Check out our White Paper Series!
A complete library of helpful advice and survival guides for every aspect of system monitoring and control.
1-800-693-0351
Have a specific question? Ask our team of expert engineers and get a specific answer!
Sign up for the next DPS Factory Training!
Whether you're new to our equipment or you've used it for years, DPS factory training is the best way to get more from your monitoring.
Reserve Your Seat TodayMotorola Solutions needed a new way to monitor its radio systems and present failure conditions to dispatchers on the Motorola MCC 7500 Dispatch Console. DPS Telecom custom-engineered a Trap 48RA RTU to process SNMP traps and drive local alarm notification and relay outputs, helping Motorola Solutions meet customer-requested monitoring needs.
| Industry | Public safety communications and radio systems |
|---|---|
| Company | Motorola Solutions |
| Primary Challenge | Provide a customer-requested method to monitor radio systems and notify dispatchers on MCC 7500 when failure conditions occur |
| Solution Deployed | Custom-built Trap 48RA RTU for SNMP trap processing, audible alarm triggering, and relay output control |
| Key Result | Enabled an efficiency-improving monitoring feature customers had requested; the project earned First Place recognition for its white paper at Motorola's engineering symposium |
| Products Used | Trap 48RA RTU (custom-engineered) |
Motorola Solutions products and services are used in a wide range of workplaces, from retail and warehousing to public safety operations and secure government environments. Motorola Solutions partners closely with customers to understand how technology can support specific operational requirements across these industries.
For this project, Tom Vedder, Principal Staff Engineer for Motorola Solutions, set out to improve radio system monitoring capabilities based on direct customer requirements.
Vedder needed a new method to monitor Motorola's radio systems. With specific requirements coming from Motorola customers, he researched options for alarm monitoring equipment and ultimately contacted DPS Telecom for support on a custom engineering project.
In public safety environments, operational teams often need more than just raw device telemetry. They need alarms normalized into clear failure conditions, delivered to the right users, and presented where they already work. In this case, that meant immediate notification on the Motorola MCC 7500 Dispatch Console when failures occur.
"Implementing the Trap 48RA on our systems allows us to provide our customers with a feature which they have been asking for years. It allows them to operate more efficiently by knowing when failure conditions occur."
On the advice of a colleague, Vedder reached out to DPS Telecom. After evaluating the project requirements, Vedder and the design team selected a custom-built Trap 48RA RTU as the best-fit solution.
The Trap 48RA is a medium-capacity RTU designed to process SNMP traps and alert dispatchers immediately on the Motorola MCC 7500 Dispatch Console when a failure scenario occurs. In practical terms, the RTU receives SNMP trap messages from monitored systems, translates them into actionable alarm conditions, and then triggers notification outputs that operators can use for local annunciation or downstream integrations.
To provide sufficient monitoring and notification capability, the Trap 48RA supports:
For deployment, the unit's industrial-grade housing and rack-mountable form factor helped Motorola Solutions install the device alongside existing equipment and bring the monitoring method online efficiently.
When organizations need SNMP trap processing that also interfaces cleanly with operations (audible alerts, relays, and structured alarm handling), DPS Telecom RTUs are commonly chosen because they combine telecom-grade reliability with integration-friendly I/O. In cases where standard configurations do not exactly match the application, DPS Telecom's custom RTU engineering can tailor the device to the monitoring workflow without forcing the customer to redesign their operational processes.
"Implementing the Trap 48RA on our systems allows us to provide our customers with a feature which they have been asking for years," Vedder added. "It allows them to operate more efficiently by knowing when failure conditions occur."
In addition to the technical fit, Motorola Solutions highlighted the experience of working with DPS Telecom during the design effort.
"I am very pleased with DPS support. I felt like your only customer since I was working with the President throughout most of the design! Big company... with a small company feel."
The Trap 48RA implementation enabled Motorola Solutions to offer customers a monitoring capability they had been requesting for years: timely awareness of failure conditions. By processing SNMP traps and presenting alarms in the dispatch environment, the solution supported more efficient operation by ensuring that failure conditions were recognized as they occurred.
Motorola also hosts an annual engineering symposium where field engineers across the nation present white papers. Submissions are judged on multiple factors, and awards are given to the top three entries.
When the white paper detailing Vedder's project and the use of the Trap 48RA was reviewed, it received First Place recognition for providing an efficient solution that met precise customer needs.
An RTU (remote telemetry unit) collects status information and alarms from equipment and converts them into outputs or messages that operations teams can act on. Depending on the design, an RTU can accept discrete inputs, process SNMP traps, and control relay outputs to drive external alarm indicators or interface to other systems.
SNMP traps are event messages sent by devices to report a condition change (for example, a failure scenario). Trap-based monitoring is often used because it can deliver immediate notifications without requiring the monitoring system to poll continuously.
Relay outputs provide simple, reliable electrical contacts that can trigger downstream devices like annunciators or interface points. They are commonly used when an alarm needs to drive an external action in addition to on-screen notification.
A custom RTU is a good fit when a project has strict requirements for I/O count, packaging, or integration behavior (for example, specific alarm-to-output mappings tied to a dispatch workflow). DPS Telecom supports custom engineering when standard monitoring products do not exactly match the operational need.
If you need SNMP trap monitoring, relay-driven alarm outputs, or a custom-engineered RTU to integrate with existing dispatch or operations tooling, DPS Telecom can help you define the I/O and alarm requirements and deliver a fit-for-purpose solution.
Get a Free Consultation or call 1-800-693-0351 to speak with a DPS Telecom expert about your project.
