Motorola launches DMR Tier III Capacity Max

Motorola Solutions has introduced what it is calling a “feature-rich, next-generation” iteration to its MOTOTRBO trunking line, called Capacity Max.

“Capacity Max provides an important evolution to our innovative MOTOTRBO digital two-way radio solutions to deliver enhanced capability and expanded capacity,” said Michael O’Connor, vice president, radio channel sales, Asia Pacific and Middle East.

“The rich feature set and increased resilience equip our customers with dependable, secure mobile communications.”

Capacity Max is scalable from small, single-site systems to large, complex projects that demand greater capacity (up to 15 sites to a maximum of 3000 users per site) and higher levels of performance from voice and data-intensive communications deployments.

The system architecture utilises a standard IP network with a centralised server. Multiple levels of fault tolerance ensure that there is no single point of failure and the system is extremely secure, with optional Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption.

Martin Chappell (left) and Michael O'Connor.

To get some more information about Capacity Max, we spoke with O’Connor and Martin Chappell (GM, radio products and accessories, Australia, NZ and Pacific Islands) on the sidelines of the Comms Connect event in Melbourne and began by asking about the upgrade path from Tier II to Tier III.

“A lot of the radios deployed in the market now are upgradable to Tier III — specifically our 4000-series MOTOTRBO radios are all fully upgradable,” said Chappell.

“Traditionally the vertical markets that are our strengths are minerals and energy and transportation, and that’s where our [Tier II] trunking systems have played,” he added. “Tier III trunking as well will play in those areas, but it will potentially open up other markets, which are of lesser capacity — smaller systems that are hamstrung by return on investment of previous trunking systems.

“So Tier III has the capability to be a big system — up to 15 sites, 3000 users per site — [but] it also has the capability to be a reasonably small system.”

Can an operator with a Tier II system mix and match with a Tier III system?

“There are ways to bridge it. There ways to ease into [Tier III] or build onto some of the bigger Tier II systems that are currently deployed,” Chappell said.

So how would a Tier II operator upgrade to Capacity Max?

“You’d need the system server [which is] the brain of the whole thing, and then you would need software at each site to talk back to the server,” said Chappell. “The repeaters you have today you could more than likely re-use, and some of the radios could be reprogrammed over the air.”

The aim of the DMR project, of course, is to ensure that standards are followed and interoperability between vendors is maintained. But not all DMR implementations have been created equal in that respect. Does Capacity Max follow the guidelines?

“We currently adhere to the seven interoperability [requirements of the] 1.6.1 DMR standard,” said Chappell, adding that Capacity Max will also have the capability for extra ‘add on’ features over and above the seven basic standards.

Motorola is also emphasising the advantages of its new radio management system for Capacity Max.

“One of the specific benefits over our Tier II systems [is the] radio management interface… so how to interface with the network, bringing radios on and off, adding applications, programming over the air — that’s where the big leap is over our current Tier II,” said Chappell.

“The feedback I’ve heard already from markets outside of Australia is that the radio management capabilities really bring a different level of control for the network operator,” added O’Connor.

As you would expect from Tier III, Capacity Max also brings higher voice and data capabilities.

“[You’d have] higher levels of data because you can have more data channels now; better throughput as well,” said Chappell.

“On the voice side, you can have more channels per site. And particularly when you compare with some of our Linked Capacity Plus systems, our lower-featured Tier II systems, that’s where it really starts to ramp up.”

“The data is much faster getting back to the system,” added O’Connor. “So [for example] when you’re doing GPS updates you can get the data quicker and have quicker intelligence of what’s happening in the field.”

And according to O’Connor, data is where the future lies, which is why Motorola Solutions has 300-plus application developers.

“That’s really [what] we see taking radio forward — understanding the different market verticals and having application developers embedded in them and who really, truly understand and can make our radio solution a very vertical solution, built for purpose for that particular market,” he said.

The radio management system mentioned, Radio Manager 2.0, is on display at Comms Connect Melbourne on the Motorola display (stand 112). Comms Connect is taking place 2–3 December at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.