Vendors are lining up to prove their technologies satisfy the aims of the planned nationwide multi-vendor public safety LTE network. Among those are Nokia Siemens Networks, Cisco Systems and Harris, which jointly announced completion of conformance and interoperability testing of their public safety LTE solutions at the Department of Commerce Boulder Laboratories in Boulder, Colo.
Specifically, the three vendors satisfied the initial section of the Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) program phase 3 LTE demonstration network test plan, which is deemed a crucial step in facilitating secure, real-time, video, voice and data communication between emergency service personnel. Phase 3 testing includes conformance assessment of the network architecture, interoperability testing, handover testing and evaluation and focused testing for stress, performance, messaging/protocol and applications.
The nationwide 700 MHz public safety broadband network will be overseen by the First Responders Network Authority (FirstNet), an independent authority within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is part of the Commerce Department.
For the Phase 3 tests, Nokia Siemens supplied its public safety LTE radio access network (RAN) solution with its partner Harris. This partner solution is already being used in 700 MHz Band 14 LTE pilot programs with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and with police officers in Miami-Dade County, Fla.
Cisco supplied the LTE evolved packet core technology on its Cisco ASR 5000 series for the initial PSCR testing, which confirmed successful interoperability between Nokia Siemens' RAN and the Cisco ASR 5000 series multimedia core platform.
Nokia Siemens and Cisco were also part of a consortium that deployed the nation's first demonstrated multi-vendor interoperable public safety LTE network during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. last month.
For more:
- see this release
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