GCF, TCCA announce certification program for 3GPP mission-critical services

Critical-communications entities soon should be able to verify that broadband mission-critical services (MCS or MCX)—beginning with mission-critical push to talk (MCPTT)—actually meet 3GPP standards through a new certification program announced today by the Global Certification Forum (GCF) and TCCA.

Vendors seeking certification of MCPTT offerings—clients, devices and servers—that their solutions meet the 3GPP’s Release 14 standard can submit their solutions immediately to a laboratory in Sweden, although more certification labs are expected to be identified soon, according to officials familiar with the matter. Similar programs are being developed to certify MCData and MCVideo products in the future.

TCCA CEO Kevin Graham said that GCF and TCCA have been discussing a collaboration to certify MCS products for more than four years, and today’s announcement comes after the completed development of a testing platform for MCPTT.

“Obviously, it came off the back of the success we had with TETRA for interoperability and certification,” Graham said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “Our community has been used to having that certainty, in terms of product, and that’s what’s driven the success of our narrowband standards.

“As we got MCX features agreed upon in 3GPP, it was natural that we should try to maintain the same level of conformance and interoperability testing. If users who were on narrowband were going to trust making a step onto a network—and network operators were going to take a step in supporting those features—that was the main impetus [for initiating an MCS certification program].”

With a GCF program in place, organizations buying mission-critical broadband solution can specify the GCF certification in bidding documents and be confident that products are built to the 3GPP standards—similar to the assurance that buyers get from certification programs in the LMR arena, Graham said.

“It’s probably one of the most important first steps. If you can at least have that certificate that a device is compliant to 3GPP MCX, it’s a great first step. If we extend it into an interoperability regime, as well, that will be another level of confidence building—which is what procurers have asked, in most instances, in TETRA and DMR, as well …

“The procurers now generally ask the suppliers to demonstrate—through the certificates—that they interwork. It’s equally important that we do it for MCX broadband.”

GCF CEO Lars Nielsen echoed this sentiment.

“This new MCS certification follows a multi-year collaboration between GCF and TCCA, and the members of both organizations at Mission Critical Services Work Stream,” Nielsen said in a prepared statement. “For the first time, MCS product vendors can demonstrate conformance of different MCS clients and servers based on global standards maintained by 3GPP.”

Ken Rehbehn, principal analyst at CritComm Insights, also emphasized the importance that having a certification program could have on MCPTT procurements conducted by public-safety and critical-infrastructure organizations.

“The formal announcement from the GCF marks a critical milestone in the journey towards broadband mission-critical push-to-talk capabilities,” Rehbehn said in a statement provided to IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “It marks the establishment of a trustworthy, standards-based test regime that will provide authoritative compliance marks to client software and devices claiming 3GPP Mission Critical Services support for Mission-Critical Push-to-Talk. In short, we now have the rulebook and the tools for referees to begin passing judgment on product compliance with the 3GPP MC-PTT standards.
“The move is crucial because it provides a solid legal foundation for government procurements that demand delivery of 3GPP MC-PTT. Now, governments can seek proof of compliance and trust the process that delivers the proof.”

While the GCF certification program is designed to ensure that devices, clients and servers meet the MCX specifications established by the 3GPP, full compliance with the MCX standard requires these products to operate on a network optimized for robust performance, including low-latency connectivity. Currently, there is no plan to evaluate networks or interworking with LMR systems under the GCF program, but official said such capability could be executed in the future, if there is market demand for such certification.

Graham expressed optimism that the GCF’s MCS certification program will grow well beyond testing basic conformance with 3GPP standards.

“It’s now starting to come together with the right people. It’s got momentum now, so I’m fairly confident that …. now that we’ve got this first step, … the rest will just keep rolling. We know that critical industries are going to demand MCX services, so industry will need to respond. If they demand—as well as conformance certification—interoperability, then we’ll work on delivering that.”