https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • Product Guides
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • Product Guides
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Project 25


Article

P25 still a challenge for support staffs

P25 still a challenge for support staffs

During the past two decades, Project 25 (P25) has been developed as a leading public-safety communications standard, but those charged with supporting and maintaining the interoperable nature of these systems have seen challenges, according to panelists at the International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE) last month.
  • Written by Donny Jackson
  • 16th April 2013

 

When it comes to Project 25 digital radios, cost still is a significant barrier to entry. While the standards suite—more than two decades in the making—finally is fulfilling the promise held for it regarding interoperability, the ability to mix and match subscriber units has not yet resulted in the dramatic price reductions that many imagined would result from increased vendor competition.

But there are other challenges. One concerns maintaining radios from several different vendors, said Karl Larson—public-safety project manager for the city of Portland—who participated in a P25 panel discussion last month during the International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE).

“Competition, particularly for the subscriber units, is very important,” Larson said. “But since we maintain all of the public-safety radios in Multnomah County … when you have nine different radios, the radio shop is concerned about the number of templates, how long it’s going to take to do all of that, and how they’re going to maintain all of that.

“So, what we’ve done is split our RFP process into two processes,” he continued. “We have an infrastructure RFP that I’m reviewing right now, and then—in 2014—we’ll be issuing a subscriber RFP that will get more into that competition. We want to structure it somehow so that we don’t have nine [radio types], but maybe a top tier, middle tier and lower tier, so that we can limit the number of maintenance problems that we might have at the shop.”

Tom Sorley, deputy director in charge of the city of Houston’s radio communications system, said he’d like to see future iterations of the standard include a common template that all vendors would use. Short of that, Sorley encouraged vendors to create troubleshooting databases that would ease the maintenance burden.

“Come up with use cases or known scenarios—create a knowledge base—so that when a person who owns a Harris radio system and they program an Icom radio, if they get this problem—whatever this problem is—they can go to the database to find out what the trigger was the last time someone had this issue,” Sorley said. “In order to religiously encourage competition, I’ve got to be able to support it.”

Another step in the right direction would be to add a component to the Inter-RF Subsystem Interface (ISSI)—the interface that connects disparate P25 systems by establishing roaming between authenticated users—that would address system migration.

“You have systems that have had multiple revisions from the same manufacturer,” said Steve Devine,  interoperability program manager for the Missouri Department of Public Safety. “So there really is a need for a standard system interface, whether it’s between two vendor systems, or even within a single vendor system that happens to be at different revisions.

For example, the city of Joplin, Mo., uses the same Motorola P25 system that the Missouri statewide network is using, but the latter system operates at a different software revision. Because each revision has different features and capabilities, incompatibilities result that negatively affect interoperability, Devine said.

"So, there needs to be something in the ISSI that would promote intersystem [migration between] multiple vendors, as well as within the same vendor at different revisions—that would really be helpful,” he said.

When upgrading, it is vital that system operators ensure that operability isn’t compromised, Sorley said.

“One of my neighbors upgraded to an newer version of the operating system on their radio, and the ability for a certain type of roaming that they used for the other vendors would no longer work,” Sorley said.  

“Not only did they break the other manufacturers’ radios, they broke their own. They would still operate in a basic functionality mode … but if you have a feature that’s not basic functionality, but is a primary feature that makes your system usable, [breaking] it can have some big issues.” 

Tags: Interoperability Portables Project 25 Public Safety Subscriber Devices Article

Most Recent


  • AR-based next-gen maps aim to rebalance detail and simplicity
    Every sat-nav user is familiar with the chagrin of missing their turn because the map’s lines and circles don’t resemble the real world. Yandex is blaming maps, not users, for these errors. At its annual conference in December, the company presented its re-designed maps boasting natural-looking 3D objects such as trees, bus stops, colored buildings, […]
  • Vodafone UK starts 'risky' shift to 5G standalone
    Vodafone’s Andrea Dona has unflattering words for some of the IT products that could sit inside his high-performance 5G network. “There are OSS limitations,” said the chief network officer of the UK service provider, referring to operational support systems from unnamed vendors. “If there is full automation on the 5G element, and the OSS is […]
  • ChatGPT may be fastest-growing app of all time, UBS Says
    OpenAI’s immensely popular chatbot ChatGPT may just have broken the record for the fastest-growing app in history, reaching an estimated 123 million monthly active users less than three months after launch. According a research note from UBS shared with AI Business, TikTok took nine months to hit 100 million MAUs and it took Instagram 2.5 years […]
  • Public-safety coalition renews efforts to secure federal NG911 funding
    A coalition of public-safety associations today reiterated its support for federal legislation that would provide the funding needed to pay for 911 centers to migrate from legacy technologies to an IP-based next-generation 911 (NG911) platform that is designed to support multimedia communications, as well as traditional voice calls. Representatives of the Public Safety Next Generation […]

