NXDN (NextEdge Digital Network)

Introduction

1. NXDN is a narrowband digital protocol, and is "6.25 kHz and 12.5 kHz FDMA
technology". (It is generally accepted that 12.5 kHz channel spacing is narrowband as per the
FCC mandate. NXDN is the result of a joint technical alliance between I com incorporated and
JVC KENWOOD Corporation. At the beginning, the main goals of this collaboration were to
provide a low complexity digital two way radio protocol that satisfied the FCC narrow banding
mandate at the initially proposed deadline of 2005, be a future-proof protocol that would still be
viable even when 12.5 kHz spectrum became full and to offer an alternative “de-facto” standard
to the Land Mobile Radio (LMR) industry that allowed the development of digital radio products
without the excessive premium some competing digital technologies were. In the time that
NXDN has been in existence, it is estimated that the number of radio terminals alone provided
by the vendors with product has exceeded 1 million units worldwide, and is growing in the tens
of thousands each month. NXDN has truly become a “de-facto” protocol as per one of the initial
goals mentioned above.

History of NXDN

2. NXDN was developed to satisfy the FCC “reframing” mandate that called for all LMR
use in the VHF and UHF bands in particular, to shift to narrowband capability by January 1st,
2005. Part of the requirement of this mandate was that any technology complying with this
mandate also had to have the capability to provide voice and/or data at 6.25 kHz or an
“equivalent” bandwidth. For many years it was thought that achieving 6.25 kHz bandwidth and
maintaining acceptable communications quality at the same time, was a huge technical challenge
at a minimum, if not technically impossible. However, research on the advances in vocoding
technology and other elements essential to digital wireless communication showed that it was
indeed possible to achieve communications at this bandwidth and the birth of NXDN was
decided.

3. Icom and JVC KENWOOD began the collaboration in 2003 and the first NXDN capable
conventional radio products appeared in 2006. The announcement of the NXDN protocol was
made at IWCE 2005, which indicated that there were companies that were able to comply with
the initial narrowband mandate deadline. Subsequent requests for delay of this deadline resulted
in it being pushed back to 2013, but NXDN was ready to go, and the release went ahead. The
first products to come out were conventional radios and repeaters that had the capability of
“dual-mode” from the start i.e. to operate in both digital and analog modes. While obvious now,
this was an important requirement in the migration to digital in general as analog systems still
had and do have many years of use. The complete replacement of an entire system in one go, is
not always a feasible financial option for many users. The NXDN suite of standards has grown
and matured to include single and multi-site trunking solutions. The graphic below shows a
simple representation of the NXDN standards suite structure. Enhancements already added to
this are AES and DES encryption. While primarily targeted as a solution for business and
industry market segments at the beginning, the acceptance of NXDN worldwide has now reached
a level where virtually all market segments including some public safety entities are using
NXDN .

Technical specifications

4. The following are the technical specification of the NXDN of NXDN Access Method
FDMA Modulation 4-level FSK Vocoder AMBE+2 Channel Spacing 6.25 kHz 12.5 kHz
Transmission Rate 4800 bps 9600bps Codec Rate 3600bps 7200bps Conventional Yes Trunking
operation Yes Type-C and Type-D Yes Type-C Digital Scrambling Yes (15-bit/32,000 keys)
Encryption Yes (AES/DES)
5. The basic NXDN hardware platform utilizes the same basic structure as analog FM radio
designs with the addition of the components/circuits for the digital capability. It was the specific
intention to maintain as much of current analog FM technology in the hardware design for the
following reasons.

(a) Reduce the complexity of development

(b) Reduce the cost of development and the resulting products

(c) Maintain ease in manufacture

(d) Reduce the probability of parts obsolescence by utilizing as many common

(e) Maintain commonality in maintenance and repair

(f) The ability to reduce the need for specialized testing equipment

NXDN Trunking

6. NXDN contains two trunking protocols within the same standards suite. For purpose of
simplicity these two trunking protocols have been called NXDN Type-C and NXDN Type-D
trunking. Type-C trunking is a centralized, control channel based architecture where the trunking
logic and allocation of traffic channels is done via a dedicated control channel. Type-D trunking
is a distributed logic based architecture where no control channel is used, and all channels
available in the system can operate as traffic channels. As the NXDN standard contains a broad
spectrum of functions and the feature set of a system is determined by the manufacturer
developing their system for the market needs they will serve. From this perspective, no one
standard feature set can accurately be listed here, but the following could be considered to be
common to most NXDN trunking systems of either variety.

(a) Single and Multi-site capability

(b) Individual and Group call capability

(c) Data features (Short text, GPS and status messaging)

(d) Automatic Roaming

(e) Maximum of up to 60,000 ID’s per system

(f) Wide area networking capability via IP linking Vocoder

7. NXDN has utilized from the start, the AMBE+2 vocoder from Digital Voice Systems,
Inc. (DVSI). This vocoder is recognized as the leading low-bit rate vocoding technology and has
also been widely adopted in other two-way radio standards like dPMR , DMR, P25 Phase 1 and
Phase 2 to name a few. The use of this vocoder in its “half-rate” mode is also a leading factor in
achieving 6.25 kHz operation. Prior experience with P25, already considered an acceptable
quality, also allowed some improvements in signal quality to be made.

(a) Audio Quality and Coverage. It comes down to a matter of preference in many
cases regarding audio quality, but the noise suppression characteristics of digital radio is
superior to FM analog, and as with CD’s versus LP’s, it will soon be safe to say “gone are
the days of that analog background noise”. Comments about “improved” coverage need to
be considered carefully. The perceived gain in coverage is as the diagram shows, based on
the distance a signal is able to be clearly understood or heard, within the RF signal
footprint. In the case of NXDN versus FM analog, total RF coverage is at minimum the
same, however, experience from the field indicates that the NXDN signal in many cases
provides a wider footprint than analog FM.
Comparison with other digital two-way radio technologies

8. NXDN forum naturally endorses NXDN for its overall technical merits and advantages
and long term benefits for the LMR industry, also support other 6.25 kHz FDMA technologies
like dPMR . The market has also accepted the other technologies above and many others, so it is
probably correct to say that there is room for all options at this point, and that some options will
gain more market acceptance than others as the shift from analog to digital progresses. A list of
the currently available digital two-way radio technologies is as below. A simple comparison
between NXDN , dPMR and DMR are listed below.

(a) dPMR. dPMR is a digital 6.25 kHz FDMA based protocol described in the ETSI
technical standards TS 102 490 and TS 102 658. The basic structure of the dPMR
standards suite is shown in the graphic below. As the diagram shows, dPMR is a full
featured system capable of providing communications solutions ranging from license-free
all the way up to nation-wide networks. The main difference to NXDN is additions of the
license-free standard. The dPMR protocol allows for system sizes up to a potential of 1,000
sites and millions of users.
(b) DMR. DMR is a digital 12.5 kHz 2-slot TDMA based protocol described in the
ETSI technical standard TS102 361. The basic structure of the DMR suite is shown in the
graphic on the below. As the diagram shows, DMR is also a full featured system capable of
providing communications solutions ranging from license-free all the way up to nation-
wide networks.