Digital Trunked Land Mobile in

the 800 MHz Band

An Engineering Discussion Paper

May 2007

First published in May 2007 by the

Radio Spectrum Policy and Planning Group
Energy and Communications Branch
Ministry of Economic Development
PO Box 1473, Wellington, New Zealand
http://www.med.govt.nz

ISBN 978-0-478-30494-7 [HTML]

978-0-478-30495-4 [PDF]

624291
Disclaimer
The opinions contained in this document are those of the Ministry of Economic
Development and do not reflect official government policy. Readers are advised to
seek specific legal advice from a qualified professional person before undertaking
any action in reliance on the contents of this publication. The contents of this
discussion paper must not be construed as legal advice. The Ministry does not
accept any responsibility or liability whatsoever whether in contract, tort, equity or
otherwise for any action taken as a result of reading, or reliance placed on the
Ministry because of having read, any part, or all, of the information in this discussion
paper or for any error, inadequacy, deficiency, flaw in or omission from
the discussion paper.

624291
 Contents

1. Background...............................................................................5

2. Current Use of 800 MHz TS Band ............................................6

2.1. Current Policy..........................................................................6

2.2. Licensing Regime....................................................................6

2.3. Current Band Allocation ..........................................................7

2.4. Spectrum Usage .....................................................................8

2.5. International Licensing Regimes for 800 MHz Land Mobile

Systems .........................................................................................9

3. Digital Trunked Dispatch Standards .....................................11

3.1. AS/NZS 4768.1:2006 ............................................................11

3.2. TETRA ..................................................................................12

3.3. APCO P25.............................................................................12

3.4. Enhanced digital access communications system (EDACS).14

3.5. Proprietary Digital Standards ................................................14

4. Engineering Issues .................................................................15

4.1. Compatibility of Digital and Analogue Systems .....................15

4.2. Channel Plans.......................................................................16

4.3. Licensing Parameters ...........................................................17

Questions .......................................................................................18

5. Invitation for Submissions.....................................................20

5.1. Submission Closing Date and Format ...................................20

5.2. Posting and Release of Submissions ....................................21

5.3. Privacy Act 1993 ...................................................................21

6. Appendix : Comparison of Analogue, TETRA, APCO P25,

and Generic Digital (AS4768) Standards .....................................22

6.1. Standards..............................................................................22

6.2. Transmitter Performance.......................................................22

6.3. Receiver Performance...........................................................23

6.4. Summary...............................................................................24

discussion-pdf
Glossary

ACMA Australian Communications and Media Authority

e-GIF e-Government Interoperability Framework:

ESD Emergency Services D-Band (812 -813 MHz paired with 857 – 858 MHz)

FCC Federal Communications Commission (USA)

FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access

LMR Land Mobile Radio

OFCOM Office of Communications (UK)

PPDR Public Protection and Disaster Relief – sometimes referred to as Public

Safety

RFID Radio Frequency Identification Device

TDMA Time Division Multiple Access

TS band New Zealand Trunked Dispatch Land Mobile band at 800 MHz

discussion-pdf Page 4
1. Purpose
This document has been prepared to facilitate consultation relating to the potential
introduction of digital trunk radio technologies in the 800 MHz TS band, with a view to
obtaining technical information and views from New Zealand’s radio industry.

2. Background
The Ministry wishes to encourage the introduction of new technologies where they
provide technical efficiencies and economic benefits. There are a number of digital
technologies being introduced into the international land mobile radio market which
have the potential of providing these benefits in the 800 MHz trunked dispatch band
in New Zealand.

Some current users of this band have expressed an interest in using new
technologies. This discussion paper provides an opportunity for all current users and
other interested parties to provide comment on the most appropriate digital
technologies and standards for this band.

Radio licences in the 800 MHz trunked dispatch band (TS band) have been available
in New Zealand for many years. Because the band is limited to trunked systems, it is
mainly used by larger organisations who can benefit from the efficiencies of multi-
channel networks. A number of new digital technologies are now available which
have the potential of further increasing the technical efficiency of these networks.

The new technologies being introduced into LMR systems internationally are often
driven by the demands of the Public Safety market. These may differ from the needs
of general LMR users in the TS band. The Ministry is interested in the digital
technologies which are of most interest to these users.

This paper also recognises that any introduction of new technologies must take into
account the significant number of radio licences using analogue technology
equipment already issued in this band.

discussion-pdf Page 5
3. Current Use of 800 MHz TS Band

3.1. Current Policy

The current operational policy for the 800 MHz Trunked Dispatch Land Mobile band
or TS band is defined in PIB 141. The band uses the spectrum defined as 200 x 25
kHz channels in the 814 – 819/859 – 864 MHz band. There is also a potential
extension band made up of 20 x 25 kHz channels in the 813-814/858 – 859 MHz
band.

