The power of TETRA -

Direct Mode Operation

Francesco Pasquali
Selex Communications
Agenda

• Introduction to Direct Mode Operation (DMO)

• Applications & related benefits

• Services & facilities

• Conclusions
 Why Direct Mode in Trunking?
Legacy trunking offered many benefits over conventional
communications and was a great success in the market

Spectral
Efficiency
Automatic
Operation
BUT ...
It missed a key feature that conventional

Ease of
?
DMO communications offered:
direct communication outside network
Data Feature Rich coverage
Services Service

TETRA offers the best of two worlds

TRUNKING MODE DIRECT MODE

What PMR users ask?

Users require to communicate everywhere at anytime,

regardless of
– lack of network coverage
– lack of resources
– any type of network failure

and always need

– emergency communications
– security
– voice & data transmission, individual & group calls
 TETRA operation modes
TETRA terminals provide integrated digital trunked (TMO) and
direct (DMO) modes of operation

DMO adds
border or out of
coverage area DMO provides communications
communications within coverage at times of
capacity limitations or whenever
connection with the infrastructure
is not needed
What is TETRA Direct Mode ?

There are 4 basic operational modes of TETRA DMO:

• “Back-to-back”
– standard terminal to terminal communications
• DM Repeater
– extension of DMO terminal coverage
• DM Gateway
– relay between DMO and TMO
• Dual Watch
– periodic “scanning” of ‘other’ mode
Back-to-back scenario (1/3)
For border or out of
TRUNKED coverage area
TETRA
communications...

TETRA
DMO
 Back-to-back scenario (2/3)
TRUNKED
TETRA … for communications
within coverage at
times of capacity
limitations (e.g. major
incidents)

FAIL!!

TETRA
DMO
Back-to-back scenario (3/3)
… for communications within
coverage if connection to the
infrastructure is not needed
or wanted (localised activities
or private communications)

co
m Dir
m ec
un t
ic
at
io
n
DMO Characteristics
• Normal mode DMO enables 1 communication per carrier (i.e. 1
per 4 timeslots, 2 slots used + 2 free)
• Frequency Efficient Mode DMO enables 2 communications per
carrier (i.e. all 4 slots used, 2 slots used per each call)
• Transmitting radio acts as ‘Master’ on a single DMO channel (i.e.
pair of alternated time slots)
• Receiving radio is ‘Slave’ on a single DMO channel
• Timeslot 1 is used as “traffic channel” for voice and data
transmission by the Master radio
• Timeslot 3 is used for signalling transmission by Master, slave
and idle radios (e.g. for pre-emption and PTT request)
 ‘Back-to-back’ DMO channel usage
Master uses Timeslot 1 for voice/data TX Slave (& Idle) use Timeslot 3 for pre-emption

TETRA DMO 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Air Interface
TDMA frame A B C P
RX
RX
RX TX

DMO TX TX DMO
TX
Master Slave
RX
‘Frequency
Efficient’ mode
can use timeslots
A B C 2 and 4 for Pre-emption P
another call
Speech Slots request
Benefits of “Back-to-back” DMO
• Reliability
– Local area communications always granted under any kind of
fault of the network (disruption, congestion, interference)
• Cost
– Relaxed requirements for coverage in low-traffic areas and
“enclosed” areas (e.g. buildings, tunnels, underground areas, etc.)
– Relaxed requirements for base station channels provisioning

• Special Applications
– Local area operations (e.g. “strip-line”)
– Covert operations
TETRA DMO: Repeater
TETRA
DMO
Repeater
TETR
A
DMO
FAIL!!

Special radio terminal equipment called DMO repeater,

allows enlarging the DMO coverage when needed
DM Repeater Type 1A & 1B
• Based on usual 4 slot structure
– 2 slots for Master  Repeater transmissions
– 2 slots for Slave / Idle  Repeater transmissions
– Master/slave operation (3 slot delay)

• Single carrier (1A) DM repeater Preferred Frequency Usage

– 1 communications
– Single frequency DM for Tx & Rx DM
– Higher spectrum efficiency
Trunked Mode
Air Interface
BS RX BS TX

• Dual carrier (1B) DM repeater Preferred Frequency Usage

– 1 communications DM1 DM2
– Two frequencies: DM1 for Rx & DM2 Tx
Trunked Mode
– Reduces potential RF interference to TMO
Air Interface
BS RX BS TX
DM Repeater Type 2
• Two simultaneous calls per repeater

