TETRA system

Hello friends, I like to greet you, I am a platform security consultant and one of my tasks is to maintain a communication system in case of an emergency and at the same time serve as a control and surveillance mechanism for some vital areas. I will tell you how to build a small contingency network.

We are based on the TETRA platform (Terrestrial Trunked Radio), I will briefly comment on what this technology consists of: Trunking or private mobile radiotelephony systems are systems that allow the provision of voice and / or data intercommunication services for private user groups. These types of networks offer services to groups of users belonging to public service bodies, such as firefighters and police officers. The TETRA system is a publicly accessible, digital private mobile radio standard that has been developed in Europe for systems intended for public safety and other public services where voice is coded and decoded at the ends of the communication and handled as a digital data In the path between both.

The TETRA network consists of multiple elements, such as a cellular telephone network. It consists roughly of the following network elements:
• TETRA-TBS Base Stations
• TETRA Switch
• Network Management Center – NMC
• TETRA- Terminals

Base Station: This element is in charge of providing the signal to certain areas of coverage depending on the power of the station, it provides the air interface for the terminals. The capacity of a TBS (TETRA Base Station) is from 4 to 16 communication channels.

TETRA Switch: Provides the control architecture to meet the needs of telecommunications applications in fixed and mobile networks. This is a fundamental element in the network, it is in charge of distributing all the data that is exchanged in the network.

Network Management System (NMS): The NMS is a software developed to allow monitoring in real time the system, with which it is possible to have absolute control of any central from the office, you can see if any base station is down, or if communications are being saturated in some area.

Terminals: These are the network elements with which users exchange information, can be portable or mobile (which are more robust and used inside vehicles)

Portable Terminals

Mobile Terminal

With these network elements any company can be prepared for some contingency or just to work on their daily tasks. In this case the company is a customer of a company that manages and owns the entire network, so there was only need to acquire the terminals, It should be noted that any company can manage its own network, but for this they must comply with a series of legal and administrative requirements, not to mention that it would be extremely costly. Depending on the size of the company with a fleet of 50 terminals and 30 mobiles can be prepared for any emergency or keep control of all the facilities of the company. As every network there are places where the coverage is lost, the terminals have a function (direct mode) in which they can operate without having to be inside the network, it is clear that operating in this mode, many benefits are lost that the Network but serves to maintain the communication that, after all, is what is needed.

I hope it serves as a general information and I will see you in the next post. Greetings.

References:

• Valenzuela Jose, Comes Acusti Ramon. “Principios de Comunicaciones Moviles” Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya. 2003

• Manual NOKIA.” VISION GENERAL DEL SISTEMA TETRA DE NOKIA”. NOKIA telecommunications. 1996.