InterceptRadio.com Forums

Does anyone know what data network Seattle Fire uses for their MDC's and AVL's?

How about Valley Communications agencies?

Thanks for any help!

CAR

SFD is using Data911 computers, Wireless modems, and the Sprint wireless network. As far as I know, you cannot monitor the data stream w/o violating FCC rules.

http://data911.com/main/m5.html

cingular wireless is used I know in Tacoma the TPD, TFD use the system for there laptops on 1300 MHZ

Valley Comm uses the Motorola RD-LAP system. Most of the MDCs are laptop computers with a Motorola VRM attached to them. There are a couple of Motorola MDT 9100 series terminals still in use but not for much longer.

What exactly a Motorolas RD-LAP system? Thanks!

CAR

CAR: In recent radio history if you recall ARDIS in the 1990s, RD-LAP was a "19.2 Kbps radio link protocol known as "RD-LAP" and was instituted as a replacement for an original 4800 bps "MDC4800 protocol" - Both protocols were and probably still are are Motorola proprietary although RD-LAP could be be licensed by other manufacturers. "Four-level FSK modulation with a Gaussian filter is used on the RD-LAP-based system. A three-quarters rate Trellis-coded modulation with interleaving and CRC-32 supports an undetected block error probability of approximately."

"RD-LAP provides a slotted digital sense multiple access (DSMA) MAC protocol without collision detection by the half-duplex mobiles; higher layers are assumed to recover from errors. The maximum transmission burst is 2048 bytes. A stop-and-wait (SAW) link protocol is used by the half-duplex mobiles, which limits the throughput enjoyed by an application running over Ardis." Excellent discussion!

I paraprahsed from this old forum:
http://www.leapforum.org/published/inte ... de118.html
My take: Current broadband requirements forced older technologies to become upgraded and interoperable with WLAN and 802.11. Take a look at below case study to enhance the interoperability of RD-LAP:

Case Study
http://www.padcomusa.com/documents/Oakl ... densed.pdf

Finally, Here is a easy read .GIF single line diagram of a Motorola RD-LAP system.
http://www.pst911.com/MOTRNC.GIF

My Conclusions: During its time RD-LAP (1990s) was an excellent protocol with its roots in ARDIS, via the fine joint effort by Motorola and IBM . However the current development of 802.11, WLAN, VOIP and other "Open Protocols" will require "interoperability" and "increased bandwidth" requirements for all communication pipes - old and new. RD-LAP is still useful and can be made interoperable and push more data through RD-LAP using embedded solutions and software RF techniques -layered into the network system.

Advancements: Stay tuned for my research on what is the latest in inteoperable technologies in radio related to this question. It really perked my interest.

What does a radio telecommunications engineer do when he is confronted with the necessity to upgrade his/her large radio analog system? Does he consider the need for interoperability in his region or just think of his internal customers (officers/linemen, EMTs, doctors, firement). And what if his current system is an RD-LAP? What if its something else?

Maybe 2wayguru and Rich have comments.

Most humbly,

Felix

How many of you know that Motorola never made MDTs until they came out with the MW520WS? The originator of the Motorola MDT system was Mobile Data International out of Canada "Eh?". One of the older most common MDT system was the MDI 4800MMC protocol, most if the MDTs that used that system were the 6048 terminals (Taxi) and the 9048 CRT Terminal that was mostly used by LE agencies. Fed Ex was a big user of the MDI 9048. Those were mostly used with Motorola Syntor and Syntor X radios, Both the 6048 and the 9048 terminals used a remote radio.

MDI came out the MDT9100-10 series terminal with the 4800MMC protocol and MDC4800 Protocol. These are very common, also the KDT 480 and 840 terminals came out to be a popular MDT, the KDT was very ugly but was popular by Phonix AZ Police. When MDI and Motorola came out with the RD-LAP system they revamped the 9100 series and came out the 9100-11 terminal which had the same TX messenger that was used in the KDT Terminals. Then MDI came out with the 9100-20 terminal which was able to do both the RD-LAP or MDC4800/4800MMC protocol and used the same messaging program as the 9100-10. MDI then revamped the 9100 series again to add more features and came out the the 9100-T which was a stripped version of the 9100-386. Both of the T and the 386 terminals used a 386 CPU using a onboard 4 meg Ram Chip and windows 3.1 or 3.11 for workgroups. The 9100 series terminals were able to use an external radio such as a spectra or had a RF unit mounted on the bottom of the terminal. Most of the RF units were 800 MHz and ran at 25 watts.

The 9100-T and -386 terminals are easily identified by the PC card slot on the side. This is where the Static Ram Card was placed for MDT Configuration.

I used to have a MDT website but I had taken that down a while back since it was not that popular.

Greg's first semi intelligent post EVER !

_________________
I generate Board Warnings

Motorola makes a new ruggedized handheld PC with "laptop" capabilities and works on Bluetooth, 802.11, private radio, cellular, and has Push To Talk, with bar coding, and camera!!! There is a Motorola dealer in my area who did a demo for me. Cool stuff. Take a look:

http://mobilemag.com/content/100/333/C4855/

Motorola HC700-L Features and Specifications

All-in-One Wireless
•Bluetooth (Class 2)
•Wireless LAN (802.11b)
–WLAN Only (HC700-L)
•Wide area radio
–iDEN/WiDEN w/PTT (HC700-N)
–GSM/GPRS (HC700-G)
•GPS/AGPS (with iDEN)
•All with built-in antennas
•Intel Bulverde (PXA270) 416MHz
•Microsoft Windows Mobile for Pocket
PC Phone Edition or WINCE.NET
•64/128MB SDRAM and 64/128MB
Flash and Mini SD card

Powerful Barcode Imaging
•Area Imager
•1D and 2D decoding
•Omni-directional
•Signature capture
•LED aimer

Build to Last
•6’ drop
•IP64
•-4F to 140F (-20C to 60C)

Power Management
•1800mAh Li-Ion battery, Hot swappable