M/A-COM deploys IP-based P25 system in National Capitol Region

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kikito

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M/A-COM deploys IP-based P25 system in National Capitol Region

Oct 11, 2006 7:03 PM
By Donny Jackson

Mission-critical wireless vendor M/A-COM yesterday announced that it has deployed the first fully operational, IP-based, P25 system for the Department of Defense (DoD) in the National Capitol Region.


Phase I of the P25 system has been accepted and is fully operational at 11 U.S. Army bases in the NCR region, including greater Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Fort Hamilton, N.Y., said Kevin Fleming, M/A-COM’s director of federal sales. A second phase, expected to be completed during the next several months, will add U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force sites to the network, making it one of the first tri-service DoD systems.

“It’s one of the largest military systems out there—it encompasses 11 bases in the National Capital Region in a wide-area system and a base in New York,” Fleming said in an interview with MRT. “Including Phase II, we’re talking about 17 bases.”

While the DoD has been mandated to use P25 equipment for some time, using an IP-based P25 system is unprecedented and provides significant advantages to the military, Fleming said.

“In the past, the DOD has employed technology that focused on a central controller, so it had what we would consider to be a single point of failure,” he said. “With the National Capital Region, not only do we have a compliant P25 system, … we’ve encompassed IP on the backbone. We have switches at each of the bases for the U.S. Army, which provides quite a bit of flexibility and durability—there’s no single link that goes to any of the [southern NCR] bases.”

Operating in the 380-400 MHz band, the NCR system features the latest federal encryption standard and over-the-air rekeying (OTAR). Using M/A-COM’s NetworkFirst interoperability solution, IP gateways in the network allow interoperable communications with 58 public-safety agencies in and around the NCR region, Fleming said.

http://mrtmag.com/news/macom_p25_capital_101106/
 

morfis

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Seems they are a bit slow to implement this in the USA compared to the Uk and Europe!
 
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N_Jay

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morfis said:
Seems they are a bit slow to implement this in the USA compared to the Uk and Europe!

What system are you comparing it to?
 

MMIC

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I would guess that he is probably talking about P-25, even though they don't use that standard in Europe.

But he's right about the United States not being anywhere close to Europe with the deployment of standards based radio systems. TETRA is a more feature rich system than P-25, and with Motorola TETRA and ASTRO-25 systems, it uses the same infrastructure equipment.

If it were up to me, I would purchase a TETRA system before P-25.
 

Yokoshibu

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well unfortunantley the DOD has a policy letter out that states only p25 lmr systems will be purchased.
 
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N_Jay

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MMIC said:
I would guess that he is probably talking about P-25, even though they don't use that standard in Europe.

I was asking what system in Europe he was referring to?
Are all the bases in any region connected with TETRA? Connected at all? Does the military in Europe even use TETRA?

MMIC said:
But he's right about the United States not being anywhere close to Europe with the deployment of standards based radio systems. TETRA is a more feature rich system than P-25, and with Motorola TETRA and ASTRO-25 systems, it uses the same infrastructure equipment.

Some configuration on some bands may use similar infrastructure, but as a general rule they do not.

I guess it depends on what features you are speaking of, P25 is a lot more flexible in deployment then TETRA.

MMIC said:
If it were up to me, I would purchase a TETRA system before P-25.

Why?
 

morfis

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Should have made myself clearer.
I meant the use of IP for the network is way behind the UK.
Since late last year there has been a big push in the USA to catch up as US aircraft were lagging behind in comms capability compared to UK assets and the mis-match was going to cause problems for US military here and in Europe.

There are a few APCO P25 systems in use over here. Mainly US military but there are at least two others in the UK as well.

In the wider picture we also have some EDACS systems in use in the UK but the only time I have heard any LTR systems has been when US aircraft carriers have been here.
 
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