Eight Project 25 (P25) manufacturers are participating in a P25 Compliance Assessment Program (CAP) testing event underway this month. The companies are taking advantage of newly reaccredited P25 CAP laboratories and new test documentation and functionality.
Eight labs were accredited against either the 2016 or 2017 compliance assessment bulletin (CAB). The 2017 CAB includes all tests found in the 2016 CAB and adds TDMA trunking voice interoperability testing, as well as FDMA trunking control channel supplementary services interoperability tests.
Independent laboratory Compliance Testing and Harris are accredited for the four 2017 test requirements for P25 Phases 1 and 2: subscriber performance, repeater performance, conventional interoperability for Phase 1 and trunked interoperability for Phases 1 and 2. Motorola is accredited for 2017 subscriber performance and conventional and trunked interoperability. Tait Communications is accredited for 2017 subscriber and repeater performance.
EF Johnson Technologies, Harris and Timco are accredited for all four areas for 2016 P25 Phase 1 requirements. Motorola is recognized for subscriber and repeater performance for Phase 1. Motorola has three recognized labs, two in Schaumburg, Illinois, and one in Plantation, Florida.
Motorola contracted the CAP-recognized personnel from Compliance Testing to perform tests in its Motorola Schaumburg labs April 30 – June 1 and to create the detailed test reports (DTRs) that all participants will use to create their respective CAP documents, said Andy Davis, Motorola’s P25 standards manager.
Motorola, JVCKENWOOD, Harris, EF Johnson, BK Technologies, Tait, Icom America and GME are confirmed to participate. Testing at the event includes P25 Phase 2 requirements and standards for the Common Air Interface (CAI), and the participants will test FDMA, TDMA and inter-wide-area communications network (WACN) functionality.
All manufacturers of P25 radios are invited to test whatever portions of the 2017 CAB that their equipment supports. “The Motorola infrastructure and radios under test will support all tests in the 2017 CAB with a couple exceptions,” Davis said.
Depending on the 2017 CAB tests that each manufacturer supports and the number of radio model classes being tested, some manufacturers require one day of testing and some require up to five days of testing.
“We will test our XL-200P radio on Motorola’s infrastructure,” said David Prather, Harris P25 lab manager. “Just last week, we had Motorola to our own recognized P25 CAP test lab to conduct similar testing of their radios on our infrastructure. This is something all manufacturers are doing as part of meeting the expanded program requirements for P25 CAP interoperability.”
An EF Johnson spokeswoman said EFJohnson is testing the Kenwood Viking subscriber product line against the 2016 CAB P25 CAP compliance tests. “Our products will be tested in both conventional and trunking interoperability tests against multivendor infrastructure and subscriber equipment per the 2017 CAB for P25 CAP compliance,” she said.
“We can help LMR manufacturers plan their migration from the 2010 P25 standards to 2016 or 2017 requirements, prior to the deadline of June 30 when they’ll be removed from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website,” said Michael Schafer, Compliance Testing president. “We are helping them analyze radio by radio what each needs to be as up to date as it can be, in accordance with the new DHS requirements for P25 radios.”
DHS also released updated summary test report (STR) and suppliers’ declaration of compliance (SDoC) templates. “These new templates are meant to lessen the burden on submitting manufacturers and laboratories while still providing the necessary critical information that public safety requires,” said Sridhar Kowdley, program manager of the P25 CAP for DHS S&T. “One significant change is that only SDoCs will be published on the DHS S&T website, while STRs will be made available upon email request to P25CAP@hq.dhs.gov.”
If DHS S&T has not received a 2016 CAB-based STR or SDoC by June 30, the agency will remove the equipment from the P25 CAP website.
Schafer said Compliance Testing can provide for the rule of three for multiple trunking systems on multiple manufacturers needed for interoperability testing. Compliance Testing has been accredited by American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) for “field testing” to perform interoperability testing under ISO 17025, allowing the company to perform interoperability testing at any location, Schafer said.
In 2013, DHS Science and Technology (S&T) announced that three accreditation boards (ABs) — A2LA, ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board and International Accreditation New Zealand — were selected to reaccredit the eight laboratories to test P25 equipment.
Because the lab or location of the testing does not need to also be accredited, it eliminates the need for an LMR manufacturer to maintain and update an ISO 17025 accreditation, saving them the great expense and time of obtaining and maintaining an accreditation. Compliance Testing can go to that site and perform the testing on its trunked infrastructure, and the testing is accredited, Schafer said.
The lab can also can perform this accredited interoperability testing at an agency, city or state’s installation for confirmation, verification, validation and accreditation of P25 infrastructure operating to the 2016/2017 CAP standard.
“We also have begun doing pre-purchase order verification testing for some large federal agencies prior to purchasing LMR subscriber units to verify all features they are expecting are operational, prior to their purchase,” Schafer said.
Motorola’s Davis said that in addition to testing Motorola radios on Motorola infrastructure and testing Motorola radios on Harris infrastructure using the 2017 CAB, the company is scheduled to test Motorola radios on the EF Johnson infrastructure using the 2016 CAB later this month.
Source: rrmediagroup.com