market view: tait radio
as public sector organisations across the globe deal
with budget cuts, technological debates attract less
attention as customers simply look for the best
solution, monique Princen, solution marketing manager
at tait radio Communications, tells George malim
he industry debate regarding
the supremacy of DMR over
dPMR appears to be quietening
down as the market recognises
that each technology has its own
merits, but in the view of Monique
Princen, solution marketing manager
at Tait Radio Communications,
T
DMR has the potential to be the
dominant standard.
‘Tait views DMR as the best
suitable digital radio standard
for operational critical networks,
especially in those situations where
cost efficient wide area coverage
is important,’ she says. Princen points
out that DMR was defined by
eTSI as the digital replacement for
MPT voice networks but, because
DMR provides extensive data
capabilities as well, its suitability
in today’s radio networks is set to
reach well beyond the current
MPT installations.
‘It is our firm belief that where
the mission critical radio market
is dominated by either P25 or
TeTRA, DMR can be the dominant
standard for operation critical
networks such as those found in
transport, industrial radio networks
and utilities, for example.’
Continued on p36 >>
035-036-Wire-08.indd 1
MARKET VIEW: TAIT RADIO
INDUSTRY
RADIO
NETWORKS
RIPE FOR
TAKEOVER
BY DMR
35
17/03/2011 12:20
36
MARKET VIEW: TAIT RADIO
Princen describes two key
advantages that DMR has the
potential to deliver to customers. The
first is that DMR provides excellent
data capabilities in the standard for
both short data requirements like
messaging and AVL, as well as large
data messages using IP data. The
second is that the technology provides
two communication channels in
12.5KHz spacing, therefore effectively
doubling the radio network capacity
for many customers. ‘Digital voice is an
obvious improvement compared to the
analogue systems most of our customers
are still using,’ says Princen.
When DMR is compared to TETRA
and P25 phase 2, which both also
provide spectral efficiency and data,
there is a difference in that DMR is
not designed only for one specific
target market – public safety. Numerous
features in the P25 and TETRA
standard have been defined with
public safety requirements in mind and
therefore don’t allow for the flexibility
that other markets may desire.
Princen thinks there is scope for
both DMR and dPMR depending on
the nature of the network deployment.
‘DMR can be deployed in the existing
12.5KHz channels which makes
migration from the existing technology
easy,’ she says.
‘Customers do not need to change
their frequencies and can achieve
the desired 6.25KHz spectral
efficiency that many regulators
aim for. dPMR using FDMA cannot
reuse the existing frequencies and
035-036-Wire-08.indd 2
‘The increase in data demand will
automatically result in demand
for better management tools’
Monique Princen, Tait Radio Communications
cannot fit two channels in one 12.5KHz
channel spacing as the frequencies
will interfere when used on the same
site. Tait does believe dPMR is better
suited for smaller networks with limited
infrastructure, largely depending
on peer-to-peer or direct mode
connections.’
INCREASED DEMAND
Princen also feels that the debate
between narrowband radio systems
versus cellular is a different argument
and concentrates, in the company’s
view, around three issues: data
capacity; public versus private
networks; and cost.
‘In almost all of the traditional
radio markets there is an increased
demand for mobile data applications,’
she says. ‘The current applications
have been designed for broadband
networks and therefore require a
bandwidth that exceeds the capabilities
of a narrowband network,
regardless of
the technology.
‘Tait believes that,
with the deployment
of digital narrowband
technologies that
provide good performing standardised
data transmissions, many applications
can and will be optimised to be usable
on a narrowband network. This will
allow the customer to have critical
data applications running on their
narrowband network to improve
their efficiency and safety.’
For Tait, the public versus private
networks debate concentrates around
the quality of service, reliability of
the network and lifetime. Where a
common requirement for reliability for a
private network is 99.999%, this is not
achievable by any public network. It
is also expected that a radio network
will be operational for at least 15 years,
and most have a lifetime of 20 to 25
years, while the public cellular networks
change technology every five years.
‘While the customer does not pay
for the infrastructure, the cost of
replacement of terminals due to a
technology upgrade often exceeds the
infrastructure cost and interrupts the
service of the customer’s business,’
she adds.
The final argument is cost. ‘For a
public network, the customer does
not pay for the installation and
maintenance of the infrastructure, but
instead pays for the usage,’ explains
Princen. ‘Over the lifetime of a network,
the operational cost can easily outweigh
the initial investment. If a customer
would choose to install his own private
cellular network, the cost of coverage
far exceeds the cost of a narrowband
network as the number of sites required
can be up to ten times the number
of narrowband sites to achieve the
same coverage. And this does not
even take into account the licence
cost and availability of frequencies.’
Moving away from the technology
debate, Princen believes that the
recession and its effect on public
spending in many countries is altering
the way in which wireless solutions
are sold. ‘The recession has resulted
in a lack of funding for replacement
networks and as a result, organisations
try to extend the lifetime of their
current system or look for optimisation
of networks and increase the usage of
the networks,’ she says.
‘As a supplier of communication
solutions it is now even more important
to understand how your solution can
provide the maximum support for the
primary objective of the customer.
For example, how can a network for
a utility improve the efficiency and
response times of the organisation, or
how can a police network improve call
out times and safety of the officers?
It also makes sense to look at gradual
replacements and integrate legacy
equipment in the new network. Actively
working with a customer on a good
ROI for the wireless communication
solutions, still results in the customer
finding the funding for the investment.’
That also necessitates a change
in approach in terms of offering
radio solutions as a service. ‘Tait has
certainly seen an increase of service
requirements at its customers,’ confirms
Princen. ‘In many cases, this is due to
the fact that the customer no longer
has a dedicated radio department and
the IT department lacks the knowledge
and expertise to efficiently operate and
maintain a radio network. There is also
an increase in customers who want to
concentrate on their core business –
and supporting radio networks is not
part of their core business.’
FINANCIAL CONCERNS
However, not everyone is jumping
on the services bandwagon. ‘There is
still a group of customers for whom it
is financially more attractive to own
the network or where the network is
critical to their business and therefore
they have to be able to control it fully
themselves,’ she adds.
‘Tait will therefore provide on the
next generation radio networks –
of which DMR is the first one – an
extensive network management system
that provides a single platform for
managing and maintaining the network,
the security and provisioning. The
functionality of this system and the
user interface are more aligned with
standard IT tools and allow control of
the network to be carried out by nonradio engineers.’
Looking to the future, the greatest
change will be the acceleration in
the demand for data communications
among users. ‘This increase in data
demand will automatically result
in demand for better management
tools, exceeding whatever is currently
common in the radio markets,’ Princen
concludes. ‘It will also result in
demand for cyber security as the data
transmitted increases the attractiveness
of the networks for targeted attacks.’
17/03/2011 12:21