Progress 09/15/05 to 09/15/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Catalyst Communications Technologies, Inc. (CCTI) has completed the Project 25 Mobile Radio Migration Platform for Homeland Security and Fire Management project. Specific outputs for project tasks are as follows: Task 1-Research optimization of audio quality and control while minimizing bandwidth across a shared IP network: Prototyped a dynamic algorithm for setting Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) for Quality of Service (QOS) that better models desired network traffic management. Designed a mechanism for preserving the DSCP setting end-to-end and across patches. Prototyped a jitter buffer and tested with P25 traffic; ready for field testing and deployment. Task 2 - Research end-to-end IMBE and encrypted audio across a shared IP network. Determined and implemented a plan for handling IMBE audio for prototype construction. Created a plan for taking IMBE-capable applications to the field. Completed Encryption research and plan for managing P25 encryption. Created separate plan for integrating legacy and P25 encryption by bridging disparate encryption technologies with an "encryption bridge". Completed research for using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for managing P25 IP audio traffic and applied to prototyping of P25 Inter RF Subsystem Interface (ISSI), capable of operation with any P25 compliant radio system. Task 3 - Research intelligent routing of audio between encrypted channels and unencrypted channels. Created plan for preventing the routing of encrypted audio to unencrypted audio channels via interoperability gateways. Researched the application of encryption technologies in field operations. Task 4 - Develop Test-Bed Software. A prototype interface to a generic radio subsystem using ISSI is now operational, but requires considerable more work to be complete. Harris and Kenwood prototype P25 interfaces are complete. Prototype interface to Daniels MT4 P25 radio using P25 FSI interface is complete. Daniels has continued to be an excellent partner for us as we continue to push the envelope in prototyping and fielding advanced interfaces. Both FSI and ISSI use IMBE digital audio interfaces, while the Harris and Kenwood prototypes convert analog audio to IMBE for network routing. A design mockup for a generic P25 radio interface module has been completed. Task 5 - System Validation Test. Created a testbed using components from the preceding tasks including dynamic QOS, four P25 capable radio interfaces, jitter buffer, end-to-end IMBE capability across IP networks, encoding and decoding of digital audio, and interface to legacy-style radio interfaces. Validation testing used subjective and objective testing to demonstrate the efficacy of the prototypes. Objective testing measured the sound quality of audio passed on both non-congested and congested networks where QOS was required. Demonstrated that management of IMBE audio over IP networks is vital given its modest baseline audio quality and its sensitivity to packet dropouts. An early implementation of an FSI with Daniels was installed in March 2010 at a working public safety agency and continues to function well in ongoing operations. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: State and local Public Safety and federal agencies. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Catalyst has a fully commercialized P25 interoperability and dispatch solution that we are marketing today both directly and through channels using the Harris and Kenwood mobile radios. This solution supports the only mature P25 interface, the Common Air Interface, and provides the essential P25 messaging for Unit ID and Emergency to the dispatcher. This product offering will support jobs for Americans (Catalyst employees and partners) and creates competition in the P25 market. Working with our commercialization partner, Daniels Electronics, we have fielded an early implementation of an FSI interface for use by the Hoonah, AK police department. Catalyst sold the Hoonah system through one of our dealers and that package includes our new Console and legacy analog gateways for future communications with the US Forest Service and other agencies. Some of the technology developed through this SBIR was included in the Console product. Because our dealer could offer this Catalyst P25 product, he was also able to sell related products and services. Catalyst's work in this SBIR drove Daniels' efforts to flesh out its implementation of the P25 FSI interface (TIA-102.BAHA) on its MT4 base station. Daniels used the experience gained working with Catalyst as it participated in the P25 standards writing. Other console vendors have benefited from the availability of the working Daniels product as they have begun work on their FSI implementations. The availability of the completed products as well as the prototypes and other new technology helped Catalyst be selected by Verizon Wireless as their partner for interoperability and dispatch. Catalyst has sold multiple interoperability systems with the Verizon interface and Verizon continues to promote Catalyst including its P25 capabilities. These promotions include the highlighting of Catalyst products in Verizon sales literature and advertising as well as joint sales calls and demonstrations at trade shows.
Publications
- "Daniels and Catalyst Install P25 Dispatch Solution", http://www.danelec.com/company/news/release_catalyst_dispatch.asp, August 2010.
- Grier, Robin, "Radio over IP 101, Part 3: Implementation" International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE), Las Vegas, NV, March 9, 2010
- "Daniels and Catalyst Shipping Second Generation IP Digital Wireline Connectivity", http://www.danelec.com/company/news/release_catalyst_2ndgen.asp, March 2010.
