Hi:

I have a system that incorporates ASL, XLX, HBLink and DVSwitch. I'm toying with the idea of adding P25.

Currently, DStar is handled by XLX and a pair of transcoders connected to the XLX reflector, not DVSwitch. I would like to connect ASL directly to the XLX reflector in DStar mode, so that the audio to and from DStar to ASL is not transcoded through AMBE, but still pass metadata to DStar from the other digital modes. Is this at all possible? Similar question in regards to P25.

Basically, I want to do the least amount of transcoding possible to and from analog, while maintaining the greatest compatibility across digital modes. What I have now works, but I'd love to get rid of that extra layer of transcoding between analog and DStar without sacrificing metadata.

Thanks.

Patrick,
Either way, you have to go through a vocoder to go from analog to D-Star Same for P25, you still have to go through a vocoder.

Steve

On 11/25/20 6:28 PM, Patrick Perdue wrote:

Hi:

I have a system that incorporates ASL, XLX, HBLink and DVSwitch. I'm toying with the idea of adding P25.

Currently, DStar is handled by XLX and a pair of transcoders connected to the XLX reflector, not DVSwitch. I would like to connect ASL directly to the XLX reflector in DStar mode, so that the audio to and from DStar to ASL is not transcoded through AMBE, but still pass metadata to DStar from the other digital modes. Is this at all possible? Similar question in regards to P25.

Basically, I want to do the least amount of transcoding possible to and from analog, while maintaining the greatest compatibility across digital modes. What I have now works, but I'd love to get rid of that extra layer of transcoding between analog and DStar without sacrificing metadata.

Thanks.

Sure, but I'm currently going through two of them to get from Allstar to DStar.

I'm just wondering if there's a way to drop one of them out and still maintain metadata. I could directly connect A_B and MMDVM_Bridge to the XLX reflector and only direct DStar traffic to the module, and audio between DStar and the other digital modes should be about the same as it is now, but audio from Allstar to DStar has one less generation of vocoding, but then I lose metadata between the digital modes. At least, this is how I understand it.


On 11/25/2020 6:55 PM, Steve N4IRS wrote:

Patrick,
Either way, you have to go through a vocoder to go from analog to D-Star Same for P25, you still have to go through a vocoder.

Steve

On 11/25/20 6:28 PM, Patrick Perdue wrote:

Hi:

I have a system that incorporates ASL, XLX, HBLink and DVSwitch. I'm toying with the idea of adding P25.

Currently, DStar is handled by XLX and a pair of transcoders connected to the XLX reflector, not DVSwitch. I would like to connect ASL directly to the XLX reflector in DStar mode, so that the audio to and from DStar to ASL is not transcoded through AMBE, but still pass metadata to DStar from the other digital modes. Is this at all possible? Similar question in regards to P25.

Basically, I want to do the least amount of transcoding possible to and from analog, while maintaining the greatest compatibility across digital modes. What I have now works, but I'd love to get rid of that extra layer of transcoding between analog and DStar without sacrificing metadata.

Thanks.

I don't see how there are 2 vocoders to get from AllStar to D-Star. The flow would be:
AllStar <-> AB <-> MB <-> ircDDBGateway <-> XLX for D-Star.
You could drop the ircDDBGateway and go to XLX DMR.

Steve

On 11/25/20 7:14 PM, Patrick Perdue wrote:

Sure, but I'm currently going through two of them to get from Allstar to DStar.

I'm just wondering if there's a way to drop one of them out and still maintain metadata. I could directly connect A_B and MMDVM_Bridge to the XLX reflector and only direct DStar traffic to the module, and audio between DStar and the other digital modes should be about the same as it is now, but audio from Allstar to DStar has one less generation of vocoding, but then I lose metadata between the digital modes. At least, this is how I understand it.


On 11/25/2020 6:55 PM, Steve N4IRS wrote:

Patrick,
Either way, you have to go through a vocoder to go from analog to D-Star Same for P25, you still have to go through a vocoder.

