ROIP
Encyclopedia
Radio over Internet Protocol, or RoIP, is similar to VoIP, but augments two-way radio
communications rather than telephone calls. From the system point of view, it is essentially VoIP with PTT (Push To Talk). To the user it can be implemented like any other radio network. With RoIP, at least one node of a network is a radio (or a radio with an IP interface device) connected via IP
to other nodes in the radio network. The other nodes can be two-way radios, but could also be dispatch consoles either traditional (hardware) or modern (software on a PC), POTS
telephones, softphone applications running on a computer such as Skype phone
, PDA
, smartphone
, or some other communications device accessible over IP. RoIP can be deployed over private networks as well as the public Internet. It is useful in land mobile radio
systems used by public safety departments and fleets of utilities spread over a broad geographic area. Like other centralized radio systems such as trunked radio systems, issues of delay or latency
and reliance on centralized infrastructure can be impediments to adoption by public safety agencies.
RoIP is not a proprietary or protocol-limited construct but a basic concept that has been implemented in a number of ways. Several systems have been implemented in the amateur radio
community such as AllStar Link, IRLP and EchoLink that have demonstrated the utility of RoIP in a partly or entirely open-source environment. Many commercial radio systems vendors such as Motorola
and Harris
have adopted RoIP as part of their system designs.
The motivation to deploy RoIP technology is usually driven by one of three factors: first, the need to span large geographic areas; second, the desire to provide more reliable, or at least more repairable links in radio systems; and third, to support the use of many base station users, that is, voice communications from stationary users rather than mobile or handheld radios.
Geographies may be more economically reliably served when spanned by the use of IP technology due to the constantly decreasing cost and increasing functionality of the evolving packet-switched network equipment and software (a track followed by Moore's Law
). Traditionally distant radio users have been linked via dedicated microwave equipment and/or leased telephone lines. Generally, the cost of operating a radio network is decreased by the adoption of IP
technology, replacing the traditional microwave and leased telephone lines. Economical and reliable distant radio links such as those needed by state troopers, energy utilities, and Medivac
helicopters are well served by RoIP technology (see Air Evac Lifeteam
for an example of a 14-state radio system). U.S. military units are using RoIP to protect convoys spread out across large geographies
The conversion to RoIP also drives the adoption of a network approach rather than hub and spoke architecture that is typical of the point-to-point links inherent in the legacy microwave and leased line technologies. Hub and spoke architectures are inherently fragile, while the network approach developed at the foundation of the public Internet by DARPA is generally more reliable, more adaptable, and faster to repair and restore in a wide area disaster such as Katrina.
The use of LMR (land mobile radio
) equipment in both mobile and handheld forms, can be problematic for desk-bound users such as dispatchers, supervisors, and other users in large public safety agencies and energy/utilities, because such radios do not coexist well with computers (e.g. interference). Also Emergency Operations Center
(EOCs) are typically staffed with representatives from many different public safety agencies and other local government officials, each with a different radio. Such EOCs are more effectively (and quietly!) equipped when the radios for each of the different constituencies are made available in the center via RoIP
at each user's computer, rather than via a handheld radio that may be out of range, difficult to hear, and out of batteries throughout the emergency.
Finally, RoIP by its nature is interoperable, as once any device whether radio, telephone, computer, or PDA is made part of the voice network enabled by IP, it is irrelevant what type of technology it utilizes. RoIP systems routinely combine VHF, UHF, POTS
telephone, Cellular
telephone, SATCOM
, air-to-ground, and other technologies into a single voice conversation. This makes it especially valuable to the much-documented problems with communications interoperability
.
In order to minimize the growth of Radio over IP technologies that are incompatible with each other, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Institute of Standards and Technology
are sponsoring BSI for ROIP, a draft standard for enabling different Radio over IP technologies to interoperate.
Radio Control over IP (RCoIP) provides the essential signaling and management for voice messages required for Critical Communications and is a step up from Radio over IP (RoIP). RCoIP is designed so that essential messages get through by using confirmed signaling. Catalyst is an innovator in Radio over IP (RoIP) solutions for primary dispatch, backup dispatch, and interoperability.
Two-way radio
A two-way radio is a radio that can both transmit and receive , unlike a broadcast receiver which only receives content. The term refers to a personal radio transceiver that allows the operator to have a two-way conversation with other similar radios operating on the same radio frequency...
communications rather than telephone calls. From the system point of view, it is essentially VoIP with PTT (Push To Talk). To the user it can be implemented like any other radio network. With RoIP, at least one node of a network is a radio (or a radio with an IP interface device) connected via IP
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
to other nodes in the radio network. The other nodes can be two-way radios, but could also be dispatch consoles either traditional (hardware) or modern (software on a PC), POTS
Plain old telephone service
Plain old telephone service is the voice-grade telephone service that remains the basic form of residential and small business service connection to the telephone network in many parts of the world....
telephones, softphone applications running on a computer such as Skype phone
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
, PDA
PDA
A PDA is most commonly a Personal digital assistant, also known as a Personal data assistant, a mobile electronic device.PDA may also refer to:In science, medicine and technology:...
