Mutualink, partners to demonstrate interoperable capabilities, New Jersey LTE solutions during APCO

Interoperable solutions provider Mutualink and three partners—PMC Associates, Oceus Networks and Hughes—next week will demonstrate their collaborative capabilities that are being deployed in the New Jersey public-safety LTE early-builder project.

Mutualink will show its interoperability capabilities on the show floor—the partnering companies are using combined space in booths 2236, 2238 and 2137 in the exhibit hall at the APCO show in Washington, D.C.—where a trailer with an LTE system on wheels (SOW) and a tactical node will be displayed, according to Mutualink CTO Joe Boucher.

“The system on wheels includes some Mutualink PTT gateway capability, and the tactical node contains additional PTT capability, as well as radio gateways and video gateways,” Boucher said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “Between the system on wheels and the tactical node, these units will be able to offer multimedia collaboration between on-scene agencies, even when there’s no backhaul present to the greater network at large.

“What this will allow is radio interoperability—I believe there are eight channels of radios included—as well as LTE-to-LMR capability, and the system will be radiating Band 14 in the booth. The tactical node and the devices present will have Band 14 capability, as well.”

While other early public-safety LTE buildouts utilize traditional fixed towers, the JerseyNet project is designed to provide FirstNet with insights regarding deployable LTE infrastructure like cells on wheels (COWs) and SOWs, which are COWs that include an evolved packet core (EPC), which is needed for today’s LTE system to function. New Jersey’s public-safety LTE network—scheduled to be completed by the end of next month—utilizes only deployable infrastructure, although many of the sites are expected to remain at one location.

With the SOW, Mutualink representatives will be able to conduct several demonstrations of collaboration and sharing, Boucher said.

“We’ll show video sharing, LMR sharing, situational-awareness sharing, etc., between participants both at the show and in the network at large,” he said. “That system also will be able to connect into our Mutualink IRAPP [Interoperable Response and Preparedness Platform] network, which is our nationwide network of public safety, critical infrastructure, schools, universities, private security, etc. They’ll be able to demonstrate multimedia interoperability from the show floor to any of those agencies.”

When such connectivity to an evolved packet core is not available, the Mutualink tactical node—“basically multimedia interop in a box that’s able to be wheeled into incident scenes and command centers”—can be used to enable on-scene communications in the manner envisioned by FirstNet’s Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC), Boucher said.

“Our model for our tactical node is actually not dependent on the presence of Band 14 or an EPC,” he said. “The tactical node is an on-scene unit that can provide this collaboration capability with an incident-area network. You could have wired connectivity, as well as a Wi-Fi bubble and some PTT-gateway functions.

“Effectively, it’s an incarnation of the MCU (mobile communications unit) that the PSAP has been asking for.”