CCE Review
federal level and the 16 states. e
current hybrid model the agency is
proposing (as previously covered in
our coverage of last year’s PMRExpo)
consists of continuing to use the
country’s TETRA network for voice for
several more years, while also using a
dedicated nationwide 4G/5G network
operating in 450MHz to provide
basic broadband data services. e
“basic network” would reuse BDBOS’s
existing assets where possible, but
would also require new sites to be built.
e mission-critical services of the
future network would be supplemented
with RAN sharing with commercial
operators in 700MHz and national
roaming with commercial partners.
She added that the hybrid model
that BDBOS is favouring will “live or
die with the spectrum question” and
that BDBOS is ling for spectrum
in the 450MHz band. Held said the
German regulator is oering access
to some spectrum in this band to
BDBOS, but this requires sharing it
with power utilities, so “BDBOS is
ghting to get the entire 2 x 4.7MHz
slot… and the optimum we would
like to get is 2 x 10MHz”. She added
that the decision on the assignment of
spectrum “should be made within
this year at thelatest”.
One new detail was the news that
BDBOS will carry out a two-stage
‘Broadband Test’, which aims to obtain
practical knowledge on the use and
conceptualisation of the future hybrid
broadband infrastructure for German
PPDR. e rst stage is planned to
take place in the rst half of 2019
– this will consist of developing the
detailed concept, drafting and planning
the test scenarios and then issuing a
call to tender. e second stage, which
will take place in the second half of
2019 and the rst half of 2020, will
implement the test scenarios, analyse
and report on the results of the tests,
together with considerations on the
legal, organisational, and commercial
aspects of this approach. Held added
that it is “more of a comprehensive
feasibility study than a simple test
contents of Release 17 are not yet
known, “a shopping list” for it is
building and “we know that there are
some things that should be in Release
16 that will slip, they will just topple
over into Release 17”.
Scrase noted that in addition to
the work on interoperability and
interconnection standards, “we also
have some quite interesting work on
APIs where we will be able to expose
the networks to external application
providers, so there’s no limit to the
imagination as to what you can do
with that from a public safety point
of view. We’re even going to expose
the data/analytical components of
the core network externally through
APIs; so this concept of opening up
the contents of our core network to
external communities, rather than
having this very closed approach,
which is the current approach. You can
also see even more work on missioncritical
video and mission-critical data.”
However, Scrase was keen to
highlight “some of the work we’re
doing on maritime and railways”.
He explained that in Release 16,
3GPP will analyse these communities’
requirements and compare them with
those of public safety, as “there is a
view that says actually there’s not a lot
of dierence between the requirements
from a performance point of view. If
that’s true, if we can start to cluster
these dierent user communities
because they have very similar
although there will also be technical
testing on our testbeds and in Berlin
with some realantennas.”
Held also said that “what we are
going to test are exclusively hybrid
solutions, we’re not going to consider
a purely dedicated network or a
purely commercial network. We’re
going to test dierent versions of
hybrid solutions, and the idea might
be elaborated and might also change
in the long run. Depending on
what the outcome is we will then
present recommendations on how to
proceed to our supervisory board and
our customers.” She explained that
BDBOS “won’t become active for the
time being in the area of applications…
this is something our federal states
and customers in the states are doing”.
Strength in unity
Turning to cellular technology, Adrian
Scrase, ETSI’s CTO and 3GPP’s
head of MCC, gave a presentation on
critical communications standards. He
explained that the second phase of 5G,
which will come in Release 16, will
complete “the ultra-reliable low-latency
work in its rst instance, together
with massive Internet of ings”. He
added that while it is scheduled to be
complete in March 2020, “we’re trying
to cram so much into Release 16 that
it’s inevitable there will be some slight
delay before that’s completed”, before
noting that it has already slipped
by three months. He said while the
Jarmo Vinkvist
explained
Erillisverkot’s
approach to
procuring
broadband
services for
Finland’s Virve 2.0
project
A shopping list is building
and we know that there
are some things that should
be in Release 16 that will slip,
they will just topple over
into Release 17
April Supplement 2019 @CritCommsToday 9