Government agencies and emergency services (police forces, fire departments, ambulances) use the TETRA network for public safety networks. TETRA network is independent of commercial GSM/LTE networks and thus works reliably even in crisis scenarios.
Our Task and Challenge
Develop a Modern Indoor and Outdoor TETRA Transceiver
Consilia was asked to develop a modern indoor and outdoor TETRA transceiver with an output power of 50W and 10W respectively. The product is designed to exceed the radio frequency (RF) limits defined in the EN standard by a couple of dB.
The performance of the base station reaches the physical limits of the technology.
Solution
System Architecture, Including Simulation of RF Path
Consilia was involved in the product design from the earliest stage.
The product was defined just by the size of the enclosure and the position of the connectors.
The whole system architecture, including the simulation of the radiofrequency path, was created here.
This architecture includes the design of the signal path from the antenna, RF conditioning, frequency translation, ADC, FPGA cores, signal processing, and a design of HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) for Linux.
The whole product runs on the Zynq platform.
One ARM core is dedicated to real-time signal processing and processing of the low-level layers. On the second core, a Linux system responsible for processing higher layers of the TETRA stack is installed.
Consilia continued to support the product also in the test and verification phase.
After developing the base station, we designed an in-house test system for the type-acceptance tests. Consequently, we created built-in test scripts used on the production line.
Consilia engineers were also supporting the product launch at a China production site.
During the development, Consilia engineers closely cooperated with many teams, including system engineers, software engineers, PCB layout engineers, buyers and purchasers, and production line support across several time zones. The product is still being maintained by Consilia.
Business Value
Outstanding Power Efficiency
Consilia developed the whole TETRA base station from specification to production line testers. The outstanding power efficiency of our solution places the product in the top tier of competing products.
The solution uses a unique split of functionality among Hardware, FPGA, and ARM processors running Linux.
How It Is Made
Embedded Software Controls Radiocommunication
We have implemented, debugged, and tested applications in C++ at Cortex-A9 processor for the embedded software development.
We have designed a hardware abstraction layer using object-oriented techniques and UML modeling. We realized the adoption of Arch Linux for the target processor to prepare the target system. We have also developed hardware emulation implementations and configured software profiling.
One of the core parts was a transmitter in the UHF band. The power end-stage had a peak power of 300W to cover the crest factor of the PSK modulation.
Excellent spectral purity of the transmitter ensured conformity with strict regulatory standards.
Client
Top Leading Company in the PMR (Professional Mobile Radio) Field
Our client has been developing and implementing customized, mission-critical communication solutions in professional mobile radios for over 40 years.
We started the first concept phases in 2012.
We continued with indoor unit prototypes in 2013 and brought them into production in 2014. We made a concept and implementation of the outdoor unit in the period 2015 – 2017, including the production launch as the next phase.
Recently, we have updated the indoor unit with an innovative PA stage.
Next Solutions
Since the foundation of Consilia in 2004, we have finished and supported dozens of projects.
Services Used in this Case
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