TETRA coming to USA!

[n1das]

I found this interesting item in today's FCC Daily Digest:

AMENDMENT OF PART 90 OF THE COMMISSION'S RULES TO PERMIT TERRESTRIAL TRUNKED RADIO TECHNOLOGY. Modified the rules to permit the certification and use of Terrestrial Trunked Radio equipment under Part 90 of the Rules. (Dkt No. 11-69 09-234 ). Action by: the Commission. Adopted: 09/19/2012 by R&O. (FCC No. 12-114). WTB
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-12-114A1.doc
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-12-114A1.pdf
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-12-114A1.txt

TETRA is coming!

 

[crayon]

We agree that interoperability is critical for public safety applications[1] and are sensitive to the concerns that parties have raised about the interference potential of TETRA on public safety systems. In light of these concerns, we do not believe the record supports allowing TETRA on the 800 MHz public safety NPSPAC channels.[2]

[1] The TETRA Association has assured the Commission that it does not intend to supplant Project 25 as the choice for public safety interoperability and will not promote TETRA to the public safety sector. TETRA Association reply comments at 13.

[2] We address the issue of so-called “reduced power” or “low power” TETRA separately at paragraph 13, infra.

At least NPSPAC is safe.

 

[SCPD]

I'm tetrafied!

 

[DaveH]

If I was thinking about adding TETRA to UniTrunker, I too would be TETRAfied...

Dave

 

[nd5y]

Tetra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Do they taste good?

 

[GTR8000]

The TETRA Association has assured the Commission that it does not intend to supplant Project 25 as the choice for public safety interoperability and will not promote TETRA to the public safety sector.

Gee, that sounds familiar. See: OpenSky, MOTOTRBO, et al.

 

[crayon]

Gee, that sounds familiar. See: OpenSky, MOTOTRBO, et al.

My thoughts exactly! Forgot to add the roll-of-the-eyes at the end.

:roll:

 

[grem467]

Oh goodie... yet another "standard"

 

[n1das]

Oh goodie... yet another "standard"

And more commercial equipment I'll someday be in the market for to experiment with on the ham bands!

I've already got P25, iDAS/NEXEDGE (NXDN), and DMR.

 

[Gezelle007]

Eww..

 

[gr8rcall]

I'm tetrafied!

I'm Petrafied.

 

[rapidcharger]

And more commercial equipment I'll someday be in the market for to experiment with on the ham bands!

I've already got P25, iDAS/NEXEDGE (NXDN), and DMR.

I think Tetra is all encrypted so it won't be of much use on the ham band.

Frankly I'm surprised it's taken this long for it to get here. There's so much money in these DTRS.

 

[smr]

Tetra can be encrypted. It does not have to be.

 

[Fizz306]

Speaking with a tech from procomm a few weeks ago, he said that nj transit pd is in the process of replacing their trs with a tetra system. He said it will be the first tetra system in the US. Can anyone else confirm this?

if its true, so much for "not marketing to public safety."

 

[JimTheScot989]

Tetra

Tetra for NJ transit pd? Might want to get the info correct. Also may want to re-evaluate Public Safety assistance on remaining with P-25. Seems more marketing than reality. Tetra provides all features and services Public Safety has been screaming to have, and Tetra has been around for quite a while, and will be around for longer than P-25.
Tetra is naturally (in its basic protocol) secure, no-one who is not on the system authorization can get the rolling code for the control and voice components of each transmission, and they can't get addressed on the system. On top of that, several very high encryption protocols can be implemented, making Tetra as impossible to decode as we can get. There are claims of a Tetra scanner, or receiver decoder but I have yet to see that confirmed. Additionally, Tetra uses a different vocoder and a different algorithm for the vocoder, providing excellent voice quality even in the presence of background noise which destroys P-25. As for Public Safety and Tetra, there must be a reason that over 140 countries of the World use Tetra for their "Security" radio (equivalent to USA Public Safety), and there are over 11,000 Tetra radio systems in operation around the World. There must be a reason???

 

[andrew1mbrs]

NJ transit will be the first TETRA system in the US

 

[Raccon]

Tetra is naturally (in its basic protocol) secure, no-one who is not on the system authorization can get the rolling code for the control and voice components of each transmission,
and they can't get addressed on the system.

Authentication and encryption are optional, thus if a TETRA network operates in clear mode and without authentication it would not be too difficult to clone a radio ID and listen in, which means the 'basic protocol' is not secure at all.

Authentication prevents unauthorized access while Air-Interface Encryption (AIE) protects the voice/data traffic and the signaling messages. AIE may use static or dynamic keys, with the latter making authentication mandatory (Security Class 3).

On top of that, several very high encryption protocols can be implemented, making Tetra as impossible to decode as we can get. There are claims of a Tetra scanner, or receiver decoder but I have yet to see that confirmed.

If you have the cash you can buy the Willtek / Aeroflex Air-analyzer that can decode TETRA signaling and voice, and optionally TETRA AIE (which requires the key). However what it AFAIK can't decode is End-to-End Encryption.

 

[Radiobec]

I agree that authentication en encryption are "optional" inasmuch as they can be programmed to be turned off, but they are part of the standard and as such come with every single TETRA terminal or handheld radio. These are not payable options with any TETRA manufacturer and it's pretty much a given that clients will use the built-in authentication and encryption

NJ Transit will be the 1st TETRA deployment in the US, but BC Hydro (Canada's 3rd largest utilities company) was the 1st TETRA network in North America and is currently being rolled out.

 

[Raccon]

I agree that authentication en encryption are "optional" inasmuch as they can be programmed to be turned off, but they are part of the standard and as such come with every single TETRA terminal or handheld radio.

Those options are however not necessary part of every infrastructure delivered in terms of software and hardware, so even the radio is capable it's of no use if the system only operates in clear because the options are not installed, not licensed or disabled.
Even the key delivery system for the infra is typically not included (which in itself has different options, e.g. offline/online, clear/encrypted etc.). Same goes for radios where the user wants to program his own keys (not mandatory however as the radios can be delivered with the key from the factory).

These are not payable options with any TETRA manufacturer ..

False. I do know that a certain Manufacturer in at least one case only licensed the radio features that were requested in the tender, and they refused to enable another feature to fulfill a request by the end user organization to solve an operational issue.
AFAIK said feature is actually mandatory to be TETRA compliant but the vendor said he would need to install some additional software to the radio (dunno if that's true) and that it would be chargeable.

...and it's pretty much a given that clients will use the built-in authentication and encryption

Also false. Options typically means payable options (some of which are not necessarily built-in), so clients that are budget-conscious may not chose those and hence won't be able to use them. Even the options (including all soft- and hardware) were all there from a technical point of view there may still be a commercial issue related to licensing, maybe not so much for radios but usually for the infrastructure.

 

[n1das]

I found this interesting item in today's FCC Daily Digest:

AMENDMENT OF PART 90 OF THE COMMISSION'S RULES TO PERMIT TERRESTRIAL TRUNKED RADIO (TETRA) TECHNOLOGY. Granted the Petition for Clarification and/or Reconsideration filed by Motorola Solutions, Inc. Clarified a Report and Order and rules in Part 90 regarding the use of TETRA and other technologies. (Dkt No. 11-69 ). Action by: the Commission. Adopted: 07/02/2013 by Order on Reconsideration. (FCC No. 13-91). WTB http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-13-91A1.docx
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-13-91A1.pdf
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-13-91A1.txt