Transcoder architecture for land mobile radio systems

• US 20080031275A1
• Filed: 08/07/2006
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Eagle Technology, LLC (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: M/A Com
• Inventors: Martinez, Dennis Michael, Hengeveld, Thomas Andrew, Janky, William Oscar
• Granted Patent: US 8,169,983 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/03 Protecting confidentiality, e.g. by encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/181 Transcoding devices; Rate adaptation devices

Abstract

A transcoder architecture and method for transcoding in land mobile radio (LMR) systems are provided. The LMR system includes a first communication site configured to communicate using a first LMR communication protocol and a second communication site configured to communicate using a second LMR communication protocol. The LMR system further includes a transcoder configured to receive LMR content from the first communication site communicated using the first LMR communication protocol and digitally convert the LMR content to the second LMR communication protocol to be communicated to the second communication site.

Claims

1. A land mobile radio (LMR) system comprising:

a first communication site configured to communicate using a first LMR communication protocol;

a second communication site configured to communicate using a second LMR communication protocol; and

a transcoder configured to receive LMR content from the first communication site communicated using the first LMR communication protocol and digitally convert the LMR content to the second LMR communication protocol to be communicated to the second communication site.

2. An LMR system in accordance with claim 1 further comprising at least one voice switch configured to communicate LMR content to be digitally converted to the transcoder.

3. An LMR system in accordance with claim 2 wherein the voice switch determines at least one of a preferred vocoder and a preferred airlink to identify LMR content to be digitally converted and communicated to the transcoder.

4. An LMR system in accordance with claim 1 wherein the first and second communication protocols comprise at least one of a voice encoding scheme and an encryption scheme.

5. An LMR system in accordance with claim 1 wherein the first communication site is configured to communicate using a first encryption scheme and the second communication site is configured to communicate using a second encryption scheme and further comprising a transcryptor configured to convert between the first and second encryption schemes when communicating LMR content from the first communication site to the second communication site.

6. An LMR system in accordance with claim 1 wherein the first communication site is configured to communicate using a first vocoder type and the second communication site is configured to communicate using a second vocoder type and wherein the transcoder is configured to convert between the first and second vocoder types when communicating LMR content from the first communication site to the second communication site.

7. An LMR system in accordance with claim 1 further comprising a database including a listing of a plurality of users and groups of users registered to communicate via at least one of the first communication site and the second communication site.

8. An LMR system in accordance with claim 1 further comprising a database including at least one of a preferred airlink mode, a preferred vocoder and a preferred encryption mode for at least one of a plurality of mobile LMR units and for at least one of a plurality of groups of users configured to communicate via at least one of the first communication site and the second communication site.

9. An LMR system in accordance with claim 1 further comprising a dispatch console configured to communicate with each of the first communication site and the second communication site, and wherein encoder and encryption information for each of a plurality of users or groups of users is stored within the dispatch console.

10. An LMR system in accordance with claim 1 wherein the first LMR communication protocol and second LMR communication protocol are based on different vocoder formats.

11. An LMR system in accordance with claim 1 wherein the transcoder is configured to perform the converting in a digital vocoder form.

12. An LMR system in accordance with claim 1 wherein the transcoder is configured to store voice encoder requirements and encryption algorithm requirements for each of the first and second communication sites.

13. An LMR system in accordance with claim 1 wherein the transcoder is configured to stored a plurality of encryption keys corresponding to a user or group of users.

14. A land mobile radio (LMR) system comprising:

a plurality of LMR units, at least two of the plurality of LMR units having different voice encoders; and

a transcoder configured to digitally convert LMR content communicated between the LMR units having different voice encoders.

15. An LMR system in accordance with claim 14 wherein at least two of the plurality of LMR units are configured to operate using different encryption schemes and further comprising a transcryptor configured to digitally encrypt and decrypt LMR content communicated between LMR units operating using the different encryption schemes.

16. An LMR system in accordance with claim 14 further comprising a database storing a list of users or groups of users corresponding to the plurality of LMR units.

17. An LMR system in accordance with claim 16 wherein the database further stores at least one of a preferred airlink mode, a preferred voice encoder and a preferred encryption scheme for at least one of the users and the groups of users.

18. An LMR system in accordance with claim 14 further comprising a voice switch configured to identify LMR content to be digitally converted and to communicate the identified content to the transcoder.

19. A method for communicating content in a land mobile radio (LMR) system, the method comprising:

receiving LMR content to be converted from a first vocoder type to a second vocoder type; and

converting digitally the LMR content from the first vocoder type to the second vocoder type.

20. A method in accordance with claim 19 further comprising determining whether the LMR content communicated between LMR units includes non-native LMR content and converting the non-native LMR content.

21. A method in accordance with claim 20 further comprising decrypting and re-encrypting the non-native LMR content to be communicated between different communication sites using encryption keys corresponding to each of the different communication sites.

22. A method in accordance with claim 20 wherein the converting comprises digitally decoding and re-encoding the non-native LMR content using two different encoding schemes.

23. A method in accordance with claim 20 further comprising determining at least one of a preferred airlink type, a preferred voice encoder type and a preferred encryption scheme for the non-native LMR content based on the LMR user communicating the LMR content.