PIB 14 Conditions of Use, item 1 states that “This band is provided for Trunked
Dispatch systems only.”

PIB 14 Conditions of Use, item 7 requires that “equipment used is to be type-

approved to specification RFS 32.”

RFS 32 clause 3.1 defines the class of emission as:

“The equipment shall transmit angle modulated telephony emissions only

except that signalling systems for the purpose of squelch control and other
approved uses shall also be permitted.”

In summary these publications identify the current policy for the 800 MHz TS band as
permitting only angle modulated trunked land mobile systems. Non-trunked systems
and systems using digital modulation are outside the bounds of this policy.

3.2. Licensing Regime

The band is currently managed under an administrative regime under the auspices of
Part 13 of the Radiocommunications Act 1989, with site specific radio licenses issued
to users. The Ministry does not propose to change this arrangement because it is
considered that:

• There is sufficient supply of spectrum to meet the current demand and hence
there is no economic driver to consider re-allocating this spectrum to
Management Rights under the auspices of Part 6 of the Radiocommunications
Act 1989, using a market based allocation mechanism;

• It is essential to current and new services that the interference management

inherent in the radio licensing regime is retained to ensure the quality of
service is preserved, and hence management of this spectrum using a
General User Licence would be unsuitable;

• The specific radio licence parameters already in place and those that may be
adopted in future for the existing radio licensing regime are, and will be, in

1
PIB 14 - 800 MHz Trunked Dispatch Land Mobile System - Issue 4 – April 2000

discussion-pdf Page 6
 accordance with international best practice for this type of service and
frequency range.

3.3. Current Band Allocation and Direction

Information from PIB 212 identifies the allocation of the TS and adjacent bands. This
is summarised in Diagram 1 below.

812 813 814 819 824 MHz

ESD “TS Trunked Land Mobile Radio Short Range Devices
Ext” “TS” band 100 mW unrestricted
band Mobile Transmit

857 858 859 864 868 MHz

ESD “TS Trunked Land Mobile Radio Short Range Devices
Ext” “TS” band 1000 mW unrestricted
band Base Transmit

Notes 1. The “TS Ext” (extension) band is potentially to be used for trunked Land
Mobile Radio use where demand cannot be met from within the “TS” band.
2. The ESD band is reserved for Public Safety and Emergency Service use
licences in this band are maintained by the Public Safety Radio Frequency
Management Group.
3. The SRD bands are assigned using the Radiocommunications (General User
Radio Licence for Short Range Devices) Notice 2007.

Diagram 1: Summary of bands adjacent to the TS band.

Licensing in the ESD band is co-ordinated and maintained by the Public Safety Radio
Frequency Management Group which is made up of Government Departments with
an interest in Radiocommunications services for public protection and disaster relief
i.e. NZ Police, NZ Fire Service, Ambulance New Zealand, Ministry of Civil Defence
and Emergency Management, New Zealand Defence Force, NZ Customs,
Department of Conservation, and Ministry of Fisheries. At its meeting on 13 March
07, the Government’s e-GIF committee, acting on the recommendation of the public
safety agencies, concluded a public consultation process and approved the inclusion
of key APCO P25 standards into the e-Government Interoperability Framework (see
section 4.3 below).

2
PIB 21 - Table of Radio Spectrum Usage in New Zealand - August 2004 (Issue 5)

discussion-pdf Page 7
New systems engineered and licensed for operation in New Zealand in the TS band
will need to be technically compatible with future digital land mobile services using
the APCO P25 standard operating in the adjacent ESD band.

The conditions inherent in the Radiocommunications (General User Radio Licence

for Short Range Devices) Notice 2007 compel radiocommunication systems thus
licensed to accept interference from, and to not cause interference to, other licensed
emissions, and therefore do not present any limitation to present or future operations
in the TS band. However, the aggregate effect of emissions in the 864 – 868 MHz
SRD band may increase over time as this band has been allocated for a wide variety
of uses including European based Radio Frequency Identity Tags (RFID). Similar
RFID equipment is being introduced into New Zealand. Hence, when designing a
system operating in the TS base transmit band (859 – 864 MHz) engineers may
need to take into account the impact of increased numbers of equipment and
potentially increasing aggregate emission levels in the adjacent band.

3.4. Spectrum Usage

The New Zealand Register of Radio Frequencies shows the following usage statistics
as at 9 October 2006

• There are 230 radio licences issued in the TS band, 7 of which are in the TS
extension band;
• Of the 200 available channels (discounting the extension band) 135 (63%) are
assigned at least once;
• 86 (43%) of the channels are used more than once with 3 being reused 4
times;
• 89 (45%) of the channels are used in the Auckland region, the most congested
area of the country;
• There are 12 licensees holding licences in the TS band.
The statistics show that based on a conservative reuse factor of 4 there is
considerable unused capacity in the TS band especially outside the Auckland region.
There is also limited scope for significant expansion of existing networks in the major
population areas. If new technologies enable a greater number of voice channels to
be provided then this could present a viable business case for existing licence
holders to migrate to digital systems.

