> Anybody ever use one of these as part of a repeater system? > > http://www.cisco.com/application/pdf/en/us/guest/products/ps259/c1650/cdccont_0900aecd8034ef85.pdf > > Bill
Nifty. Cisco came out with a real RoIP (Radio over IP) standard and published it with IETF about a year ago, and I was wondering when we'd start to see real products with the capability of doing it. Interesting. Sorry, haven't used one yet, but some thoughts... Advantages: - If you already have a Cisco IT shop, there's a good chance those folks can easily pick up on the changes in IOS commands (but probably need a half-day "what's a radio doing hooked to my router?!" session with the radio techs). - Standards based. Finally. Even if Cisco did have to go write the standard themselves. - Probably performs well. Cisco's boxes usually do a good job with the raw handling of IP, done right. Disadvantages: - None of those routers aren't cheap. ($$$) Add on the license for the RoIP gateway feature set ($995 list price... $$$), and you're getting into some serious money. - Never seen an IT product that can handle a lightning strike and keep running. At these prices, that's going to hurt - a lot. They need a low-end "it's cheap enough that we can keep three spares" product in this lineup. If you have a Cisco rep already -- tell them, make sure they send that feedback up the chain to engineering. Ask them to tell you how it'll survive hooked to a radio that is part of a site-ground/bonding system and whether or not it'll become the expensive ground lug for the radio when the tower takes a direct hit. Make 'em finish the engineering job, if they want to "play" in the radio world. - If you want service after the sale, you will have to buy a Cisco service contract ($$$$$). They're not going to be helpful like a smaller shop would be. It'll be an annual cost. ($$$$$/time). - Even though it's standards-based, I doubt anything else will talk to it on the IP side of things yet. Haven't seen anyone tackle writing an RoIP stack that matches Cisco's standard they published with IETF yet. Lots of devices out there claiming to do VoIP, none following any published standards or worse, purposely not following anything but proprietary standards, so you have to buy their radios and their VoIP gear together. This will slowly change... hopefully. When you talk to radio manufacturers, demand they look at the IETF RoIP spec. Put it in RFC's and scare 'em, even if you don't need to use it today. Ask 'em also why they're not coding to standards like H.323 which has been around in video-conferencing "forever", all the way back to ISDN days. Get 'em to put in standard CODEC's like G.711 and G.729. Ask 'em where their standard SIP gateway support is. Etc. Etc. Etc. The radio world needs customers who understand VoIP already and can demand the radio-over-IP stuff at least matches the standards already in place. I'd be having a ball if I were working at a large government organization putting in all this digital/IP linked gear... and the vendor's worst nightmare. It'd be fun to be buying right now... -- Nate Duehr, WY0X
