[Replicant] 4G/LTE Dongles and more

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Hi,

Am 12.08.2015 um 02:43 schrieb Geoff S. <geoff at mithrandir.paypc.com>:

> 
> 1. It may interest the group to know that I have made contact with several chip manufacturers in China and OEM manufacturers who after a lot of explaining have indicated a willingness to physically isolate a baseband from the rest of the system.  It is not perfect, but it cuts out reguatory hassles and 90% of code hassles so we can concentrate on a secure rest-of-system.

almost all 3G/4G modules you can get (Gemalto, OPTION, Telit) already have a serial interface with RS232 and USB for high speed and are isolated from the application processor. This is why we use them in the GTA04 and Neo900.

> 
> It is important to get critical mass in the eco-system, this equivalent to a PC and a dumb modem circa 1995 on a serial port is achievable.
> 
> 
> 2. In a totally different direction, can someone point me to any 4G/LTE cellular dongle makers that have blob free driver for their device that can be compiled ?

e.g. OPTION modules have a HSO driver in Linux. Gemalto modules do not even need a driver because they use the standard ttyACM protocol and PPP.

So I am not exactly clear which problem you want to solve. It is IMHO not availability of such isolated solutions but that smart phone vendors don’t use them (for space and cost reasons).

BR,
Nikolaus