In terms of engineering the co-existence of analogue and digital emissions in the

same band, the simplest mechanism available is the technique of band
segmentation, i.e. one part of the band is used to accommodate only analogue
emissions and the other part is used to accommodate only digital emissions.
However, as significant numbers of analogue emissions are accommodated across
all channels in the TS band, the implementation of a band segmented approach
would require the consolidation and potentially arbitrary migration of [some] analogue
licences into another part of the band. Such an approach would require both a
detailed engineering study and the introduction of a voluntary migration plan to
ensure it is feasible. An analysis of current usage (43% of the channels are assigned
more than once and 45% are assigned in the Auckland region) suggests that

discussion-pdf Page 8
consolidation would impact a significant number of licensees. It is also unclear which
parties; the licensees of existing analogue emissions, prospective licensees of digital
emissions, or the Government, would cover the costs of such migration.

A second approach is to allow the co-existence of digital and analogue emissions in

the same frequency band to interleave new analogue and digital emissions between
those already licensed. This approach is advantageous as existing licensees can
maintain their current licences (and hence operations). However, this approach
requires that the technical interactions between analogue and analogue (the status
quo), analogue and digital, and digital and digital emissions are specified to ensure
the required Quality of Service objectives.

On balance the Ministry of Economic Development considers that the second

approach, that of interleaving, if it can be achieved, would be more expeditious and
potentially equally spectrally efficient in terms of enabling the introduction of digital
emissions in the TS band. The Ministry notes that the feasibility and spectrum
efficiency inherent in this approach is dependant on the technical specifications of the
digital equipment to be introduced and those of the existing analogue equipment, e.g.
required signal-to-noise ratios, co-channel and adjacent channel emission masks, bit
error rates (in the case of digital equipment), fade margins and protection ratios.

3.5. International Licensing Regimes for 800 MHz Land Mobile

Systems
A world wide market for Land Mobile systems operating in the 800 MHz bands has
existed for some time. This has included both trunked and non trunked analogue
systems. More recently new technologies have been developed and standardised
for the public safety market. Many of these have also targeted the general or
commercial market such as those using the TS band in New Zealand.

Bands around 800 MHz have been allocated for general commercial land mobile
systems in NZ, Australia, UK, USA and others. These are summarised in Diagram 2.

NZ 813 819 858 864 MHz

Aus 820 825 865 870 MHz

UK Paired with 916 - 921 871 876 MHz

USA 806 824 851 869 MHz

= Land Mobile Allocation

Diagram 2: Summary of 800 MHz private LMR bands in NZ, Australia, UK and USA.

From the above diagram it is apparent that New Zealand spectrum arrangements
represent significant harmonisation with Australia and the USA.

discussion-pdf Page 9
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has issued the
document RALI LM8 entitled “Frequency Assignment Requirements for the Land
Mobile Service”. This specifies the assignment requirements for analogue and digital
land mobile systems, both trunked and non-trunked. The band plan for 800 MHz
uses 25 kHz channel spacing, and a bit error rate of 10-2 for digital systems in place
of 12 dB signal to interference, noise and distortion (SINAD) ratio. No other specific
criteria are defined for digital data systems. To support the grant of licence
applications for digital services ACMA also accepts engineering certifications that
provide evidence that the new digital service poses no greater interference potential
to existing licences than a corresponding analogue service would.

In the UK, OFCOM have issued a Spectrum Allocation Table which identifies the
bands 871 – 876/916 – 921 MHz for civil use using the extended TErrestrial Trunked
RAdio (TETRA) standard.

The USA FCC has allocated part of the band 806 – 824/851 – 869 MHz for private
mobile radio systems using 25 kHz channel spacing, these provisions are specified in
FCC rules CFR 47 Part 90. Other parts of the band have been allocated to public
safety with either 12.5 or 25 kHz channel spacing. Systems using more than 5
channels are required to implement trunking technology. The band is currently being
reconfigured to reduce interference into public safety channels and to accommodate
services being displaced by advanced cellular services. This band arrangement is
analogous to the interleaved approach mentioned in Section 3.4 above.

In the USA new applications and major modifications to an existing license must be
filed through a frequency coordinator. Frequency coordinators are private
organisations that have been certified by the Commission to recommend the most
appropriate frequencies for applicants in the designated Part 90 radio services.