- Grier, Robin and Abdul Osman, "Challenges and Solutions for Centralization of Dispatch Centers with Disparate Radio Systems" 75th Annual Conference of the Association of Public Communications Officials, Las Vegas, NV, August 20, 2009
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Progress 09/15/07 to 09/14/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Catalyst Communications Technologies, Inc. (CCTI) has made steady progress on the Project 25 Mobile Radio Migration Platform for Homeland Security and Fire Management project. We have been focusing during this period on beginning to use SIP to implement the Project 25 Inter RF Subsystem Interface (ISSI). The following describes specific progress to date for each task. Task 1-Research optimization of audio quality and control while minimizing bandwidth across a shared IP network. Limited progress was made on this task during this report period. We will be leveraging previous jitter buffer prototyping work that is designed for non-P25 audio streams and we are also well positioned to exploit multicast functionality already present in our commercial product. Task 2 - Research end-to-end IMBE and encrypted audio across a shared IP network. Catalyst has completed the research task of investigating the feasibility of using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for managing Radio over IP audio traffic and has used that research to use SIP protocol to begin the work of communicating with one of the four radio interfaces that are part of Task number four. This interface implements the Project 25 Inter RF Subsystem Interface (ISSI) which is capable of communicating with any P25 compliant radio system. Task 3 - Research intelligent routing of audio between encrypted channels and unencrypted channels. Catalyst has not yet begun this research project, but has considerable recent experience in generalized intelligent audio routing that will be easily extensible to apply to audio streams that have mixed levels of encryption. Task 4 - Develop Test-Bed Software. Additional work remains to explore encryption and full end-to-end IMBE implementation. We continue monitoring TIA meetings where discussions of standard interfaces continue but have now purchased the documentation for the Project 25 Inter RF Subsystem Interface (ISSI). The ISSI is capable of communicating with any P25 compliant radio system at the infrastructure level. During this period, Catalyst has done additional research on using Kenwood P25 radios with P25 channels to scope out what functions are required to be added to our base product to support P25 features. The interface to a generic radio subsystem using ISSI has been started but considerable work remains to get it fully operational in our prototype. Task 5 - System Validation Test. The System Validation Test process is a continuous activity as we incorporate new functions into our software prototype, evaluate its performance, and provide the demonstrated functionality to public safety agencies for field testing. Validation testing during this period has concentrated on the ISSI interface. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: State and local Public Safety and federal agencies. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Our updated prototype continues to perform well in the George Washington National Forest. Our commercialization partner, Daniels Electronics, continues to enhance their P25 radio interfaces using the Fixed Station Interface (FSI) standard that has been defined by TIA. Catalyst did not demonstrate the prototype at any of its trade shows during this reporting period, but instead demonstrated interoperability using the Bridging System Interface (BSI). This interface, whose development is being organized by SAFECOM, is in several ways similar to the Project 25 Inter RF Subsystem Interface (ISSI), since they are both SIP based and both attempt to bridge non-interoperable radio systems. Catalyst's ISSI work which currently has fewer participants in the marketplace than BSI will benefit from this associated subsystem interface effort.
Publications
- Hiester, Lt. Nathan, "Interoperability on the Fly," Urgent Communications Magazine, September 2008, pp 40-45.
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Progress 09/15/06 to 09/14/07
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Catalyst Communications Technologies, Inc. (CCTI) has made steady progress on the Project 25 Mobile Radio Migration Platform for Homeland Security and Fire Management project. We have been focusing during this period on P25 interface research. The following describes specific progress to date for each task. Task 1-Research optimization of audio quality and control while minimizing bandwidth across a shared IP network. Most of this research remains to be completed. But we have already determined the reason for the unexplained packet loss that was observed in Phase 1 and thus completed that subtask. Task 2 - Research end-to-end IMBE and encrypted audio across a shared IP network. Discussions with DVSI have failed to produce an economically feasible way to imbed the IMBE codec directly into our solution. Research continues on finding ways of using external devices or imbedded hardware to accomplish this function. Additional work remains to explore encryption and full end-to-end IMBE implementation. Task 3 - Research intelligent routing of audio between encrypted channels and unencrypted channels. Catalyst has not completed this research project, but has considerable recent experience in generalized intelligent audio routing that will be easily extensible to apply to audio streams that have mixed levels of encryption. Task 4 - Develop Test-Bed Software. We are attending TIA meetings where discussions of standard interfaces continue including the Project 25 Inter RF Subsystem Interface (ISSI) which is capable of communicating with any P25 compliant radio system. Catalyst continues to research how best to influence and adopt a compatible interface using these standards. During this period, Catalyst has also done research on the M/A-COM and Kenwood P25 radios to determine the scope of changes necessary to our base product to accommodate the P25 features. Some of these radio interfaces and their capabilities are changing as this new technology continues to evolve. Task 5 - System Validation Test. The System Validation Test process is a continuous activity as we incorporate new functions into our software prototype, evaluate its performance, and provide the demonstrated functionality to public safety agencies for field testing. Since most of the effort during this period was research, only minimal testing was performed. