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Vendors Announce P25 Digital Interface Agreements (3/5/10)

Several manufacturers announced Project 25 (P25)-related digital interfaces agreements and products.

Daniels Electronics and Telex Radio Dispatch developed a P25 DFSI between their products, enabling direct digital connection from the Daniels LMR radio to Telex dispatch consoles, in accordance with the TIA P25 Fixed Station Interface (FSI) standard.

The Daniels digital Universal Interface card (UIC) provides the P25 DFSI connection via Ethernet from the Daniels MT-4 P25 radio system to other LMR subsystems, such as IP-based dispatch consoles in a P25 network. In accordance with the TIA P25 general system model, this interface interconnects the fixed station (Daniels radio) to a console or RF subsystem at the Ef connection. The Ethernet universal interface provides the P25 encoded and optionally encrypted digital audio signal to the console, as well as a suite of control signals. This allows the dispatch console to see and manage all information associated with a call in an IP format, including unit and emergency IDs.

“We are very pleased to be able to offer a P25 digitally compliant interface to communicate with the Telex consoles,” said Robert Small, Daniels president and chief operating officer (COO). “Telex and Daniels are delivering on the promise of new P25 standards beyond the P25 Common Air Interface (CAI), benefiting public-safety agencies through choice of vendor and improved communications to address their interoperability requirements.”

The Telex DFSI, enabling direct digital connection from the Telex C-Soft dispatch console in accordance with the P25 Fixed Station Interface (FSI) standard, will also be certified with Tait Radio Communications equipment.

Daniels Electronics also developed with Catalyst Communications Technologies a second-generation IP digital interface between the two companies’ products. This integrated solution provides new features including the P25 unit ID, P25 emergency indicator and satellite connectivity.

Catalyst Release 5.7 provides a full-featured dispatch console for the Daniels MT-4 base station routing digital audio and control messages through an Ethernet interface. Now the unit ID of a P25 subscriber radio can be seen by the dispatcher, translated into an alias from a centralized database, and stored for visual review and used in conjunction with integrated voice recording. Similarly, emergency messages from P25 subscriber units can be seen and logged on the console.

Catalyst was awarded a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) award to develop and optimize the physical and network protocol set for the control of P25 radios for dispatch and interoperability. The SBIR award funded a portion of the work to create these capabilities, and the USDA successfully completed the beta test of the solution.

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