In New Zealand, the introduction of the publicly accessible, internet enabled, SMART
licensing system and radio frequency register, and the implementation of external
engineering of licences by Approved Radio Engineers is equivalent in function to the
US based used of frequency coordinators. However, the effectiveness of the NZ
arrangements is predicated on accurate public specification of licensing policies
(including channel plans, performance objectives and standards, in policy
documents, public information brochures including PIB 38 “Radio Licence
Engineering Rules and Information for Approved Radio Engineers and Approved
Certifiers Issue 3 - [August 2005]”.

discussion-pdf Page 10
4. Digital Trunked Dispatch Standards
Equipment standards can be grouped into three general categories; generic, open
and proprietary.

Generic equipment standards set clear minimum and developmental criteria and
objectives for equipment operation that is independent of specific intellectual property
or equipment function. Generic standards for radiocommunication emissions most
often specify the fundamental parameters of equipment operation for the lowest, or
physical (PHY), layer of the Open Standards Institutes 7 layer reference model for
network communication.

Generic equipment standards are advantageous as they provide enough information

to enable the interference controlled radio engineering without impacting on other
aspects of equipment operation and hence allow the introduction of equipment
designed to either open or proprietary standards.

The ITU-T defines open standards as “standards made available to the general
public and are developed (or approved) and maintained via a collaborative and
consensus driven process. ‘Open Standards’ facilitate interoperability and data
exchange among different products or services and are intended for widespread
adoption.”

Open standards imply "open systems;" or that an existing component in a system can
be replaced with that of another vendor. Although many vendors may have
contributed to an open standard, and one may have contributed more than others, an
open standard is not controlled by a single vendor. Equipment developed in
accordance with open standards often benefits from price and performance
advantages arising from multi-vendor competition.

Proprietary equipment standards are equipment specifications that are developed

and controlled by one company.

Proprietary standards are advantageous as they allow the expeditious development

and introduction of equipment to a market. However, the adoption of these types of
standards may lead to “technology lock-in” where adopters of the standard become
committed to sourcing equipment from a single vendor.

A description of the most common generic, open and proprietary standards for digital
land mobile radio equipment is given below.

4.1. AS/NZS 4768.1:2006

The current Australian/New Zealand Standard for radio frequency aspects of digital
land mobile equipment is AS/NZS 4768.1:2006 entitled “Digital radio equipment
operating in land mobile and fixed services bands in the frequency range 29.7 MHz
to 1 GHz - Radiofrequency requirements”. This standard is an example of a generic
standard.

discussion-pdf Page 11
The channel arrangements supported by AS/NZS 4768 are 12.5 or 25 kHz. The sub-
bands 29.7 – 45 MHz, 70 – 87.5 MHz, 148 – 174 MHz, 403 – 520 MHz and 520 –
1000 MHz are supported.

Analysis of the maximum rated output power, adjacent channel power and spurious
emissions imply an emission mask (see diagram A1 in Annex 1) that encapsulates
the current analogue, and APCO P25 common air interface standards. This implied
emission mask does not accommodate the TETRA emission mask.

4.2. TETRA
Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) is an open digital trunked mobile radio standard
developed by the European Telecommunications Standards (ETSI) to meet the
needs of traditional Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) user organizations. The air
interfaces, network interfaces, services and facilities are specified in sufficient detail
to enable independent manufacturers to develop infrastructure and radio terminal
products that will fully interoperate with each other.

Internationally a number of spectrum bands between 30 and 1000 MHz have been
identified for possible TETRA use. In practice most TETRA systems have been
implemented in the 380 - 400 MHz range.

TETRA is generally implemented in bands reserved specifically for its use and not
shared with radio systems using other standards.

TETRA Release 1 was introduced in 1997 and provides for voice plus data services.
It uses TDMA to achieve 4 voice channels in a 25 kHz bandwidth. The TETRA
Website3 advises that by December 2005 contracts had been let for 788 systems
world wide predominately for Public Safety Services.

TETRA Release 2 incorporates enhanced data services and increased range among
other refinements. The increased data is achieved using higher modulation methods
and wider channel bandwidth (up to 538 kbps using 64 QAM in 150 kHz channels).
Phase 2 equipment is intended to be backwards compatible with Phase 1. The
TETRA Website advises that “TETRA Release 2 standards are sufficiently complete
for product development purposes”.

It is not known if “off-the-shelf” TETRA compliant equipment (with a 45 MHz duplex

spacing) is available for use in the US, Australian and hence New Zealand 800 MHz
band.

4.3. APCO P25

The primary objectives of the open P25 standards are to meet public safety user
needs by providing high quality digital, narrowband radios with maximum
interoperability. P25 is a suite of standards which specify technologies that can be
used to implement a variety of systems and architectures. The equipment is capable

3
http://www.tetramou.com/tetramou.aspx?id=44

discussion-pdf Page 12
of operating within the same band as existing analogue systems and is intended to
be backwards compatible.

