Harald Ludwig, Technical Forum Chair, TCCA;
and Asif Hamidullah, Head of Certification IoT & Verticals, GCF
Public Safety Agencies and Mission Critical Communication Operators (MCCOs) around the world are currently in various phases of migrating their existing Public Land Mobile Radio networks from voice-oriented narrowband technologies, such as TETRA and P25, to mobile broadband technologies, based on 3GPP’s 4G-LTE and 5G-NR standards. Mission Critical Services (MCS) is a key component of these standards with services such as Push-To-Talk (MCPTT), Video (MCVideo), and Data (MCData) – together also referred as MCX – being defined and planned to be globally adopted.
Certification of mission critical products and solutions, such as MCS Clients, devices and servers, are essential to ensure both compliance to industry standards, and interoperability with other 3GPP-compliant mission critical systems.
The Global Certification Forum (GCF) in collaboration with TCCA, has developed and deployed a Mission Critical Services Certification regime that demonstrates both compliance to the standards, and interoperability of mission critical products & services. GCF’s certification allows MCCOs, Product Manufacturers and Service providers to have the confidence that products and services that are being deployed meet the stringent requirements of industry to ensure a successful service offering.
In many countries, public safety oriented networks are either government-built or contracted by governments to private network operators. Other critical networks are being developed privately, covering the needs of specific companies, alliances or sectors, such as mining, oil & gas, and defence. In all these cases, certification ensures interoperability and reliability, covering both products and mission critical services.
GCF has created a specific membership category for MCCOs, targeting the needs of public safety agencies and MCX service providers. Following the 2024 launch of GCF’s certification program for mission critical services, operators are now signing up – MCCOs from Sweden (MSB), Belgium (ASTRID), Finland (Erillisverkot) and Norway (DSB) have already joined GCF. Other organisations are in the final stages of joining. GCF is engaged with MCCOs globally to make sure a common certification regime is used to help facilitate international cooperation and engagement.
While MCS is heavily dependent on the MCX specific standards, it is not just the product’s MCX capabilities that needs certifying – the underlying device functionality connecting to the cellular network needs to be certified as well. For all these MCX components and sub-dependencies, public safety agencies and MCCOs can – and should – rely on GCF certification programs to demonstrate compliance and interoperability of their mission critical services.
MCX communication takes place over an IP connection between the client and server, and can technically be executed over any wireless or wired connection. However, certain critical features such as Quality of Service, Priority, and Pre-emption (QPP), which are specific to cellular networks, require integration and support of the MCX systems with the underlying LTE and/or 5G network elements.
As such, the certification of MCX products not only checks the MCX-specific features and functionality that run over IP, but also those features and functionality that need to be supported by the radio access technology.
The MCCO, or the designated entity contracted by the MCCO, may procure devices, MCX clients and services from a single supplier, or may procure its MCX clients, servers and devices from a combination of multiple vendors. In each case, GCF has defined specific scenarios, so it is always 100% clear which entity is responsible for certification. This enables MCCOs to ensure they are always acquiring certified products.
In addition, TCCA maintains recommended best practices for the procurement of MCX products, including MCX broadband services and certification practices.
In all scenarios, GCF certification forms the baseline level of requirements needed to be achieved before MCCO network specific testing is conducted. This will minimise interoperability issues and will ensure that any integration issues that are discovered can be easily isolated and are not related to compliance issues of the products. To ensure compliance, the MCCO’s contract tenders must indicate that certification of products is mandatory.
To help MCCOs, GCF and TCCA have developed and maintained a model text that can be introduced into contract tenders, either ‘as is’, or customised by an MCCO to their requirements. This text describes the minimum certification requirements for procured products, and is available for download from TCCA’s Legal and Regulatory Working Group (LRWG) library.
The Mission Critical Services Work Stream (MCS-WS), managed by GFC in collaboration with TCCA, continues to evolve the MCX ecosystem. The workstream consists of key industry players and subject matter experts from GCF and TCCA member companies. Together, they are developing the key requirements for testing mission critical services, as well as defining the policies and procedures for the certification program.
GCF is also continuously expanding its support for MCX. For example, additional frequency bands can be added to GCF certification as needed by MCCOs. As well, Interoperability (IOP) and Field Trials testing is expected to become active by 2026. Additional capabilities such as MCX Server certification, Sidelink and IoT telematics over MCData are already in scope and will be delivered in future phases of the programme.
GCF’s goal is to certify the entire system of MCX products and solutions (devices, clients and servers). Different product types are being introduced in phases once external dependencies are met, such as standardisation requirements from 3GPP.
As mission critical services migrate to LTE and 5G networks, TCCA and GCF have created a certification programme that enables operators to build their networks with confidence.
The programme, based around 3GPP standards, guarantees the highest levels of compliance and interoperability – with the flexibility to support new technologies and capabilities as they are developed.
