Trunking Around the World
In the world, there are several different "flavors" of trunking. In the USA, our FCC decided to allow the industry to determine the best format for trunking. The up side was that it brought trunking to the masses rather quickly. The downside was that we ended up with a bunch of different trunking formats that don't talk to each other! In the USA, the most prominent formats are those created by Motorola (Privacy Plus) and E.F. Johnson Technoligies (LTR = Logic Trunked Radio). General Electric had one called GEMarc that was reasonably popular. RCA also came up with one that really never went anywhere. There were several others that never went anywhere.
Today, the LTR flavor has several variations. There is Zetron's various offerings, Trident MicroSystem's PassPort technology, IDA and others. There are also a few startup technologies such as one from A Communications called CellSMR that show promise. Today, we also add to Motorola and LTR, iDEN which is a digital trunking format from Motorola. The biggest purveyor of iDEN in the USA is NEXTEL. General Electric has also teamed up with Ericsson over the years to create a rather formidable trunking format called EDACS. EDACS was first aimed at the private sector (police, manufacturing, etc.) Since 1996 they have been marketing their systems for general public use.
On the global trunking front, we see a different skew of trunking "flavors". In Europe, there is a heavy penetration of the TETRA and TETRAPOL formats. These are replacing the MPT1327 format. You also see a lot of the MPT1327 format in Asia. In South and Central America, you will find a total mix of all formats with a heavy skew toward the mix in the USA.
The bottom line is that you find one trunking flavor more predominant than others in areas where there was a stronger marketing presence by a given manufacturer.
Magic Decoder Ring
We have created a Magic Motorola Model Number Decoder Ring! Seriously, understanding the way Motorola creates model numbers can be very confusing some times. This page, while it is not perfect, will help you understand and decode all of those letters.
Four-Letter Words
Did you know that a movie actress from the 1940s invented and patented a communications technology that is still in use today? An article written by Phil Burks some time ago explains the operation of radio systems and explains the acronym's that many use in this business. This jungle of acronyms can really bog you down if you let it. Phil has taken a few columns to try and explain each of these and how they could impact the Trunking industry. This will not be a highly technical undertaking. The goal is to simplify these terms to their lowest denominators. I would suggest reading this article entitled: FDMA - TDMA - CDMA - HEDY.
Trunking 101: A Primer for Newbies
What is Trunking?
First it's a lousy techie term for a very big business. The technical details can choke a horse, so we'll try and keep things simple!
A trunking system is what is behind the scenes for most police, fire and other public service entities to allow them to talk to each other. The trunking Genesis deals with is for wireless two-way radios. These are the radios that courier companies, plumbing companies, construction companies, taxi companies, police, fire, ambulances, and lots of others use to coordinate men and machines. If you can think of a business that has vehicles of any kind, they need radios to compete in today's business world. Trunking is a reasonably low cost way for these companies to get some pretty great communications.
Entrepreneur Operated (SMR)
One form of trunking systems are operated by entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs invest in putting up towers and the "switching equipment" and radio channels that are the infrastructure (the engine) of a trunking system. The hardware manufacturers work with the entrepreneurs to design the systems. Antennas go up, computers are installed at the tower, phone lines attached. It is kind of like a cellular phone system where you can not only make phone calls but you can also push a single button on each radio to make an 'intercom' call to all or some of the the radios in their fleet. The cost to the entrepreneur will vary from $20,000 - $200,000 per site. Cost to the user is about $200 - $1500 per radio and about $.50 per day per radio for using this type trunk system. These are called SMRs (Specialized Mobile Radio). The term is only relevant to the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) that named it, but still, we call these type systems SMRs.
Public Safety Owned
Another model that has cropped up over the years is similar to SMRs. They really didn't intend to be like SMRs, but it worked out that way. We are seeing many very large systems being installed that cover large counties and even entire states. In many cases these systems are made by Motorola and are called ASTRO® SmartZone Networks. In one state, there are over 100 tower sites, all linked together to a common "brain" that controls every call from every radio. Systems this large can cost well over 100 million dollars. That's a big cost for one entity to carry by themselves. So, what happens is the entity putting in the trunk system (say the county government) needs some partners to help pay for the network. Many times they create agreements with surrounding cities in their county to use their shiny new SmartZone system. Usually there is a monthly or annual fee for each city (who are called agencies in this model) that uses the big system. Radios on this type system range in cost from $2,500 - $6,000 each.
Trunking Management Solutions
Genesis builds software and hardware to help entrepreneurs and large system owners maximize their trunking investment. Our solutions help manage the daily operations. Genesis software accumulates information on which radio uses how many minutes each moment of each day. Airtime usage is processed for billing and to help the system owner predict the need for future expansion. Our software creates invoices in multiple languages. Last, but not least, our solutions provide management reports. In short, we help the trunk system owner and operator run their business. Visit our Trunking Solutions section for more information on our trunking management solutions that for Motorola and P25 formats.
The ABCs of Trunking
We have compiled an alphabetical collection of terms that will help demystify many of the terms and acronyms of the trunking industry.