APX units bonk when PTT is pressed on L3Harris System with many subscribers configured for Status Aware (L3Harris Location Server)


Symptom(s)

PTT bonks are often a result of the radio not being able to access the system due to retries on the control channel. Although this is commonly due to imbalanced coverage, it can be due to overloading of the inbound control channel by many users. If the system is L3Harris with Status Aware functionality, there can be excessive inbound control channel traffic generated by many radios trying to access the system for data registration.
 

Issue

The programming of the radios reporting this issue had "DLR enabled" (Direct Location Registration) with the "Status Aware" IP as the server IP which means the radio will try to register with the Status Aware server after context activation is complete. However, the L3Harris system had a Presence Notifier that used context activation to register the radio. 
Therefore, the DLR registration was ignored by the system. This is considered a mismatch in configuration between the L3Harris system and the MSI radios.

 

Environment

L3Harris System using StatusAware, and APX mobiles and portables with direct location registration configured.

APX radios

Resolution

The "DLR enabled" flag should be unchecked in the radio codeplug to prevent repeated data channel requests on the control channel.

DLR enabled flag location: Data Configuration > Data Profile > Profile Name > Features > Direct Location Registration

The L3Harris system cannot currently be configured to respond to the radio DLR registration requests, and because the context activation works to notify status aware of the radio IP, the location registration requests are not necessary. The radio, in this case, will use unsolicited location triggers from the system for data configuration.