Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] article: "No-knob" radio: the future ofWarfightercommunications?

[Jeff Brower]

Matt-

> We have repeatedly made statements about our commitment to continue
> developing GNU Radio and to open source, both in our original
> announcement and in several following emails.  We employ three GNU Radio
> developers full time, including Josh Blum who created GRC.  I don't know
> what else you could possibly want, or how else we could possibly state it.

Everything I'm hearing sounds good, your statements are re-assuring and 
passionate.

Please forgive me, but I'm just asking where's NI's official statement?  Is 
that not a reasonable question to ask?  I
checked their website every day this week.  I doubt I'm the only one who was 
doing that.

> If you read the GPL, you would know that nobody can take GPL'ed code
> away from you.  If the US Army guys in the article below have any
> concerns, I'm sure they know how to contact me.

Not to quibble, but like anything else, GPL code cannot infringe an existing 
patent.

> I don't understand your concern about the lack of a press release.  The
> acquisition has closed and we are continuing to go about our normal
> business.  Right now Tom and I are working on MIMO OFDM code.  You can
> follow our ofdm branches in git if you like.  Still all GPL.
>
> I understand the concern about any significant change like this.
> However, I would ask you to look at Ettus Research's 5 and a half year
> commitment to GNU Radio and open source, my personal 9 year commitment
> to GNU Radio, my personal 12 year track record of contributions to
> multiple open source projects, the tens of thousands of lines of open
> source code we have produced, and our multiple affirmative statements of
> continued support.

Yes I know.  I recognize this fully.  I'm a 50 yr old guy with a long track 
record in engineering and business in DSP,
telecom, and software since I started writing Apple II programs in 1980.  In my 
day we didn't have open source (or the
Internet) so we started small companies and learned the hard way about patents 
and IP rights and acquisitions.  When I
was a few years younger than you are now I was founding a company after leaving 
another one I had co-founded, which
eventually got acquired in Jan 2004 by NI.  So yes I'm old curmudgeon who's 
seen a lot, which is why I insist on
asking such questions.

I can see I'm probably being annoying, so I'll keep my questions about an NI 
announcement to myself from this point.

-Jeff

> On 02/12/2010 04:43 PM, Jeff Brower wrote:
>> Ettus Guys-
>>
>>> http://www.army.mil/-news/2010/01/27/33577-no-knob-radio-the-future-of-warfighter-communications/
>>>
>>> "No-knob" radio: the future of Warfighter communications?
>>
>> After as week, this brings up a question:  is there supposed to be an 
>> official PR or other announcement about the
>> acquisition on NI's website?  I don't see anything yet.
>>
>> I would think that some statement from NI clarifying continuation of open 
>> source status and GPL licensing for GNU
>> radio software (and hardware and FPGA logic, very crucial) would be 
>> re-assuring to GNU radio developers and users,
>> as
>> well as users-in-planning -- such as US Army guys mentioned below.  Unless 
>> the acquisition hasn't actually closed
>> yet,
>> then the only thing I can guess that might be holding up NI is if they need 
>> to tweak their wording, for example
>> mention items that might be excepted from GNU licensing if they conflict 
>> with one of their many patents.  The block
>> diagram user interface in GRC would be one possible example.
>>
>> -Jeff
>>
>>> Jan 27, 2010
>>>
>>> By Sharon Rushen, CERDEC Public Affairs
>>>
>>> FORT MONMOUTH, N.J. - U.S. Army engineers in collaboration with
>>> their Navy counterparts hope to open the gates of cognitive radio
>>> development to academia, industry and other DoD organizations by
>>> building a universal radio test-bed this year.
>>>
>>> The Communications-Electronics Research, Development and
>>> Engineering Center's Software Defined Radio lab will work with the
>>> Navy Research Lab to transfer previous development done on the
>>> Joint Tactical Radio System to the GNU Radio's open source, free
>>> software environment.
>>>
>>> Through the GNU platform which is inexpensive and universally
>>> accessible, universities, contract companies and government
>>> agencies can use a common platform to advance the state of
>>> cognitive radio software. The transition to the GNU platform will
>>> help ease collaboration efforts with other organizations who
>>> frequently opt to use 'grass-roots' hardware for programming due
>>> to the comparably high-cost and limited accessibility of JTRS radios.
>>>
>>> Additionally, the GNU platform will enable the SDR lab to conduct
>>> large lab tests and field tests, rather than having to simulate
>>> larger-scale network testing. The cost constraints associated with
>>> the JTRS radio prohibit larger-scale networking, limiting the
>>> number of radios they can test at one time, explained SDR lab team
>>> lead, Tim Leising.
>>>
>>> Through funding provided by the Office of the Secretary of
>>> Defense, Director of Defense, Research and Engineering, the SDR
>>> lab team will collaborate with the Navy Research Lab, to start
>>> building a universal GNU radio test bed this year. Once the
>>> test-bed is completed, they will work together to make it
>>> remote-accessible using the Defense Research Engineering Network
>>> to house the software platform, allowing DoD organizations and
>>> external research partners to test their software on it from any
>>> location.
>>>
>>> CERDEC will facilitate a dial-in Q&A session for media
>>> participants to interact with leading U.S. Army researchers
>>> involved in developing the GNU test-bed. To participate in the
>>> media round table, contact CERDEC Public Affairs: (732) 427-1926.
>>>
>>> The Communications-Electronics Research, Development and
>>> Engineering Center (CERDEC) is one of the research and development
>>> centers under the U.S. Army's Research, Development and
>>> Engineering Command (RDECOM).
>>>
>>> The Software-Defined Radio (SDR) lab is part of CERDEC's Space and
>>> Terrestrial Communications Directorate.
>>> --------------------------
>>> de Ken N9VV
>>
>>
>>
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