Phase I of P25 requires a spectral efficiency of 2 voice channels per 25 kHz channel
bandwidth using FDMA. Phase 1 equipment must be backwards compatible with
analogue equipment operating in 25 kHz channels. Equipment is currently available
meeting the requirements of Phase I and PPDR systems are operating in a number
of states in the USA.

Phase II of P25 requires a spectral efficiency equivalent of at least 1 voice channel

per 6.25 kHz channel using FDMA and TDMA. Phase II equipment must be
backwards compatible with Phase 1 equipment. No Phase II standards have been
finalised at this stage so compliant equipment is unavailable.

FCC rules4 for the 700 MHz Public Safety band permit P24 Phase I equipment to be
operated up to year 2016. After year 2014 no new systems will be licensed which do
not achieve the spectrum efficiency specified for Phase II equipment. These dates
are believed to be subject to further debate.

At its meeting on 13 March 07, the Government’s e-GIF committee, acting on the
recommendation of the public safety agencies, concluded a public consultation
process and approved the inclusion of the following APCO P25 standards into the e-
Government Interoperability Framework:

1. Recommended for immediate adoption (immediate):

a. Common Air Interface (CAI)

b. Analogue FM transceivers
c. Digital P25 Phase 1 transceivers

2. Recommended for future consideration (3-10 years)

a. CAI for FDMA trunked digital systems

b. Inter subsystem interface (ISSI)
c. Fixed station interface
d. Data peripheral interface
e. Fixed host data interface
f. PSTN interface
g. Console subsystem interface

It is noted that “off-the-shelf” APCO P25 compliant equipment (with a 45 MHz duplex
spacing) is available for use in the US, Australian and hence New Zealand 800 MHz
band.

4
Specifically CFR47 90.535 (d).

discussion-pdf Page 13
4.4. Enhanced digital access communications system (EDACS)
EDACS is an advanced two-way trunked radio system operating on 25 kHz or
12.5 kHz channels in VHF, UHF, 800 and 900 MHz frequency bands. The
development of the standards for the EDACS system is being carried out by the USA
based Telecommunication Industry Association (TIA), a recognized standardization
organization. The development of specifications based on EDACS technology will
provide backward compatibility and interoperability with the large existing base of
previous proprietary EDACS equipment and systems, globally.

The EDACS specification provides features and functions intended on satisfying

requirements for public safety, industry, utility and commercial users.

EDACS systems use Frequency Division Multiple-Access to provide up to 2 voice

channels in each 25 kHz channel.

4.5. Proprietary Digital Standards

In addition to the international open protocol standards TETRA and APCO P25, there
are a number of proprietary digital LMR standards. These have generally been
designed to operate in the same band as existing analogue systems.

The most popular proprietary system is the Motorola iDEN standard which uses Time
Division Multiple Access and quaternary amplitude modulation to achieve up to 6
voice channels in each 25 kHz channel.

discussion-pdf Page 14
5. Engineering Issues
The choice of digital radio standards for trunked digital systems is limited. Some of
the more popular standards available today are given in section 4 above. Limiting the
number of standards suggests that the interference potential of emissions in
accordance with these standards can be predetermined.

Standards set the minimum performance specifications for individual equipment

operation and can be used by engineers to establish criteria for the co-existent
operation of multiple equipment. These criteria are usually expressed as licensing or
engineering rules (see PIB38). Licensing rules are established as enforceable
operational conditions via specification on granted radio licences.

5.1. Compatibility of Digital and Analogue Systems

5.1.1. Compatibility Studies
Equipment designed to APCO P25 is required to be backward compatible with legacy
analogue systems. This means within the same band the equipment is capable of
operating on a 25 kHz channel raster using analogue modulation, as well as on
12.5 kHz channel raster using digital modulation.

A report on a modelling study issued by CEPT in 20005 concluded that TETRA

systems in the 400MHz range could operate in a band adjacent to analogue FM land
mobile radio bands without the need of any guard band. It is not clear whether the
results of this study can be translated to the 800MHz range. The report did not
analyse the feasibility of operating TETRA systems in the same band as FM
analogue trunked mobile radio systems in the same band.

5.1.2. Comparison of radio standards

Annex 1 to this paper provides a comparison of the key performance parameters
which affect spectrum utilisation of the current analogue standards with TETRA and
APCO P25 systems. The parameters considered are co-channel and adjacent
channel interference ratios and transmission mask. The results show the APCO
parameter values are comparative with the current analogue standards whilst
achieving better communications efficiency at two voice channels per 25 kHz channel
bandwidth.

