TCCA News
TCCA details critical
broadband timeline
Anew white paper from TCCA
presents the current roadmap to
the operational use of missioncritical
broadband. It is aimed at organisations
seeking to move away from narrowband
networks or introduce critical broadband
to complement their existing services. e
white paper considers three phases: the
current situation, the next three years to
2021, then from 2022-2030, looking at the
timetable of 3GPP releases and the issue
ofinteroperability.
It notes that 3GPP Release 15, which
will contain most of the mission-critical
functionality provided by TETRA, is expected
to be implemented by vendors and operators
by 2022, but any commercial network seeking
to run a mission-critical service will need to
be hardened with extra coverage, resilience
Digital trunking pioneer
HBFEC joins TCCA
Hebei Far East Communication System
Engineering (HBFEC) has joined TCCA,
the representative body for critical
communications worldwide.
HBFEC, an integrated communication
equipment manufacturer and solution
supplier, was one of the rst companies
involved in the eld of research and
development for digital trunked
communication systems. It entered
the public security communication
and software development market
in 2003 and was founded in 1995 in
Shijiazhuang, China. The company’s
ICT, private communication networks
and public security and emergency
response solutions are used by the
air defence, government, electricity,
transportation, public health,
environmental and smart city sectors.
and security. e white paper also predicts
that “sometime after 2025 a decision may be
taken to switch o an existing LMR/PMR/
TETRA/P25 network”.
For governments and operators looking to
eventually transition from TETRA or other
narrowband networks to critical broadband
services, or to introduce complementary
critical broadband services, TCCA
recommends they start the process as early
as possible. During a webinar, TCCA board
member Jeppe Jepsen noted that it could take
a governmental organisation four to six years
to go from the planning phase all the way
through to operational use. For more on this
topic, see our interview with Tero Pesonen,
TCCA board member and CCBG chair,
on page 22. e white paper can be read at:
https://bit.ly/2sBV8Wz.
BIG meeting: Band 68, 3GPP Release progress, and certification
Growing interest from across Europe
for Band 68 infrastructure and devices
was one of the discussions at TCCA’s
Broadband Industry Group (BIG) meeting
in Budapest, led by TCCA board
members Philippe Agard (BIG chair) and
Jason Johur (BIG vice chair).
Public protection and disaster relief
(PPDR) authorities in countries that have
either assigned or are investigating Band
68 include Austria, Belgium, France,
Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Slovenia,
Switzerland and The Netherlands. There
is increasing interest in the Option B
PPDR spectrum deployment model,
as defined by ECC CEPT (see diagram
below); in particular, use of the lower part
of Band 68 (2x5MHz, 698-703MHz plus
753-758 MHz) and upper end of band
28 (2x3MHz, 733-736MHz plus 788-
791MHz). The market today provides
equipment to address the Band 28
segment; however, this is not the case
with the Band 68 segment.
The BIG has proposed that TCCA’s
CCBG pursues the use of an RFI-style
mechanism to determine the timing of
availability of UEs for this band.
There is also growing demand from
Western and Central European PPDR
agencies and critical communication
industries in countries including Germany
and Poland to deploy LTE in the 450-
470MHz band.
The Group heard status reports from
FirstNet’s senior director of standards
Dean Prochaska, Ericsson and Nokia
with regard to 3GPP standardisation,
and this confirmed that good progress
is being made in Release 15 Stage
1/2/3 activities, as well as scoping for
Release 16.
The availability of device-to-device
solutions remains an ongoing challenge;
however, it was noted that Samsung
had announced ProSe support in its
device chipset at BAPCO 2018 (Spring
Event), and subsequently at IWCE’s LTE
Communications Forum in Chicago.
3GPP test equipment vendors
(with support for 3GPP MCX services
((MCPTT, MCData, MCVideo)) are being
encouraged by BIG and CCBG members
to bring their products to market sooner
than planned, given the growing need
for this equipment to enable formal
certification of products as per TCCA’s
ongoing work with GCF.
To round off the meeting, the BIG
began finalising a white paper showing
how quality of service, priority and preemption
(QPP) features of 3GPP enable
MNOs to support PPDR agencies, using,
for example, hybrid or secure MVNO
implementation models in use today. The
BIG will also prepare a comprehensive
Masterclass addressing critical
broadband that will take place at Critical
Communications World in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia in June.
January 2019 @CritCommsToday 9
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