6 comments

  1. Avatar Anonymous 17th April 2013 @ 3:32 pm
    Reply

    P-25 as far as
    P-25 as far as interoperability is concerned is not the system APCO touted. If anything it has created more issues with interoperabuility. There is so much more interoperability using analog narrowband that many entities do not use it. It has made interoperability between users and manufacturers a nightmare. The reasons given above are just the tip of the iceberg. I see it as only getting worse, not better.

    • Avatar GBH 19th April 2013 @ 6:31 pm
      Reply

      You’re exactly right. Early
      You’re exactly right. Early on, APCO let vendors add their own special “Marketing Features” to their supposidly P25 interoperable products, and yet still call them P25. The result was products that were’nt as interoperable, but were a lot more expensive, than the radios that they replaced. That should have never been allowed to happen. For those that can remember, a similar game was played with “AM STEREO broadcasting”. You can see how well that went!

  2. Avatar resham 17th April 2013 @ 4:56 pm
    Reply

    Boy I sure miss analog FM,
    I

    Boy I sure miss analog FM,

    I miss the days when you could have Motorola, Kenwood, Icom, Vertex, Tait, Bendix King, GE, NAT, Wulfsberg and Technisonics radios (the last 3 being the airborne guys) all on a good old FM repeater with a CTCSS of say 100.0 Hz and all of the radios could talk to one another and you didn’t have to worry about a firmware upgrade shutting you out of the system.

  3. Avatar GBH 18th April 2013 @ 4:00 am
    Reply

    With interoperability being
    With interoperability being the chief reason for P25 in the first place, APCO and the FCC should never allow a radio to carry the P25 label or be type accepted for P25 emission unless all critical functions interoperate between all P25 products. Not doing that severely handicaps the mission of P25. The vendors might not like that but these radios are for protecting lives and property–not for vendor agenda advancement.

  4. Avatar Anonymous 18th April 2013 @ 1:23 pm
    Reply

    Mr. Devine,
    Joplin is 800MHz.

    Mr. Devine,
    Joplin is 800MHz. MOSWIN is VHF. Thats the bigger inhibitor for interoperability. Not the vendor’s release.

  5. Avatar Anonymous 1st May 2013 @ 1:18 pm
    Reply

    Amen, I could not agree more.
    Amen, I could not agree more. I have been on my soapbox for years about P25 interoperability being a joke as long as manufacturers are allowed to give away or offer proprietary encryption or that government entities are allowed to use tha feature in bid specs.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • P25 still a challenge for support staffs
  • P25 still a challenge for support staffs
  • P25 still a challenge for support staffs
  • P25 still a challenge for support staffs

Commentary


How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient

26th January 2023

3GPP moves Release 18 freeze date to March 2024

18th January 2023

Do smart cities make safer cities?

  • 1
6th January 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

AR-based next-gen maps aim to rebalance detail and simplicity dlvr.it/Sj4gdM

7th February 2023
UrgentComm

Vodafone UK starts ‘risky’ shift to 5G standalone dlvr.it/Sj4dPJ

7th February 2023
UrgentComm

ChatGPT may be fastest-growing app of all time, UBS Says dlvr.it/Sj4NfL

7th February 2023
UrgentComm

Public-safety coalition renews efforts to secure federal NG911 funding dlvr.it/ShwGfn

4th February 2023
UrgentComm

Newscan: Cyberattacks on DoE national labs draw lawmaker scrutiny dlvr.it/Shvpw3

3rd February 2023
UrgentComm

The shine begins to wear off 5G private wireless dlvr.it/Shth0P

3rd February 2023
UrgentComm

Phishers trick Microsoft into granting them ‘verified’ Cloud Partner status dlvr.it/Shqngn

2nd February 2023
UrgentComm

Shapeshifting robot can morph from a liquid to a solid dlvr.it/Shqk9K

2nd February 2023

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.