Advantages of DMR versus dPMR / NXDN / NEXEDGE

What is dPMR?

dPMR is an ETSI standardised minimal cost digital radio solution.
dPMR standards (TS102 490 and TS102 658) were published in 2007 – after DMR. There are 2 tiers specified – Tier 2, modes 2 & 3 are relevant to professional users.
dPMR operates in 6.25kHz channels. Tier2, Mode2 is conventional; Tier2, Mode3 is trunked.
NXDN is based on dPMR but is incompatible with it. NexEdge is also derived from dPMR.

DMR is an ETSI standardized low cost, low complexity, professional digital radio solution designed to migrate analog FM radio users to digital.
DMR standards (ETSI TS102 361) were published in 2005. There are 3 ‘Tiers’ specified – Tier II and Tier III are of interest to professional users.
DMR operates in 12.5kHz channels and uses 2 slot TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) to achieve 6.25kHz equivalence. Tier II is conventional, Tier III is trunked.
Provides a simple path to migrate analog FM LMR users to 6.25kHz digital radio technology.

Both DMR and dPMR / NXDN / NexEdge appear to achieve 1 communication path per 6.25kHz of spectrum, but:

In the case of an event (emergency), when you need the radio system the most, dPMR / NXDN / NexEdge will suffer increased interference meaning a user can only reliably use every other 6.25kHz channel.
DMR will achieve 1 communication path per 6.25kHz of spectrum irrespective of loading; twice the capacity of Analog narrowband FM.

An analog FM user migrating to DMR can replace every analog FM base station / repeater with one DMR base station / repeater and achieve double the capacity.
- One DMR base station / repeater ‘operates’ two communication paths in 12.5kHz of spectrum.
- This means an analog FM user migrating to DMR can re-use existing infrastructure, existing sites, and existing frequencies.
- It is a very simple migration.
An analog FM user migrating to dPMR / NXDN / NexEdge will need to replace every analog FM base station / repeater with two dPMR / NXDN / NexEdge base station / repeaters and an extra combiner to achieve double the capacity.
dPMR / NXDN / NexEdge Terminals are cheaper than DMR terminals, but for the reasons above you need twice as many repeaters, so dPMR / NXDN / NexEdge infrastructure costs are much greater and wipe out the terminal cost benefit.

A DMR Portable achieves 40% longer battery shift life than an analogue FM portable.
A DMR portable achieves 20% greater battery shift life than a dPMR / NXDN / NexEdge portable.

DMR is a professional solution designed for higher volumes of radio traffic over wide coverage area.
- DMR will achieve twice the capacity of Analog narrowband FM systems, and provide reliable communications regardless of loading.
- DMR is an excellent fit for low cost, mission critical applications. GridLink (many small data messages coming from throughout a large area) is a perfect application for DMR.
dPMR / NXDN / NexEdge is designed as a minimum cost digital radio solution.
- When heavily loaded, dPMR / NXDN / NexEdge may only achieve the same capacity as analog narrowband FM before communication becomes unreliable. This makes it a poor fit for mission critical applications.
dPMR / NXDN / NexEdge infrastructure costs may be up to double those of DMR.

Do you have an existing analog FM LMR radio system you are looking to replace? If so, what type of system is it (conventional, trunked eg: MPT1327)?
How many sites does your system use? How far apart are they? Do you have good coverage now, or are there dead spots you need to fill?
What frequencies / channels do you have licenced? Do you want to re-use these?
How many users will there be on the system? How are they distributed throughout the covered area? Is the main use voice or data? If voice – how long is a typical conversation? If data, how long is a typical message?
Is system reliability and low cost important to you?
Do you maintain your own radio system? Would you consider it being managed?