, smartphone
Smartphone
A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
, or some other communications device accessible over IP. RoIP can be deployed over private networks as well as the public Internet. It is useful in land mobile radio
Mobile Radio
This article is about professional equipment. For mobile radios used in amateur radio, see amateur radio mobile operation. Mobile radio or mobiles refer to wireless communications systems and devices which are based on radio frequencies, and where the path of communications is movable on either...
systems used by public safety departments and fleets of utilities spread over a broad geographic area. Like other centralized radio systems such as trunked radio systems, issues of delay or latency
Latency
Latency or latent may refer to:*Latency period , the time between exposure to a pathogen, chemical or radiation, and when symptoms first become apparent...
and reliance on centralized infrastructure can be impediments to adoption by public safety agencies.
RoIP is not a proprietary or protocol-limited construct but a basic concept that has been implemented in a number of ways. Several systems have been implemented in the amateur radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
community such as AllStar Link, IRLP and EchoLink that have demonstrated the utility of RoIP in a partly or entirely open-source environment. Many commercial radio systems vendors such as Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
and Harris
Harris Corporation
Harris Corporation is a Florida-based international communications equipment company that produces wireless equipment, electronic systems, and both terrestrial and spaceborne antennas for use in the government, defense, and commercial sectors. It is also the largest private-sector employer in...
have adopted RoIP as part of their system designs.
The motivation to deploy RoIP technology is usually driven by one of three factors: first, the need to span large geographic areas; second, the desire to provide more reliable, or at least more repairable links in radio systems; and third, to support the use of many base station users, that is, voice communications from stationary users rather than mobile or handheld radios.
Geographies may be more economically reliably served when spanned by the use of IP technology due to the constantly decreasing cost and increasing functionality of the evolving packet-switched network equipment and software (a track followed by Moore's Law
Moore's Law
Moore's law describes a long-term trend in the history of computing hardware: the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years....
). Traditionally distant radio users have been linked via dedicated microwave equipment and/or leased telephone lines. Generally, the cost of operating a radio network is decreased by the adoption of IP
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
technology, replacing the traditional microwave and leased telephone lines. Economical and reliable distant radio links such as those needed by state troopers, energy utilities, and Medivac
Medivac
Medivac may refer to:* medical evacuation* Medivac , an Australian television series...
helicopters are well served by RoIP technology (see Air Evac Lifeteam
Air Evac Lifeteam
Air Evac EMS, Inc., operating as Air Evac Lifeteam , and Texas LifeStar , is an air ambulance company based in West Plains, Missouri.-History:...
for an example of a 14-state radio system). U.S. military units are using RoIP to protect convoys spread out across large geographies
The conversion to RoIP also drives the adoption of a network approach rather than hub and spoke architecture that is typical of the point-to-point links inherent in the legacy microwave and leased line technologies. Hub and spoke architectures are inherently fragile, while the network approach developed at the foundation of the public Internet by DARPA is generally more reliable, more adaptable, and faster to repair and restore in a wide area disaster such as Katrina.
The use of LMR (land mobile radio
Mobile Radio
This article is about professional equipment. For mobile radios used in amateur radio, see amateur radio mobile operation. Mobile radio or mobiles refer to wireless communications systems and devices which are based on radio frequencies, and where the path of communications is movable on either...
) equipment in both mobile and handheld forms, can be problematic for desk-bound users such as dispatchers, supervisors, and other users in large public safety agencies and energy/utilities, because such radios do not coexist well with computers (e.g. interference). Also Emergency Operations Center
Emergency operations center
An emergency operations center, or EOC, is a central command and control facility responsible for carrying out the principles of emergency preparedness and emergency management, or disaster management functions at a strategic level in an emergency situation, and ensuring the continuity of operation...
(EOCs) are typically staffed with representatives from many different public safety agencies and other local government officials, each with a different radio. Such EOCs are more effectively (and quietly!) equipped when the radios for each of the different constituencies are made available in the center via RoIP
ROIP
Radio over Internet Protocol, or RoIP, is similar to VoIP, but augments two-way radio communications rather than telephone calls. From the system point of view, it is essentially VoIP with PTT . To the user it can be implemented like any other radio network...
at each user's computer, rather than via a handheld radio that may be out of range, difficult to hear, and out of batteries throughout the emergency.