The TETRA standard achieves 4 voice channels per 25 kHz bandwidth enabling
TETRA to achieve a high spectrum utilisation. However the RF parameters indicate
that TETRA systems could not occupy similar channel widths as analogue systems
because of a wider transmission mask, and furthermore engineering compatibility
between analogue and TETRA systems is complicated because the two technologies
have differing unwanted signal rejection threshold. This difficulty is not unexpected
as the TETRA standard has been optimised to achieve efficient spectrum usage for

5
Report ERC 104 – “Adjacent Band Compatibility Of 400 MHz Tetra And Analogue Fm PMR – An
Analysis Completed Using A Monte Carlo Based Simulation Tool”

discussion-pdf Page 15
multi-channel trunking systems when operating in a dedicated band or digital only
band segmentation.

If standards cannot be agreed, the implementation of an audited engineering

certification process may be appropriate.

5.2. Channel Plans

There are currently licences issued for nearly 70% of the TS band channels. As
noted in Section 3 above, it is desirable that any new technology does not limit the
operation of these current licences or require undue rearrangement of their operating
frequencies if it can be avoided.

The present band plan provides for trunked systems using 25 kHz bandwidth
channels and a transmit/receive separation of 45 MHz. Because of the incumbent
users it is desirable that the current channel plan is retained but it is possible that a
different channel raster, being a sub-multiple of 25 e.g. 12.5 kHz, could be overlaid if
desired.

APCO P25 equipment is designed to be accommodated using a 12.5 KHz or 25 kHz

channel raster. The standards do not specify individual operational frequency bands;
rather the range of ~130 – 860 MHz is specified. This standard is flexible with respect
to a duplex spacing, however, the original market for APCO P25 equipment was the
USA and FCC part 90 regulations accommodate APCO P25 equipment in either
public or private use in the 800 MHz range using 25 kHz channels and a duplex
spacing of 45 MHz.

The TETRA standard specifies a basic channel raster of 25 kHz. A basic channel
may be amalgamated to create a 50, 75, 100 kHz channel to accommodate higher
bandwidths with QAM modulation schemes. The TETRA standard specifies the band
for public safety operation being 870 – 876 MHz paired with 915 – 921 MHz, that
implies a fixed duplex spacing of 45 MHz. However, the TETRA standard EN300
392-2 states that “when a TETRA system is operated in frequency bands used for
analogue Private Mobile Radio (PMR), the uplink and downlink transmit and receive
centre frequencies and the duplex spacing (D) will be allocated by the National
Regulatory Administration (NRA)”.

Motorola iDEN equipment is designed to utilise an occupied bandwidth of 20 kHz that

is accommodated within a necessary (or channel) bandwidth of 25 kHz. This
equipment is accommodated by FCC part 90 regulations and hence is designed to
operate in the 800 MHz bands using a duplex spacing of 45 MHz.

The EDACS standard utilises a basic channel raster of 12.5 kHz or 25 kHz, in the
800 and 900 MHz bands, with a duplex spacing of 45 MHz.

A comparison of channel the existing New Zealand Channel plan and channel plans
that support the standards mentioned in section 4 above are shown in the table
below;

discussion-pdf Page 16
Standard RF Carrier Duplex Spacing Applicable Band*
Frequency
Spacing or
minimum channel
raster
AS 4768 25 kHz Set by regulator 29.7 – 1000 MHz
APCO P25 12.5 kHz 45 MHz 800 – 941 MHz
TETRA 25 kHz 45 MHz 870 – 888/915 – 933 MHz
Or set by regulator Or set by regulator
EDACS 25 kHz or 12.5 kHz 45 MHz 806 – 821/851 – 866 MHz
iDEN 25 kHz 45 MHz 800/900 MHz
* The TS band is 814 – 819/859 – 864 MHz

Table 1: Band and Channel Comparison of Common Standards

5.3. Licensing Parameters

5.3.1. Co-Channel Engineering
Once the frequency occupancy objectives have been set (i.e. a channel plan
established), two important criteria for maximally efficient and effective management
of radio spectrum can be expressed as follows;

• maximal spectrum utility is achieved when the minimum required power to

achieve a predetermined performance objective is used, and

• interference minimisation is achieved when all co-located receivers in the same

service receive the same input level.

The second condition implies that the existing analogue faded receiver input level be
used when engineering new digital links. This input level is based upon the
combination of transmitter power, link budget (fade margin) and receiver
performance (co-channel receiver interference (blocking) ratio, and reference
receiver sensitivity). As transmitter power and link budget parameters are largely
independent of modulation, a comparison of receiver performance (see Annex 1)
suggests that for APCO P25, and AS/NZS 4768 compliant equipment this would be
satisfactory.

Application of the first condition places an upper constraint on the transmit power
specified on the licence.

