of life components and at a higher cost even before delivery.
is means that a dierent (and much higher) level of agility
will be required. With the greater mixture of mission-critical
operators, commercial operators and potentially thousands
of dierent applications, the number of interfaces, software
versions and related procedures to manage procurements
are quite dierent from the fairly stable and controlled
narrowband network environment. It is essential that there
is clarity when it comes to the division of responsibilities.
However, we should not be too afraid of the future by
limiting the innovation space for user organisations. ere
should be processes in place to eciently enable trials and
development addressing practical ideas from the eld.
CCT: What is the CCBG currently focusing on in
terms of its engagement with standardisation
bodies such as 3GPP?
TP: Two very important actions in 3GPP are rst to
increase the co-ordination between critical communications
stakeholders, and secondly to build co-operation with other
verticals as well as with the GSMA. I hope to continue our
work with 3GPP to encourage new countries and territories to
become involved in standardisation. In September 2018, we
jointly highlighted the importance of standards work in general,
and the work being done for critical communications in
particular, to governmental and resource industry stakeholders
in Australia. Perhaps this year there will be another opportunity
to do something similar in another part of the world.
CCT: What do governments need to consider
before telling MNOs to meet mission-critical
requirements as part of 5G spectrum auctions?
TP: Governments need to have a roadmap to protect society
in the long term and understand how to guarantee service
availability to all critical communications sectors. Once
those are in place it is much easier to draw up balanced
and justied requirements for mobile network operators
(MNOs). 5G spectrum auctions as well as renewal of current
spectrum licences are rare opportunities to address critical
communications needs. However, every regulator needs to
assess their national situation and decide if some requirements
are better funded directly by central governments and which
Tero Pesonen CV
Tero Pesonen has been involved in various management tasks
in global positions involving strong customer intimacy, strategic
business orientation and wide-ranging solution development.
He has been involved with the professional mobile radio
communication business since 1997 and in particular with
promoting and organising TETRA interoperability activities.
Most recently, Pesonen has been involved in groundbreaking
work related to new opportunities in mission-critical
broadband. He works closely with major public safety and
critical infrastructure operators and users in creating advanced
solutions to meet mission-critical requirements.
Pesonen has been the chairman of TCCA Critical
Communications Broadband Group (CCBG) since September
2014 and is a TCCA Board member.
should be left to impact the value of spectrum licences.
I expect that mobile network availability and security
requirements will increase as all sectors become more mobile
and dependent on data. Public safety, energy and transport
may well be the lead verticals on this, but others will follow.
Working with governments to meet the needs of public
safety users is a way in which MNOs can dierentiate
themselves and have at least part of the investments that they
will eventually need to make funded publicly.
CCT: How do you rank the following: the lack of
a perfect substitute for TETRA’s direct mode,
the absence of support for Band 68, and the
lack of interest from T&M vendors for MCX
interoperability testing? Which is the most
intractable problem?
TP: e ability to test and certify MCX interoperability
is crucial. In TCCA/CCBG we are advancing the ability
to enable interoperable system procurement through
participating in the ETSI Plugtests™ and co-operating with
the Global Certication Forum. We’re also part of the NISTfunded
Mission Critical Open Platform project to simplify
and streamline mission-critical application development.
Without proven multivendor support, national legislation
may prevent organisations from moving ahead with their
migration to mobile broadband. Naturally, device-to-device
communication is a traditional requirement, and on the
spectrum side we continuously promote harmonisation.
CCT: What is the critical comms community
pushing for in Release 17 and beyond?
TP: In 3GPP Release 17 there are ongoing and interesting
studies on topics such as asset tracking, critical medical
applications and UAVs, as well as support for mission-critical
services over 5G systems. ere are also studies from Release
16 that will be part of the normative work in Release 17.
Release 17 is the Release for the many non-public safety
verticals that require very useful features and capabilities for
“traditional” critical communications users. For Release 18
and beyond I expect us to come up with a new round of
information-centric requirements as we gain experience from
mission-critical services in use.
January 2019 @CritCommsToday 23