Finally, RoIP by its nature is interoperable, as once any device whether radio, telephone, computer, or PDA is made part of the voice network enabled by IP, it is irrelevant what type of technology it utilizes. RoIP systems routinely combine VHF, UHF, POTS
Plain old telephone service
Plain old telephone service is the voice-grade telephone service that remains the basic form of residential and small business service connection to the telephone network in many parts of the world....
telephone, Cellular
Cellular network
A cellular network is a radio network distributed over land areas called cells, each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver known as a cell site or base station. When joined together these cells provide radio coverage over a wide geographic area...
telephone, SATCOM
SATCOM
SATCOM or Satcom may refer to:* Short for Satellite Communications and used frequently in the context of VSAT * Communications satellites or comsats...
, air-to-ground, and other technologies into a single voice conversation. This makes it especially valuable to the much-documented problems with communications interoperability
Interoperability
Interoperability is a property referring to the ability of diverse systems and organizations to work together . The term is often used in a technical systems engineering sense, or alternatively in a broad sense, taking into account social, political, and organizational factors that impact system to...
.
In order to minimize the growth of Radio over IP technologies that are incompatible with each other, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Institute of Standards and Technology
National Institute of Standards and Technology
The National Institute of Standards and Technology , known between 1901 and 1988 as the National Bureau of Standards , is a measurement standards laboratory, otherwise known as a National Metrological Institute , which is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce...
are sponsoring BSI for ROIP, a draft standard for enabling different Radio over IP technologies to interoperate.
Radio Control over IP (RCoIP) provides the essential signaling and management for voice messages required for Critical Communications and is a step up from Radio over IP (RoIP). RCoIP is designed so that essential messages get through by using confirmed signaling. Catalyst is an innovator in Radio over IP (RoIP) solutions for primary dispatch, backup dispatch, and interoperability.
See also
- AllStar Link
- Bridging Systems InterfaceBridging Systems InterfaceBridging Systems Interface is a standard protocol for communicating with physical interfaces which attach analog or digital voice radios to digital data networks—known as 'Radio over IP'--to make easier the use of remote radios by local users, and the sharing of radios by multiple users, in the...
- a standard protocol from DHS OIC's SAFECOM program - C4I, Inc.
- Dingotel
- D-STARD-STARD-STAR is a digital voice and data protocol specification developed as the result of research by the Japan Amateur Radio League to investigate digital technologies for amateur radio...
- EcholinkEcholinkEchoLink is a free computer-based Amateur Radio system that allows radio amateurs to communicate with other amateur radio operators using Voice over IP technology on the Internet for at least part of the path between them...
- eQSOEQSOeQSO is a client–server software program designed by amateur radio enthusiasts for linking amateur radio frequency gateways and repeaters via the internet by using a Voice over IP protocol...
- HamSphereHamSphereHamSphere is a software Amateur Radio simulator that allows licensed radio amateurs and unlicensed enthusiasts to communicate with one another using a simulated ionosphere. It was designed by Kelly Lindman, a radio amateur with callsign 5B4AIT....
- IRLP
- Midland RadioMidland RadioMidland Radio Corporation is a U.S. based manufacturer of radio equipment. Midland manufactures industrial and marine two-way radio systems, CB radios, and weather/hazard alert radios....
- Mer GroupMer groupMer Group, is a holding company comprising 3 autonomous business divisions - each headed by a company with subsidiaries, manufacturing facilities and logistics chains...
- Mutualink for radio / resource sovereignty and peer-to-peer
- National InteropNational InteropNational Interop is a systems integration company with some of the earliest experience with Radio over IP technologies as deployed for public safety communications. The company was founded by public safety personnel....
- RIPRNetRIPRNetRIPRNet is a United States military network that allows system designers and deployment personnel to connect radios in remote locations to local dispatch consoles exchanging radio voice data over an IP routed network...
- Catalyst Communications
External links
- Mutualink Redefining Interoperability
- Mimer SoftRadio
- Orion Systems MT-32 Voice Switch/VoIP/RoIP Console Systems
- Avtec Scout VoIP/RoIP Dispatch Console Systems
- ARINC AWINS
- C4i Radio Interface Unit, SwitchplusIP systems
- ICRI Tactical Interoperability, Gateway and RoIP
- VoiceInterop
- National Interop
- Twisted Pair Solutions, WAVE RoIP software
- Catalyst Communications
- InteROX Interoperable NetworX, RoIP software and gateway
- Telex Radio Dispatch Products
- ARA-1 Analog Radio Adapter, Raytheon
- Radio Interoperability Systems, Link Communications Inc.
- ASCOM RoIP, for remote operation of tactical radios and EUROCOM terminals
- Cisco IPICS
- Xelatec llc. XIPPR VoIP/RoIP server system