Interview
Setting off on
the right foot
Bringing broadband into critical communications is a
complex task. Charlotte Hathway finds out why TCCA
is calling for an interoperability certification process
14
www.criticalcomms.com March 2020
Governments across the world are navigating
complex projects to bring 4G/LTE-based
services into their critical communications
networks. Broadband offers new possibilities
for managing and responding to emergency
situations but, for the technology to be suitable for missioncritical
purposes, more work is needed to ensure services will
not be compromised.
Existing narrowband services are underpinned by a TETRA
Interoperability Test and Certification (IOP) process developed
by TCCA. That process ensures users benefit from the best
possible quality and economies of scale. In practice that means
devices from various manufacturers can operate securely and
safely on infrastructure from numerous vendors. That balance
is vital in ensuring emergency services and public safety
agencies can choose the right solution for their needs while
having confidence they are making secure investments.
Broadband is standardised into 3GPP releases, but mobile
network operators (MNOs) implement those standards in
different ways when building their own networks. As MNOs
are set to play an increasingly vital role in the delivery of
critical communications networks, there is a need to open a
dialogue to ensure future critical services build on learnings
from the roll-out of standards such as TETRA, instead of
reinventing the wheel.
TCCA has published a whitepaper to do exactly this. It
outlines the requirements, current status and steps needed to
be taken within the sector to create a process to certify missioncritical
broadband solutions. The paper, titled ‘Introduction to
Mission Critical Service Interoperability’, was driven by Jeppe
Jepsen, the organisation’s board co-vice chair and director of
broadband spectrum.
Critical Communications Today caught up with Jepsen,
who explains that understanding what is at stake rests on an
awareness of the different environments in which narrowband
and broadband systems developed. Jepsen says: “In the
past, governments had dedicated spectrum and could build
dedicated emergency services networks. They were totally in
control of their situation.”
When the TETRA narrowband standard was established
in Europe, the European community realised its adoption
outside of Europe would create a healthy ecosystem that
fostered innovation and development. The “real benefit”,
Jepsen says, of open standards and common spectrum is that
companies “competed and worked together to enlarge the market
opportunity”. All parties – government, the buying community,
the supply sector – supported each other and took the time to
understand each other’s needs. An interoperability programme
was then developed to ensure a mix of manufacturers could
provide devices and infrastructure that was interoperable.
TETRA has now been implemented in numerous countries
around the world, including most countries in Europe, and that
commitment to interoperability has given governments and
agencies certain assurances.
Jepsen explains: “We are moving into a new world over the
next five to 10 years. The majority of governments will not have
their own spectrum and cannot build their own networks, so
they have to buy service from those who have it – the mobile
network operators.”
Radically different needs
MNO customers are predominantly consumers and non-critical
businesses, and their needs are radically different from those
of public safety organisations. Consumer needs often centre
on cost, whereas the needs of a frontline police officer or a
firefighter going into a burning building, Jepsen explains, are
about being “absolutely sure it always works everywhere and
without question”.
We are now “entering a period where these two sectors
have to get to know each other” because governments are
procuring services from MNOs that must now “sign up to some
conditions” that they were either not aware of, or could have
been considered as low priority in the past. One vital area that
must be examined is interoperability. The new whitepaper from
TCCA lays the foundations for that.
Jepsen says: “About a year ago, we TCCA set out to analyse
and find out whether we could copy the TETRA IOP process
directly, or if we needed to find a different way. This whitepaper
summarises the status of that. What we realised was that,
with TETRA, the hardware and the software were completely
interlinked. If you bought a device from one company, you
would have the associated software pre-installed, and the same
thing happened on the infrastructure side. With LTE – and later
5G – that is very different.
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