Towards robust configuration of advanced private land mobile radio systems

Newer, more advanced, Private Land Mobile Radio (PLMR) systems have many features based in software – touting increased flexibility to better meet the requirements of private radio customers. However, these same features tend to rely heavily upon configuration – which should be robustly designed to cope with network upgrades, equipment failures, and user errors. Towards that end, this paper puts forth some practical configuration design guidelines based upon past PLMR project experiences. Anecdotal retrospectives illustrate how the guidelines can facilitate software development, improve overall system robustness, and even help to resolve system-level usability issues.