CRITICAL BROADBAND DEVICES: POINTS TO CONSIDER IN THE PROCUREMENT PROCESS TCCA’s Critical Communications Broadband Group (CCBG)
Australian and New Zealand governments have recognised that public safety and emergency services need mission-/business-critical grade mobile broadband capability; both nations are advancing projects towards future critical broadband communications.
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oday’s public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) end-user devices are still mostly built on narrowband technologies, providing mission-critical voice and short messaging services. These services are often available within nationwide PPDR network coverage, utilising dedicated frequency bands. The narrowband PPDR device ecosystem is well established, including infrastructure and terminal suppliers, system integrators, service providers and resellers. From a device procurement perspective, there are existing frame agreements in place. The solution costs are well known, device lifecycles are long and there are no major changes in the product specifications. For TETRA users, TCCA’s interoperability (IOP) process allows for trusted multi-vendor procurement.
24 Critical Comms - May/June 2022
The critical communications landscape is, however, beginning to transition to a new era with the adoption of 4G and 5G broadband for mission- and businesscritical services. Bringing devices to market that support these new technologies and meet demanding user requirements will require investments by the vendors, as well as commitment from customers in terms of, for example, development support, minimum order quantities, user testing and acceptance. Many current procurement models (for non-critical use) in user organisations allow device purchases from a range of sources. User organisations can run their own procurements, broadband devices can be leased from IT service companies, or even purchased by individual employees: ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD).
Device and operating system/software lifecycles of today’s broadband devices are short compared to those of LMR radios, even though vendors are doing their best to extend them. The current procurement, testing, certification and approval processes required for PPDR usage therefore need to be adapted accordingly. Critical broadband devices must meet the demanding requirements of PPDR users — COTS devices will not provide mission-critical capability. For example, devices must be rugged, have dedicated PTT buttons, deliver exceptional voice quality and support long battery life. In addition, to ensure the devices are interoperable and enable true mission-critical services they must support various 3GPP features, such as the mission-critical QCIs.
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