Steve

On 11/25/20 6:28 PM, Patrick Perdue wrote:

Hi:

I have a system that incorporates ASL, XLX, HBLink and DVSwitch. I'm toying with the idea of adding P25.

Currently, DStar is handled by XLX and a pair of transcoders connected to the XLX reflector, not DVSwitch. I would like to connect ASL directly to the XLX reflector in DStar mode, so that the audio to and from DStar to ASL is not transcoded through AMBE, but still pass metadata to DStar from the other digital modes. Is this at all possible? Similar question in regards to P25.

Basically, I want to do the least amount of transcoding possible to and from analog, while maintaining the greatest compatibility across digital modes. What I have now works, but I'd love to get rid of that extra layer of transcoding between analog and DStar without sacrificing metadata.

Thanks.

I'm not great at writing out flows.

My setup currently doesn't use ircDDBGateway, since that's all handled at the XLX reflector end. So, it goes like this.

Allstar <-> AB <-> HBLink <-> MB <-> XLXD (DMR, since XLX is also handling a BM interlink and YSF traffic) <-> ambed (connected to the XLX reflector) <-> TGIF.

I'm sure I screwed that up.

So basically, native AMBE traffic is transcoded to analog using the MD380-emu vocoder back to Allstar. DStar is transcoded through the pair of ThumnDV's on the reflector, which is then sent to MD380emu and then Allstar. Between DMR or YSF and DStar, this is fine, but from Allstar to DStar, it's going through another AMBE transcode before A_B sees it, so more latency and lower quality audio.

If I connect to the reflector directly as DStar, then use ASL to connect to the other modes, perhaps on another module of the reflector and HBLink, then DMR-YSF would only see the call specified in A_B, correct?


On 11/25/2020 7:18 PM, Steve N4IRS wrote:

I don't see how there are 2 vocoders to get from AllStar to D-Star. The flow would be:
AllStar <-> AB <-> MB <-> ircDDBGateway <-> XLX for D-Star.
You could drop the ircDDBGateway and go to XLX DMR.

Steve

On 11/25/20 7:14 PM, Patrick Perdue wrote:

Sure, but I'm currently going through two of them to get from Allstar to DStar.

I'm just wondering if there's a way to drop one of them out and still maintain metadata. I could directly connect A_B and MMDVM_Bridge to the XLX reflector and only direct DStar traffic to the module, and audio between DStar and the other digital modes should be about the same as it is now, but audio from Allstar to DStar has one less generation of vocoding, but then I lose metadata between the digital modes. At least, this is how I understand it.


On 11/25/2020 6:55 PM, Steve N4IRS wrote:

Patrick,
Either way, you have to go through a vocoder to go from analog to D-Star Same for P25, you still have to go through a vocoder.

Steve

On 11/25/20 6:28 PM, Patrick Perdue wrote:

Hi:

I have a system that incorporates ASL, XLX, HBLink and DVSwitch. I'm toying with the idea of adding P25.

Currently, DStar is handled by XLX and a pair of transcoders connected to the XLX reflector, not DVSwitch. I would like to connect ASL directly to the XLX reflector in DStar mode, so that the audio to and from DStar to ASL is not transcoded through AMBE, but still pass metadata to DStar from the other digital modes. Is this at all possible? Similar question in regards to P25.

Basically, I want to do the least amount of transcoding possible to and from analog, while maintaining the greatest compatibility across digital modes. What I have now works, but I'd love to get rid of that extra layer of transcoding between analog and DStar without sacrificing metadata.

Thanks.

So,
you have D-Star, DMR and AllStar.
If you used AllStar to mix you could keep the number of vocoders to two and only have one transcoder. For the audio, you would have 2 private nodes. The first node would be DMR and pointed at TGIF. The second node would be D-Star and pointed at XLX.  As you said in your first message, you issue would then be metadata.

