News and Product Updates

Siouxland Tri-State Area Radio Communications Upgrades with JumboSwitch®

Siouxland Tri-State Area Radio Communications (STARCOMM) upgraded its trunked radio system by replacing its aging multi-service concentrators and some T1 multiplexers with a modern JumboSwitch® Multi-Service Ethernet Platform. Doing so enabled all voice communications for law enforcement and emergency operations services to be shared in real time between all parties and transported over one interoperable network platform that used Radio-over-IP (RoIP), Modem-over-IP ( MoIP), T1, Ethernet and VoIP interfaces and OC-3, DS-3, fiber, and microwave radio transport mediums.

Much of the STARCOMM upgrade focused on modernizing equipment and software that operated its microwave radio and fiber optic system, but also had to meet specific project requirements which included:

• Standard 2/4 wire telephone and radio circuits
• T1 circuit connectivity
• Providing its own PBX telephone dial tone and ring down circuits
• Windows-based Network Management software
• Operating with redundant hot-standby -48VDC & 120AC power supplies

Calhoun Communication, STARCOMM's local systems integrator, was selected to design and implement the upgrade plans. In reaching out to different vendors to find the best replacement solution for STARCOMM's network, Calhoun Communications ultimately recommended the JumboSwitch® Multi-Service Ethernet Platform from TC Communications.

STARCOMM's Director of the Woodbury County Communications Center, Glenn Sedivy, agreed with Calhoun's upgrade recommendations and found the cost of ownership estimates to be very attractive.

"The JumboSwitch® fit our needs because it not only covered what our existing network was designed to do, but it also was designed to change the existing microwave radio network to a modern IP Radio system," said Glenn. "And because of costs and future maintenance and warranties, we just felt that TC Communications was the direction to go."