

Software updates discontinued after twelve months. New hardware required for modest improvement.

> Software updates discontinued after twelve months.

It could be worse: we are talking about a retail consumer phone network operator here: so I'm thinking... operator-mandated nonremovable shovelware pre-installed in the only supported base OS image. Oh, and Candy Crush Saga too.

Post reply on HN