Steve


On 11/25/20 7:32 PM, Patrick Perdue wrote:

I'm not great at writing out flows.

My setup currently doesn't use ircDDBGateway, since that's all handled at the XLX reflector end. So, it goes like this.

Allstar <-> AB <-> HBLink <-> MB <-> XLXD (DMR, since XLX is also handling a BM interlink and YSF traffic) <-> ambed (connected to the XLX reflector) <-> TGIF.

I'm sure I screwed that up.

So basically, native AMBE traffic is transcoded to analog using the MD380-emu vocoder back to Allstar. DStar is transcoded through the pair of ThumnDV's on the reflector, which is then sent to MD380emu and then Allstar. Between DMR or YSF and DStar, this is fine, but from Allstar to DStar, it's going through another AMBE transcode before A_B sees it, so more latency and lower quality audio.

If I connect to the reflector directly as DStar, then use ASL to connect to the other modes, perhaps on another module of the reflector and HBLink, then DMR-YSF would only see the call specified in A_B, correct?


On 11/25/2020 7:18 PM, Steve N4IRS wrote:

I don't see how there are 2 vocoders to get from AllStar to D-Star. The flow would be:
AllStar <-> AB <-> MB <-> ircDDBGateway <-> XLX for D-Star.
You could drop the ircDDBGateway and go to XLX DMR.

Steve

On 11/25/20 7:14 PM, Patrick Perdue wrote:

Sure, but I'm currently going through two of them to get from Allstar to DStar.

I'm just wondering if there's a way to drop one of them out and still maintain metadata. I could directly connect A_B and MMDVM_Bridge to the XLX reflector and only direct DStar traffic to the module, and audio between DStar and the other digital modes should be about the same as it is now, but audio from Allstar to DStar has one less generation of vocoding, but then I lose metadata between the digital modes. At least, this is how I understand it.


On 11/25/2020 6:55 PM, Steve N4IRS wrote:

Patrick,
Either way, you have to go through a vocoder to go from analog to D-Star Same for P25, you still have to go through a vocoder.

Steve

On 11/25/20 6:28 PM, Patrick Perdue wrote:

Hi:

I have a system that incorporates ASL, XLX, HBLink and DVSwitch. I'm toying with the idea of adding P25.

Currently, DStar is handled by XLX and a pair of transcoders connected to the XLX reflector, not DVSwitch. I would like to connect ASL directly to the XLX reflector in DStar mode, so that the audio to and from DStar to ASL is not transcoded through AMBE, but still pass metadata to DStar from the other digital modes. Is this at all possible? Similar question in regards to P25.

Basically, I want to do the least amount of transcoding possible to and from analog, while maintaining the greatest compatibility across digital modes. What I have now works, but I'd love to get rid of that extra layer of transcoding between analog and DStar without sacrificing metadata.

Thanks.

Here's a bit of advice, take it for what it's worth. 
If you're thinking of linking your other modes to a currently active P25 Reflector, don't. You will be chastised to no end and probably banned from that reflector for life.

The only solution you have is a P25Gateway and P25Reflector with a private TG. I did that for a while and had 0 users. I provided instructions on how to update the P25Hosts.txt files on their hotspots but I guess that was more work than they wanted to do. In the end I took down the reflector and gateway and just told them to use their hotspots in P252DMR mode and connect to my XLX reflector. I have a interlink to BM3103 on the XLX. Now I have P25 users and the meta data is not an issue.

On 27/11/20 8:20 am, Patrick Perdue wrote:

As I understand it, you can set up a private P25 reflector which is
available to anyone who uses the pi-star host files, thus, no need to
link to a public reflector. This is what I plan to do. I will probably
also get zero users, but at least I know that coming in.

You can do that, or you can setup your own public reflector.  You just
have to ask to get it listed in the public P25Hosts file.  I did this
for 50535.