IP Site Connect Question

[The Pager Geek]

Is it possible to have an IP Site Connect Master be the Master for part of 2 "systems"

IE:
IP Site Connect Master (Centrally Located) with Slot A connected to 15 other repeaters (North)
IP Site Connect SAME Master as above using Slot B to connect to 15 DIFFERENT repeaters that slot A (South)

Possible?

tpg

[alex]

Is it possible to have an IP Site Connect Master be the Master for part of 2 "systems"

IE:
IP Site Connect Master (Centrally Located) with Slot A connected to 15 other repeaters (North)
IP Site Connect SAME Master as above using Slot B to connect to 15 DIFFERENT repeaters that slot A (South)

Possible?

tpg

Yes and No.

You can link all repeaters (29) to one master. Each repeater can choose either slot one or slot two, or both slots to be rebroadcast. You then effectively loose a time slot on all repeaters as there is no way to make regional groupings of the other slot - it's only as good as local repeat. The issues you start to get in to with this is network capacity and latency. In theory the network will allow (though I think Motorola says in writing no more than 16) as many repeaters as the link will handle. Your limits are going to be the 100mbit/s Ethernet connection on the XPR and the transport mechanism. All repeaters must have enough network capacity to support the maximum bandwidth required / calculated using the system planner. So if each repeater requires 64kbps, there are 30 repeaters, you would need the bandwidth capacity of 64kbps*30 at each site, plus overhead, and RDAC or other monitoring software requirements at each site. I don't know if 64 is the number but I think you get the idea.

Currently the only way on the market to link the systems is through double vocoding of the audio. There is rumors floating around that a product will be released soon which will just route the packets without messing with the D/A conversion of the audio between repeater networks. Your scenario would require double vocoding the two networks together and would make sense due to the bandwidth limits on both networks. Double vocoding also means you loose the unit ID's between networks.

There are two large ham networks which are currently running close to capacity that I'm aware of - Trbo6 and DMR-MARC. Goggling both will bring up websites showing their IP Connect systems. Most repeaters on MARC are on either DSL or Cable. The connection speed ranges from 200kbps to 30mbits and each node has a varying array of positive and negative experiences. Your capacity is really limited by the slowest link on the network.

Hopefully this helps a bit.

-Alex