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Our updated prototype continues to perform well in the George Washington National Forest. Our commercialization partner, Daniels Electronics, continues to invest in and enhance their P25 radio that interfaces to the Catalyst prototype and both organizations continue education and marketing efforts. Catalyst demonstrated the prototype at the International Wireless Communications Expo in Las Vegas in May 2007. Our commercialization efforts are progressing but acceptance of P25 technology other than the Common Air Interface is moving at a slower pace than expected. Catalyst continues to offer the initial prototype to a variety of customers, but at this time with only limited commercial interest in the market.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 09/15/05 to 09/15/06
Outputs
Catalyst Communications Technologies, Inc. (CCTI) has made good progress on the USDA SBIR research project - Project 25 Mobile Radio Migration Platform for Homeland Security and Fire Management. We have concentrated during this period on standards research and continuing radio testing with the P25 prototype that was built during phase 1. The completion of a contract with Northrop Grumman for a SAFECOM and the Department of Homeland Security has introduced resource conflicts for several SBIR tasks, but has also involved work that is complementary to several of the SBIR tasks. The contract work is to assist SAFECOM in defining Mission Critical Voice requirements for public safety that will be used over the next five years. This complementary work will enable several SBIR tasks to be more efficiently completed since the related background research was completed by SBIR team members. The following describes specific progress to date for each task. Task 1 - Research
optimization of audio quality and control. Catalyst and Virginia Tech have created a test plan for doing Voice Quality Measurements on the Daniels P25 radio, have performed many of these tests, but must still complete the draft report of the results. Catalyst's role in the SAFECOM project will be beneficial to both the Voice Quality Measurements and P25 Jitter Compensation subtasks that are part of Task 1. Task 2 - Research end-to-end IMBE and encrypted audio. As part of the SAFECOM project, Catalyst has begun a dialog with DVSI, the licensor for IMBE and has gained a considerable amount of insight regarding how their equipment and software can be used with Catalyst software solution. Negotiations with DVSI are ongoing. Extensive research work was done by Virginia Tech and Catalyst for the Session Initiation protocol (SIP), including examination of exactly how it might be used by Catalyst in a gateway interface to a SIP based system. We have also been actively pursuing teaming with
Siemens to make any SIP interface that we deploy compatible with theirs. Task 3 - Research intelligent routing of audio between encrypted/unencrypted channels - This task has not yet started. Task 4 - Develop software test bed to test interoperability among P25 digital radios - We have done more testing with the Daniels P25 radio interface software developed during Phase 1 and have refined the prototype based on feedback from field users and other engineers. We continue to discuss how the phase 2 version of this software will be developed and tested with Daniels. We have also been attending TIA meetings where discussions of standard interfaces continue and Catalyst researches how best to influence and adopt an interface compatible with the standard. Task 5 - System Validation testing is an ongoing process as we add more P25 radios to our list of interfaces. Task 6 - The contents of the final report will be assembled and evaluated near the end of the project when work in the other
tasks has been completed.
Impacts
Our updated prototype continues to perform well in the George Washington National Forest. In March 2006 the prototype was successfully used for extensive communications while 120 Forest Service employees, state, local, and other federal workers battled a 1,100 acre fire in Virginia. Despite slow progress by the standards committees in completing the P25 standard and slow adoption of P25 products by the market, this project is driving the development of P25 Radio over IP solutions. Our commercialization partner, Daniels Electronics, continues to invest in their P25 radio that interfaces to the Catalyst prototype and both organizations continue education and marketing efforts. Catalyst demonstrated the prototype at both the International Wireless Communications Expo in Las Vegas in May 2006 and at the Association of Public Communications Officers national meeting in August 2006. Catalyst also conducted seminars on Radio over IP at these meetings and noted this SBIR work.
Catalyst and Daniels held an open house at the George Washington National Forest in July 2006 and demonstrated the prototype. Several other companies have announced that they will also create P25 Radio over IP interfaces as a result of the progress that Catalyst and Daniels have demonstrated.
Publications
- Daniels/Catalyst Digital Ethernet Interface Product Pressed into Wild Land Fire Suppression Support, TALK - Daniels Electronics Newsletter, Summer 2006, p 1.
- Texas county builds interoperable system, http://mrtmag.com/news/texas_interoperable_apco_081106, August 2006.
- Ohio township's interoperability network adds users, http://mrtmag.com/news/beavercreek_interoperable_communications_05240 6, May 2006.
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