• Based on usual 4 slot structure

– Two alternated slots per call on each link
– Master/slave operation (4 slot delay)

• Dual carrier Preferred Frequency Usage

– 2 communications DM2 DM1
– 2 frequencies: DM1 for Rx & DM2 Tx Trunked Mode
Air Interface
– Need for RF full duplex Hw platform BS RX BS TX
– More complex and expensive than Type 1
Benefits of DM Repeater
• Same benefits as back-to-back DMO in terms of

Reliability

Cost

Special Applications

• BUT … on a wider area and with increased

communication reliability
TETRA DMO: Gateway
Special radio terminal
equipment can operate
as a gateway between
the two worlds

TRUNKED
TETRA TETRA
DMO

TETRA
DMO Gateway
DM Gateway Preferred Frequency Usage
TM1 TM2
• Enables DMO terminals to communicate DM1
with the trunking system & vice versa Trunked Mode
Air Interface
BS RX BS TX

• Uses ‘normal’ DMO air interface Uplink (TM1)

(single call)
Gateway Downlink (TM2)
o de
ct M nel
re n
Di Cha M1
D
• One DMO
carrier per call

DMO User Trunked Mode

Cell
Benefits of DM Gateway
• Reliability:
– Trunked communications through adjacent cells partially supported
under fault of one radio base station

• Cost:
– More relaxed requirements for coverage in low-traffic areas and
“enclosed” areas (incl. buildings, tunnels, underground areas, etc.)
– Better coverage possibilities during early stages of network roll-out

• Special Applications:
– Enable “occasional and immediate coverage” at cost-effective rates
TETRA DMO: Dual watch
Special radio terminal
equipment can get in touch
with both TMO and DMO
worlds simultaneously

TRUNKED
TETRA TETRA
DMO

TETRA
Dual Watch
Terminal
Dual Watch
• The Radio is operational in one mode (Direct or Trunked) and
simultaneously monitors the other for incoming communications.

• In particular the Radio Unit whilst idle (Idle Dual Watch) or engaged
in a call (Full Dual Watch) in Direct mode
receives TMO call, status and short messages from TMO users
Benefits of Dual Watch

• Cost:
– Enlarge communication support in fringe areas: it allows
further relaxing of coverage requirements

• Special Applications:
– Improve local area communications: terminals avoiding to
waste resources can be contacted whenever needed
Managed Direct Mode - MDMO

• MDMO terminal is restricted

from transmitting unless it O.K.
receives an authorising signal DMO

• Authorisation can be received

– directly from the SwMI (for Dual Mode or Dual Watch terminals)
– from a DMO gateway and/or repeater device
– from an authorising device permanently in contact with the system

• Authorisation can be limited both in time and geographically

Benefits of MDMO

• Network Operators maintain better control of their network resource/

revenues

• Removes potential for interference

• Manages roaming
DMO Services and Facilities

• Simplex speech - Individual & Group Call

• Late Entry

• Transmitting Party Identification (TPI), incl. suppression

• Emergency & pre-emptive calls

• Status and Short Data Service (SDS)

• Circuit mode data up to 7.2 kbps (P2P and P2MP)

DMO Security (Encryption)

• Air-interface encryption
– Static Key Encryption
– TEA1, TEA2, TEA3 and TEA4 incl. time stamping

• Implicit authentication
– Provided by Air Interface Encryption

• End-to-end encryption
DMO Benefits & Applications

• Operation outside the coverage of Trunking Infrastructure

• Gives extra capacity when trunked network is highly loaded

• Operations in poor signal strength areas (allows more relaxed

coverage requirements and lower the related expenditure)

• Fall-back operation when the Trunking Infrastructure system is

inoperative

• Covert Operations - cannot be monitored by Control

• ‘Stripline’ applications (power, oil, water distribution lines) not

requiring trunked network capacity
Conclusions

• TETRA is a multi-mode standard offering trunking and direct

communication in-one

• DMO - a powerful feature thanks to exhaustive set of sub-modes

of operation

• Significant commonality with trunked V+D TETRA enables for

dual-mode terminals actually available on the market

DMO is a key differentiator between TETRA and

other, public and private, cellular technologies
The power of TETRA -
Direct Mode Operation

Thank you

Francesco Pasquali
OTE