Nokia Networks announces LTE ‘network in a box’ solution with Harris BeOn capability

While other deployable solutions in the market include an EPC—a necessary component for LTE to function today—the ability for the NIB to enable the use of applications make it unique, Fennelly said.

“What’s different here is that, … in addition to basic communications capability, your applications are also located in that remote unit that’s contained within the eNodeB,” he said. Within that local environment, you can continue utilization of those applications.

“So, you can share video with the folks that are within range of that eNodeB, but you’re not sharing that video back to a main control unit, because you’re not hooked into the main network. But it does allow remote communications.”

That capability is a vital feature for public safety, which often has to respond to incidents in locations where communications no longer are available—for instance, after a disaster—or where additional capacity is needed, according to Michelle Johnson, director of product-line management at Harris.

“One of the beauties of it is that, if you wanted to have it as an isolated operation, you could do all of your provisioning right there in the field for that special mission just for that deployable, without having to connect back to a central office, if that is a use case that you would want to have,” Johnson said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “[The NIB can be deployed] where it is just dedicated to those that are within that disaster area or coverage area that you are trying to bring that application or service to.”

Johnson said the Harris BeOn application is fully supported within the Nokia NIB solution, including its ability to let LTE users talk with personnel on a P25 radio network, to provide location-based services and to share sensor information—for instance, when a gun is removed from its holster.

Although BeOn is the featured application today, the edge-computing capability within the NIB is robust enough to support many other applications that public safety may want at an incident scene, Fennelly said.

“We’re encouraging third-party applications,” he said. “We have an API [application platform interface] in the mobile edge computing platform and are trying to enable better participation of these third parties to enhance the number of applications that FirstNet can have available for their users.”

The NIB solution with the BeOn application will be displayed today and tomorrow at the Harris booth—booth #1033—in the APCO 2015 exhibit hall.