Greetings Karen. Think of it this way, with OTARA (over the air radio authentication), what is to stop you from using someone else's call sign? Amateur Radio is just not ready for ESN protocol. Not even D-Star. WOULD WORK! but the complexity of ESN or ECS (Electronic Callsign Signature) is the database that is in current use by the (deleted bad word) Icom use of POSTGRES. IN the real word, the use of ECS (for us hams) would simplify authentication. Ask your self this, WHO would administer the PGP keys for you callsign? the ITU, Russian Radio Authority, the US FCC, ect. ect. Who would be in charge of maintaining such a database system where your ECS PGP key would be shared internally with the D-Star Network, what happens if there were to become 2 or more independent D-Star Networks? Keep in mind, different countries have different thoughts on our use of D-Star.... Keep rolling that question and you will see just how quickly it can get convoluted.... We are Professional Communicators who self police our behaviors over the air, there by we entrust ourselves to keep things in order without all the overhead hassles of requiring ESN or ECS or PGP or anything other type of authentication. We take it for grant it, when we talk to someone on the other end of the RF wave, that person to is a registered and authorized Amateur Radio Operator according to their respective countries requirements... rather it's HF or D-Star. In the commercial world, it would work out great, to a local site, but, there are items in the pool of engineering to make D-Star as practical as possible. Thanks for asking such a great question, keep the questions rolling Karen. 73's from the U.S.
Evans F. Mitchell KD4EFM / WQFK-894 Fla. D-Star Tech Support Group http://www.florida-dstar.info <http://www.florida-dstar.info/> Polk ARES A.E.C. http://www.polkemcomm.org <http://www.polkemcomm.org/> BB8330 PIN: 30965B58 _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of ra3apw Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2010 1:04 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: D-Star & air interface authentication Thank you All for answers and clarifications. Really the key word of my question was AIR interface (RF) authentication. Do we have a procedure to implement this feature (air interface authentication) in D-Star? For radio digital protocol it should not be difficult technically. 73, Karen RA3APW
