Continuing the co-operation theme, Siemens Communications, Media and Technology (CMT) and Damm Cellular announced an agreement aimed strengthening their positions in the field of integrated TETRA solutions. Through this partnership, Siemens CMT will be able to integrate Damm’s TetraFlex products with its own products, including command and control applications and professional communication networks.

“By partnering with Siemens CMT, we will be able to position our technology even better in important markets where we are a major player already today”, said Per Skovsund, director of systems business, Damm. “In addition, the partnership will support our penetration of new markets and definitely set a new benchmark for integrated TETRA solutions for mission-critical communication to the benefit of end users.”

Faster data with TEDS

Notwithstanding the interest in LTE and broadband technology, manufacturers are continuing to offer TEDS (TETRA Enhanced Data Service), a network enhancement which offers an immediate improvement in data speeds within existing TETRA spectrum. Among them is Selex Elsag, which was demonstrating TEDS running on its TETRA infrastructure and VS4000 mobile. By the end of this year, Selex Elsag expects to have achieved certification for mutual interoperability with Motorola and Cassidian products.

Currently the company is preparing for a TEDS pilot project in Italy with the Carabinieri, the military police, to begin around September. “We are doing it in general to enrich our product, because in all the debate about broadband, LTE and so on, we have a position that the future won’t be just LTE”, explained Francesco Pasquale, of Selex Elsag. “It will be a heterogeneous, multi-technology future – and one bit of this multi-technology future will be TEDS, in our opinion.

“We are confident, because we believe that, apart from special cases of small countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands, or very, very flat countries such as the Emirates and so on, it will be probably not economically viable for big countries with mountains – like Italy, like Germany, like France – to have national LTE networks with the required coverage.

“So we see a future in which there will be – for example – LTE zones in metropolitan areas, close to airports, ports and so on, but in rural areas and all the rest of the country, less populated areas, will be TEDS. Less expensive – but better TEDS than no service, of course! It will be the compromise choice. We are confident.”

Starting grid

Cassidian, too, believes it has found an opportunity for TEDS, but not the one it first thought of. “We have been promising TEDS for the last three years, four years; TEDS is not happening”, admitted Eric Davalo, of Cassidian. But on a brighter note, he continued: “We see a key market segment that we did not identify so precisely in the past, which is the smart grid and critical infrastructure networks – mainly electricity, oil and gas.

“And we have seen in the last 18 months a significant increase in the request for TEDS from those customers, because they see in smart grids the need to have more machine-to-machine connections, to be able to secure their installations. Oil and gas is a typical example, and they are willing, I think, for TEDS. 

“Our target is to have our first real-life networks working on TEDS for this type of application before the end of this year.”

Cassidian announced that pre-interoperability testing is already underway with TEDS modems from the Korean equipment manufacturer Asia Pacific Satellite communications (APSI). This co-operation is aimed at developing TEDS technology and data-oriented products for static applications such as smart grids, supervisory control and data acquisition (Scada) systems and sensor networks.

Enterprise updates

Motorola Solutions, too, showed confidence in TEDS, announcing a new generation of its Dimetra IP Micro platform – Release 3.0 – which is aimed at bringing enhanced work-team efficiency to commercial and enterprise users. With the addition of TEDS to this platform, enterprises can benefit from up to 20 times greater data capacity, plus support for a broader range of content-rich business applications, including image sending, video viewing and remote access to documents.

Among the TETRA services provided by Dimetra IP Micro are SDS, multi-slot packet data and full-duplex telephony. Release 3.0 also offers increased network security with air interface encryption and authentication options.

Another upgraded product from Motorola at the show was the second generation of its TETRA RF Automated Coverage Evaluation System (TRACES), which allows public safety network operators to collect, visualize and evaluate real-time data from TETRA networks. They can then view usage patterns and quickly identify and react to coverage black spots, thereby maintaining a stable network at all times for users in the field.
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