Radio Communications | ETELM helping determine a single interoperable standard for 3GPP

Radio communications specialist ETELM has participated in the fourth annual MCX Plugtests event, which brought together vendors and suppliers from across the mission-critical communications supply chain to independently and jointly test infrastructure components.

Organised by ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, in partnership with ERILLISVERKOT, the State Security Networks Group for Finland, the fourth MCX Plugtests event was specifically focused on testing radio equipment with Unicast and Multicast support, but is also looking at Over-The-Top testing of mission-critical servers and clients.

The event, which took place from the 23 to 27 September 2019 at the Savonia University of Applied Sciences in Kuopio, Finland, involved 200 test sessions and 1500 test cases between different vendors. The tests sought to validate the interoperability of a range of implementations based on 3GPP standards, and ultimately to achieve a single interoperable global standard. It provided a platform for companies to test their products and implementations alongside each other and concluded with a success rate of 95% in the validation of 3GPP mission critical services vendor interoperability.

ETELM, headquartered in France, was one of more than 30 participants in the tests, alongside organisations from throughout the telecommunications industry and academia worldwide.

Nicolas Hauswald, CEO of ETELM, said: “Interoperability is central to ETELM’s ethos and technology. For example, our 4G Linked solution enables organisations to balance the benefits and functionality of both next-generation mobile broadband technology and professional mobile radio communications, by enabling interoperability between LTE and TETRA networks.

“We have always been strong advocates of the role MCPTT and MCX services have to play in delivering interoperability. Collaborative approaches are critical to building next-generation mission-critical infrastructure and organisations from across industry and academia need to work together to ensure the development of standards which work for all.

“As such, we were delighted to be one of the participants in MCX Plugtests. Many of the most exciting and innovative telecommunications organisations from across the world came together to test their technology independently and jointly, setting a foundation for interoperable solutions.”