As critical communications organisations and users move to mobile broadband networks and services, increasing numbers of new devices and associated mission critical applications are expected to become available. These will significantly enhance the capabilities and productivity of first responders. However, the mission critical broadband ecosystem is much more complex than the existing narrowband market. A new white paper from TCCA highlights the key considerations that need to be taken into account to ensure a successful long-term cost-effective solution deployment with specific mission critical-supporting functionality.
Across the ecosystem, operating system (OS) providers, manufacturers, operators and end-user organisations need to be aware of these considerations in the evolution of their product roadmaps, business planning and purchasing strategies.
The paper identifies APIs that would need to be present to enable an efficient integration; outlines what such device integration APIs could look like for the OS or relevant hardware interface; illustrates key mission critical requirements and sets out the benefits to the mission critical ecosystem of supporting such an approach: enabling cross-device scale and broadening the market for devices, clients and applications.
“With the introduction of broadband products based on commercial chipsets, hardware platforms and common operating systems, there is an opportunity for users to choose the particular mission critical application that best suits their needs, regardless of the device they are using,” said Kit Kilgour from TCCA member Sepura, who led the task force within TCCA’s Critical Communications Broadband Group (CCBG) that created the white paper. “Therefore, there is not just a need for interoperability at a system level, but also portability across devices to enable cost-effective deployment. Without this, the choice will become severely limited.”
The white paper is aimed at mission critical network operators, mission critical software and hardware developers – and all stakeholders looking to familiarise themselves with the technical integration issues and related business impacts linked to enabling cost-effective mission critical client choice during their evolution to products based on consumer OSs.
TCCA’s new white paper ‘APIs to facilitate Mission Critical client device integration’ can be read here.
