How is a WACN chosen?

[Jay911]

Hi all,

Is there any rhyme or reason to how a WACN is picked for a particular system/deployment? Do vendors/installers get a block of values they can use (Motorola having one block, Harris another, etc) if they don't want the default BEE00? (Any idea why the default is BEE00, btw?)

Obviously the ones like the US government/military system (580A0) all have that same (yet unique to other systems) WACN in order to link together in some fashion. What would necessitate or warrant using a different WACN for a system with only one sysid? Is it as simple as the whim/preference of the installer?

Several examples off the top of my head: Province of Ontario's RCMP Central Region Operational Communications is 8D45F. (Another RCMP system temporarily in use in Ontario used BEE00.) Province of Saskatchewan's Provincewide Public Safety Telecommunications Network uses 0000A. RCMP in the province of Newfoundland are using 0000C. And I discovered ATCO Electric's long-rumored system finally in Alberta yesterday, using 0ACB5.

Thanks in advance...

 

[OCO]

Jay:
The only thing I've ever seen is the process proposed by Mot and adopted by APCO about 10 years ago in this document. Apparently not universally applied.

 

[Jay911]

Thanks, looks like an interesting document - I'll have to peruse it in greater depth sometime this week.

 

[c5corvette]

The only thing I've ever seen is the process proposed by Mot and adopted by APCO about 10 years ago in this document. Apparently not universally applied.

That docment is not universally applied at all. I have only found one or two DOD systems that you could correlate the call sign to the WACN.

Jay, I am no expert, but it appears for the most part that the BEE00 is not a default, but simply what /V\ chooses to put everyone of their systems on. Unless of course the customer knows better and asks for something specific or at least unique. Harris on the other hand, uses a different standard applied. So your post and your own comments were on the right track.

The issue here is that WACN is becoming more important with the use of wide area systems, overlay systems, and intra-WACN roaming. So all the /V\ systems with BEE00 may be able to talk to one another someday ;-) if and when subscriber satuation has propogated every device with that featureset?

More and more places need to think about what is being implemented - I have seen some systems operated by the feds that were supposed to be part of the same network but used different WACN and while this may not pose a problem to network them, intra-WACN roaming is out of the question. Conversely, every new system coming on line in my area is BEE00. And, if you dont use the features designed around it, the WACN is basically irrelevant to you.

 

[OCO]

Maybe it's not being followed, but it's the closest thing to a standard for P25 implementation that's been published (which it has been by the TIA). There are back references to that document in many places - including Eric Carlson's P25 WACN and System ID to Callsign converter. Seems like any entity getting Fed funds for P25 implementation should be following the APCO/TIA document..... especially since the intention is system interoperability.

 

[Jay911]

The biggest flaw I see in assigning/linking a WACN to a callsign (or vice versa) is that a WACN by definition covers a wide area, and a callsign specifies one particular location. Or is it done differently in the USA? Here in Canada, my department's callsign CFA476 only refers to the exact tower site at our station. Our other tower site has a completely different callsign.

 

[Jay911]

Hah.. Running the last WACN I posted in the OP through the decoder that CJDC mentioned two posts up gives you "A?COEL" ... I would imagine the ? should be a T, and you'd have ATCO ELectric.

 

[OCO]

Hah.. Running the last WACN I posted in the OP through the decoder that CJDC mentioned two posts up gives you "A?COEL" ... I would imagine the ? should be a T, and you'd have ATCO ELectric.

So someones also got an "encoder" program to generate any short phrase you want into a WACN... What's the system ID?

As far as licensing, same here as far as I know, except Simulcast sites that I've looked at all run under the same license... How'd you like to manage these (MPSCS) ?

 

[Jay911]

The full sysid/WACN combo is E94-0ACB5.

I also just confirmed with another Canadian system: 36F-8D45F is a system currently under testing in Ontario for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Most police licenses in the Canadian equivalent of the FCC database are "protected" meaning you can't view them in the license browser unless you're the owner. The string that 36F-8D45F decodes to, when entered into the Industry Canada license browser, states it is a protected license from a particular district office (of IC) in Ontario.

Also, I've tried some decodes of other non-BEE00 WACNs and they appear to convert to the first six characters of a typical US callsign (example, MPSCS's 796-92493 = WPIH50, and site 001-001 of MPSCS is WPIH507).

EDIT: ###-580A0 seems to correspond to "NCR __" where __ is one or two characters of value. 0D1-580A0 is "NCR EI"; 010-580A0 is "NCR P" (two spaces between the two character strings), and 032-580A0 is "NCR AJ". Your guess is as good as mine if the two letters mean anything, but obviously NCR = National Capital Region.

Knowing that is going to prove to be extremely helpful, I would wager, in determining the users of non-BEE00 WACNs as they pop up.

Now to figure out why BEE00 and if they are all Motorola systems or just people not interested in following "the rules"....

And yes, MPSCS certainly appears to be a daunting system! I monitored a bit of it this summer when I was in Windsor, ON, and the amount of data going back and forth is staggering (not to mention the talkgroup/RID load, I'm sure). Our provincewide P25 system supposed to be established in Alberta over the next 24-ish months is reportedly going to have 400 sites, so I imagine it'll be good practice for me to learn how MPSCS is put together.

 

[Jay911]

That docment is not universally applied at all. I have only found one or two DOD systems that you could correlate the call sign to the WACN.

I ran a few through the "decoder" (actually I made an Excel/OpenOffice spreadsheet that does the same thing) and most of them use some kind of initials corresponding to the site.

Examples:

Aberdeen Proving Ground (04B-08C76) = APGOPK (note 'APG' - and I find myself wondering if there is an O___ Peak or O___ Park where the tower is at)

Mountain Home Air Force Base (005-52812) = MHAED7 (for what it's worth, "MHAFB" would be 5D0-52812; maybe they didn't want a sysid of that "size")

Fort Benning (01E-90B20) = WFB 0 (two spaces between the "B" and the "0")

It would appear that some (many) of the systems started out with a phrase or acronym to generate the SysID and WACN, then used a different SysID for unknown reasons. (See the Mountain Home AFB example.)

 

[Mos32313]

How WACN is chosen in a P25 with multi sites

I have about to create a P25 system with multiple sites . Each radio site will have a unique Call sign. but I don't know how WACN or SYS ID would be chosen or calculated?

Do I go with the lowest call sign to generate the System ID and WACN? any suggestions?

 

[Comint]

I have about to create a P25 system with multiple sites . Each radio site will have a unique Call sign. but I don't know how WACN or SYS ID would be chosen or calculated?

Do I go with the lowest call sign to generate the System ID and WACN? any suggestions?

Just use the first callsign that was licensed.

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Comint