Radionet announced the open source release of a full set of open source software that can be used by companies and individuals to build Linux-based IEEE 802.11 based wireless access points. The intent, according to Radionet, is to foster worldwide collaboration on the “ROSE” (Radionet Open Source Environment) software platform, an open source implementation of software the company has already used to… build city-wide WLAN “hot zones” in Finland.

According to Radionet, ROSE has minimal system resource requirements and can be used in handheld and embedded devices, as well as on desktop PCs and laptops. Currently ROSE is available for x86 and PowerPC architectures, but the software can easily be cross compiled to other platforms such as MIPS and ARM, Radionet said.

Radionet said the new ROSE online developer community will serve as the center for ROSE software development and will provide documentation, support forums, mailing lists, and source code. Additionally, Radionet said it plans to involve the open source community in the management of ROSE, and that future ROSE architecture and development decisions will be made within the community.

Optional Radionet feature packages are also available under commercial licenses, and Radionet also sells a hardware development kit that includes a wireless base station along with an integrated antenna, and is supplied with ROSE software and documentation.

ROSE, which is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), is currently available along with sources and full documentation from the ROSE community website, Radionet said.

 
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