5.3.2. Adjacent Channel Engineering

The main technical conditions to be met with respect to engineering a link relative to
adjacent channel emissions are based on unwanted adjacent channel transmitter
power, unfaded adjacent channel path loss and the ability of the subject receiver to
reject power in the adjacent channel (i.e. the Minimum Adjacent channel interference
(or rejection or blocking) ratio. Adjacent channel power and path loss are
independent of modulation and the receiver performance of APCO P25 and AS/NZS

discussion-pdf Page 17
4768 compliant equipment is comparative or better than existing analogue
engineering parameters. Therefore it is likely that the current analogue adjacent
channel licensing parameters can be used when engineering digital systems.

5.3.3. Analogue vs. Digital Engineering

When engineering digital systems it is common to specify the quality of service
objective as a bit error rate (BER) e.g. 1 in 10-3, there is no correlating BER
parameter in the analogue domain.

The wanted signal to unwanted signal (interference) or C/I ratio has the most
significant impact on the BER of a practical digital radio system. C/I ratio is a
parameter common to both analogue and digital domains. For a practical system the
faded C/I ratio must be les than the co-channel receiver interference (blocking) ratio.
Hence, it is common to specify a C/I ratio corresponding to a pre-determined wanted
BER when co-engineering digital and analogue systems.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has specified a bit error rate of
10-2 for digital systems corresponding to a 12 dB signal to interference, noise and
distortion (SINAD) ratio for digital data systems.

6. Questions
The Ministry wishes to encourage the introduction of new technologies in the
800 MHz TS band where those technologies provide technical efficiencies and
economic benefits to New Zealand. The current policy limits the technologies used in
this band and interest has been shown in expanding the options.

There is equipment currently available now which uses digital technology to achieve
enhanced efficiency and advanced features. Although it is desirable to also provide
for the future evolution of even more advanced LMR technologies, this must be
balanced against the benefits of limiting the choice of technologies to existing
standards.

A possible mechanism to enable the introduction of evolving competing standards is

to specify common technical or licensing parameters sufficiently to enable the
engineering of licences without restricting the choice of technology.

The Ministry invites both current users of the TS band and other interested parties to
respond to the questions below::

Question 1: Should the current operational policy be expanded to accommodate

digital technologies and emissions in the 800 MHz TS band?

Question 2: Is interleaved digital and analogue co-existence to be favoured over a

band segmented approach?

discussion-pdf Page 18
Question 3: In your opinion which of the types of standards; generic, open, or
proprietary would be of most benefit to the overall management of the TS band?

Question 4: If your organisation wished to introduce digital trunking technologies in

the TS band which of the above standards would be favoured? If your organisation
favours more than one standard please indicate the order of preference.

Question 5: Using your answers to question 2, 3, and 4 as a basis, can the existing
25 kHz channel raster and 45 MHz duplex spacing be used for digital systems? If
not, what is the preferred channel arrangement?

Question 6: Is there benefit in adopting a standard, that requires custom equipment

manufacture to fit a national band plan e.g. TETRA in the TS band?

Question 7: If required, would the existing analogue engineering parameters

(receiver sensitivity, wanted signal level under faded conditions, and adjacent
channel protection ratio) and use of wanted signal to unwanted interference (C/I) or
SINAD level of 12 dB in place of a bit error rate of 10-2 be suitable for engineering
the co-existence of analogue and digital links?

Question 8: Would the introduction of licensing arrangements to allow land

mobile systems using digital technologies into the TS band be beneficial to your
business? What are the key benefits introduced by these new technologies?

Question 9: How may the Ministry balance the evolving nature of digital
standards and technologies with the technical efficiencies of prescribing specific
standards for the TS band?

Question 10: In the context of digital land mobile radio in the 800/900 MHz range,
are there any other issues you would like to raise?

discussion-pdf Page 19

7. Invitation for Submissions

7.1. Submission Closing Date and Format

Comments on the proposals contained in this paper and on any related issues, are
invited from interested parties. Written submissions should be sent no later than
Friday, 15 June 2007 to:

Digital Trunked Radio in the 800 MHz TS band

Radio Spectrum Policy and Planning

Ministry of Economic Development

P O Box 1473

WELLINGTON

or emailed to:

radiospectrum@med.govt.nz. (preferred option)

Any party wishing to discuss the proposals with Ministry officials should contact, in
the first instance the Radio Spectrum Policy and Planning group at: Ph 04 472 0030.

It would be appreciated if submissions were made in the following format.

Name

Position in organisation

Organisation

Contact details

Nature of organisation’s business

Responses to questions

1….

2….

3….

….etc.

Other issues

A….

B….

