Applications

Interoperability across Wide Area Networks: Many agencies and communities will want to create interoperable patch configurations with neighboring agencies or communities.  To maintain the independence of each organization, these organizations will want to connect radios and gateways on one network with radios and gateways on another network, while maintaining complete independence for the use of their own radio network.  However, organization security policies may require specific policies to accommodate the interconnection of networks.  While cooperation amongst organizations is key to effective, interoperable communications, technologies such as VPN tunneling or the extension of one agencies' network into the community of another may be the most practical solution to connecting networks.

Interoperability across Local Area Networks: A simple way of creating interoperable networks between organizations that cannot permit the interconnection of networks is to connect radio gateways with a local-area network, co-located at a location that offers radio coverage over the entire landscape.  In this way, each agency or community has access to their own radio Gateways and are restricted from entering the other agencies or communities network. However, the Gateways are connected with local-area networks to allow for the passing of audio communications between the respective organizations.

Channel Specific Patching: Channel Specific Patching enables users on one radio system to communicate with users on a completely different radio system and focus their communications from and to specific radio channels or talk groups. This new capability enables radio users to keep local radio traffic within their system and choose Interoperable radio communications by selecting a specific channel or talk group on their portable or mobile radio. This radio traffic in turn is routed to another radio system and transmitted out to a specific, predetermined channel or talk group.  Without dispatcher intervention or complicated keystrokes, field personnel are able to create interoperability links quickly and simply.

An agency can keep radio traffic on one set of channels (channels 1 through 5, for instance) within its own environment, while communicating with another agency on a different channel (channel 6, perhaps.) The corresponding radio systems know that channel 6 traffic is interoperability traffic from outside their system. Channel Specific Patching allows a single radio at each location to provide dispatch and Interoperability access to a set of radio channels, significantly reducing cost and enhancing functionality.  Channels and talk groups can be rapidly and remotely changed as dispatch and interoperability needs evolve.