[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk and picoCell GSM Base Stations

[John Todd]

At 7:18 PM +1200 3/31/04, Simon Anderson wrote:
>
>picoCell/microCell/nanoCell Base stations are low powered GSM nodes
>designed for indoor or small area GSM coverage. Their transmission power
>is low enough to meet the legal restrictions of many countries.
>
>Here are two examples;
>
>http://www.rivanetworks.com/nano/nano.htm
>http://www.ipaccess.com/ipaccess_pages2/bts2.html
>
>Both of these Base Stations have an RJ-45 in order to do Ethernet on the
>back end; GSM in, IP out.
>
>I wonder if anyone has experience interfacing one of these or a similar
>product with Asterisk?
>
>I also wonder if Digium has any plans to supply PCI cards which provide
>similar functionality?
>
>The prospect of recycling old cell phones for use as Asterisk extensions
>is extremely attractive.
>
>Cellular phone ---GSM---> picoCell ---IP---> Asterisk
>
>Regards,
>Simon.

This looks interesting, but can you explain this a bit more?  The 
term "IP out" is incredibly vague, and on neither of the websites 
(after a 30 second review) did they say exactly what they mean with 
"IP out".  Does this turn GSM calls into SIP transactions?  Does it 
need another similar device somewhere else on the IP network that 
then turns the calls back into TDM via an FXS interface?   What 
_does_ IP mean in this context?

JT