Date / Signature

discussion-pdf Page 20
7.2. Posting and Release of Submissions
The Ministry intends to publish all submissions on its website at
http://www.med.govt.nz. The Ministry will consider you to have consented to the
publication of your submission, unless clearly specified otherwise in your submission

Please advise the Ministry of any objection to the release of any information
contained in a submission to this document, and in particular, which parts should be
withheld, together with the reasons for withholding them. The Ministry will take into
account all such objections when responding to requests for information on
submissions to this document under the Official Information Act 1982.

7.3. Privacy Act 1993

The Privacy Act 1993 establishes certain principles with respect to the collection, use
and disclosure by various agencies including the Ministry, of information relating to
individuals and access by individuals to information relating to them held by such
agencies. Any personal information you supply to the Ministry in the course of
making a submission will be used by the Ministry in conjunction with considerations
of matters covered by this document only. Please clearly indicate in your submission
if you do not wish your name to be included in any summary the Ministry may
prepare for public release on submissions received.

discussion-pdf Page 21
8. Annex 1: Comparison of Analogue, TETRA, APCO P25,
and Generic Digital (AS4768) Standards

8.1. Standards

The major parameters which reflect the spectrum efficiency of the various systems
have been derived from the relative standards. The digital standards are compared
using the current analogue standard as a reference. The standards referred to are
shown in Table A1 below.

System Standard
Analogue FM RFS 32 and ETSI ETS300086
Jan 1991

TETRA Draft ETSI EN 300 392-2

V3.1.1 (2006-09)

APCO P25 TIA-102-CAAA and CAAB

Generic digital AS 4768.1: 2006

Table A1: Reference Standards for analogue, TETRA and APCO P25 and generic digital systems

8.2. Transmitter Performance

The transmission masks have been derived from the relative standards for mobiles
assuming the transmitter power in all cases is 30 Watts or 45 dBm at the antenna
terminal. This is consistent with the mobile power specifications for TETRA and
APCO P25, and within 1 dB of the maximum analogue mobile power. AS 4768
specifies the maximum rated output power for mobiles in New Zealand as 25 Watts,
and this has been normalised to 30 Watts for comparison purposes.

Diagram A1 shows the APCO P25, 12.5 kHz channel transmission mask fitting well
within the 25 kHz analogue reference and within the AS4768 transmission mask6 for
25 kHz and 12.5 kHz. The TETRA 25 kHz channel mask is outside the analogue
reference reflecting the additional information carried in a 4 voice channel TDMA
transmission.

6
The AS4768 transmission mask is implied by specifying maximum rated output power, the adjacent
channel power, and spurious emission level.

discussion-pdf Page 22
 TX EMISSION MASK

50.00

40.00

30.00

20.00
APCO
Emission Level

TETRA
10.00
AS/NZS4768 (25kHz)
dBm

ETS300086
0.00
-100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100

-10.00

-20.00

-30.00

-40.00
Displacement from center frequency
kHz

Diagram A1: Transmission masks for analogue, TETRA, APCO P25 and AS4768 standards

8.3. Receiver Performance

The co-channel and adjacent channel interference ratios for the various standards
further illustrate the difference between the TETRA and APCO P25 standards. P25
ratios are comparative with the analogue reference while TETRA requires relatively
lower levels of interfering signals.

Table A2 summarises the receiver performance specifications for the 4 subject

standards. It is noted that the ratio figures are those specified for extremes of
temperature and voltage where specified. In addition differing test methods limit the
precision of this comparison but the magnitudes provide an indication of their
compatibility.

discussion-pdf Page 23
Parameter Analogue FM TETRA APCO P25 AS4768
Minimum Adjacent 60 dBc 30 dBc 60 dBc 70 dBc
channel
interference (or
rejection) ratio
Co-channel -8 dBc -19 dBc -9 dBc Not specified
Interference ratio
Reference -95 dBm -103 to -97 dBm† -113 dBm -113 dBm
Receiver Sensitivity -111 to -95 dBm*
†
for TETRA systems operating in a 25 KHz channel using π/4-DQPSK or π/8-DQPSK modulation:
* for TETRA systems operating in a 25 kHz channel using 4-QAM to 64-QAM modulation

Table A2: Receiver Performance Specifications for analogue, TETRA, APCO P25 and AS4768
standards.

8.4. Summary
Analysis of the major parameters which affect the spectrum utilisation shows that the
TETRA and APCO standards have been developed with differing objectives in mind.
TETRA has been optimised for a multi-channel trunked system environment and
achieves this by compromising on the ability to reuse channels in close vicinity. The
APCO P25 standard has been specifically designed to be compatible with existing
analogue systems and may be applied to single channel systems as well as multi-
channel trunked networks.

Analysis also shows that the generic standard AS/NZS4768.1:2006 accommodates

the APCO P25 basic RF parameters, but an additional parameter equivalent to the
co-channel interference ratio requires specification.

discussion-pdf Page 24