P25 Compliance (CAP)

The P25 CAP is a partnership of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the P25 radio industry, and the emergency response community.

The P25 CAP establishes an independent compliance assessment process to ensure communications equipment interoperates, conforms to P25 standards, and meets performance requirements.The Department of Homeland Security recommends that agencies - especially those receiving federal grants for interoperable communications - purchase equipment that has passed P25 CAP testing. In May 2009 the DHS recognized Tait's TELTest Laboratories as one of only eight labs to participate in the P25 CAP program.

The test laboratories demonstrated their competence to NIST through a rigorous and objective assessment process based on internationally-accepted standards. Tait has been recognized for the full scope of P25 CAP, which is performance and trunked interoperability testing of the Common Air Interface (CAI).

A Supplier's Declaration of Compliance (SDoC) is one of two formal documents published by a vendor as an output of the CAP. The SDoC will include information on what product was tested, and the scope of the testing. In conjunction with SDoCs, vendors will also publish Summary Test Reports (STRs) which will provide further supporting details.

The CAP will provide more than 60,000 emergency response agencies nationwide with a consistent and traceable method to gather P25 compliance information on the products they buy. It is important for customers to understand that just because a manufacturer may have a P25 logo that it does not guarantee interoperability. Customers will now be able to ask if a product is "CAP tested" before purchasing.

Also see

Tait P25 Compliance documents and reports on www.rkb.us

The P25 technology interest group on www.project25.org