LTE?

[JethrowJohnson]

I've heard that a lot of newer professional radios (IE: Motorola APX NEXT, Kenwood Viper (?)8000, and Tait [can't remember specific model]) have a feature that switches the radio to LTE mode when there's no LMR signal. Does this mean that if an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper from Post 84 were pursuing a suspect and had one of these radios, and the suspect crossed over into West Virginia and the trooper continued all the way to, say Charleston for example, then even though he was completely out of range of any Ohio MARCS-IP towers, the radio would use the cell phone towers to connect all the way back to MARCS so that he still had communication with Cambridge? Am I understanding this correctly or am I way off? Thank you 🙂

 

[MTS2000des]

Motorola Solutions has Smart Connect, which is a system level enhancement, that leverages commercial carrier LTE to enhance coverage. Using an APX NEXT subscriber, the user can roam seamlessly between LMR and LTE if provisioned.

Harris sellls BeON, which is similar in form and function.

 

[JethrowJohnson]

Does that mean that they would still have coverage even if they're miles away from their regular towers?

 

[KevinC]

Does that mean that they would still have coverage even if they're miles away from their regular towers?

Yes. If as noted by @MTS2000des everything is provisioned accordingly.

 

[JethrowJohnson]

That's cool. I'm glad those companies included that feature. Thanks guys. 🙂

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Tait has the TP9800, Kenwood (actually EF Johnson) has the VP8000. The VP8000 does not have LTE built into the radio. I can't talk about the details but it's an "interesting" story.

I don't know what the LTE interface looks like between manufacturers. I assume Tait's and EFJ's will use ISSI. Motorola's is pretty much guaranteed to be proprietary to Motorola. Don't know about BeON.

 

[tweiss3]

@JethrowJohnson the APX Next is not approved for use on MARCS, and is not in use by OSP. But your theory is is possible as noted above.

 

[mmckenna]

Yeah, Kenwood/EFJohnson left that sitting on the table. That took them off the list for what I'm buying for work.

The Harris BeON system ties into their Vida P25 Core.
I've played with both BeON from Harris and Wave from Motorola. Both seem to work fine.

The trick is the radio knowing when to use what.
On a trunked radio system, the radio can watch for loss of control channel and switch over to LTE.
On a conventional system, it requires the end user manually switching over.
Not sure if Wave will run both RF and LTE at the same time, I'm not quite familiar with their solution.

They'll also work over WiFi….

So, yeah, an officer could take his/her portable radio, get on an airplane, fly across the county, connect to the LTE network, and talk back into dispatch.

No, it's not the right solution for everyone. Yes, it uses (fill in cellular carrier you hate most here)'s network. Yes, we know that LTE networks are not necessarily as robust as a well designed LMR network.

But, it's a useful option and easily expands radio coverage, and adds a huge amount of flexibility.
The new California Radio Interoperability System (CRIS) uses Motorola Wave in addition to their 700MHz and VHF trunking network.

 

[JethrowJohnson]

Will that feature work with analog conventional repeaters too? For example, a few years ago Marietta Police had a subject with mental health difficulties, and she tried to escape from the hospital at least once, and they ended up taking her all the way to Columbus to one of their hospitals (I was surprised they didn't call OSHP and have them transport, but they took her themselves) Would a P25 trunk, LTE, etc. capable radio connect to our analog repeater? I know you said it would work on conventional, but I wasn't sure if it would only work with digital or if it was completely flexible.

 

[GTR8000]

To be clear, SmartConnect and WAVE are two different products. WAVE is for phones/tablets that run a PTT app to interface with the system. SmartConnect is for LTE/WiFi capable APX subscribers.

The NEXT is not the only SmartConnect capable device. It is also available with the WiFi capable subscribers (6000BN, 6500BN, 8000, 8500). The key difference is that the NEXT series uses its integrated LTE to connect, whereas the rest use WiFi as they have no integrated LTE.

 

[Citywide173]

Will that feature work with analog conventional repeaters too? For example, a few years ago Marietta Police had a subject with mental health difficulties, and she tried to escape from the hospital at least once, and they ended up taking her all the way to Columbus to one of their hospitals (I was surprised they didn't call OSHP and have them transport, but they took her themselves) Would a P25 trunk, LTE, etc. capable radio connect to our analog repeater? I know you said it would work on conventional, but I wasn't sure if it would only work with digital or if it was completely flexible.

Short answer: maybe. There is a lot more to the system than just switching between the radio system (analog, P25, DMR, etc) and the LTE. Automatic switching would only occur on a radio system where there is a constant signal talking to the radio such as a trunked system. A manual switch might be possible on a conventional system where there is not that type of constant communication. There has to be a gateway of some type to connect the two. LTE, to simplify for these purposes, is the cellular phone network. When using LTE, the radio is nothing more than a cellular phone using a PTT app such as Zello-there has to be another radio (again oversimplified) that is physically located inside the coverage area of the radio system that is also interfaced through the PTT app to the LTE network. Can there be LTE-LTE communication by radios on the same system? Yes, but unless there is a gateway to put it on the radio system, it could not be monitored on a scanner.

 

[mmckenna]

There's ESChat, also.
I don't know of any radios that use ESChat, but you can get apps for cell phones and it'll connect back into the P25 core over IP.

It's a good solution for those guys that don't need a portable radio. Detectives like it. Chief working from home, etc.

 

[speedway_navigator]

Our county is testing smart connect, where it might come in handy is a pursuit that goes out of county.