TCCA February Newsletter 2023
2023-03-01 08:32:00


 
 
Dear Kerekes, 
We’re pleased to bring you the latest updates from TCCA – and it’s another month full of activity and achievements, and more to come with a busy event schedule. The main event however is Critical Communications World, and registration is now open! We very much hope to see as many of you as possible in Helsinki – please do join us for a conference programme packed with top level speakers and topics, an exhibition of leading international brands, in-depth Focus Forums and Government Authorities fostering collaboration across international borders. CCW is the global event of the year – don’t miss out!

CCW 2023 will bring together host operators from Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Estonia, and promises to create a unique event.
 
 
Welcome new members!

Byne - Brazil


We are delighted to welcome our first member from Brazil. Byne was created more than ten years ago with the goal to make critical operation environments less complicated, focusing on user experience and believing that performing several tasks at the same time does not have to be stressful. Byne acts in the Financial, Oil & Gas, Energy, Transportation and Public Safety areas, assisting companies that have major impact on people’s lives, with highly complex operations and multiple activities taking place at the same time. For more information please visit   https://www.byne.com.br/
 
ICCAs – Still time to enter!
There is still time to enter the International Critical Communications Awards (ICCAs) – a respected industry programme overseen by a panel of expert and independent judges. A highlight of CCW is the presentation evening, which takes place on 23 May at the Scandic Park Helsinki, where the winners will be announced.

This year’s ICCAs include the newly named Phil Kidner Award for Outstanding Contribution to Critical Communications. This award is in honour the late Phil Kidner – PK to many – and his distinguished career in critical communications, which included leading TCCA as its CEO for ten years.
TCCA’s Young Engineer of the Year recognises the contribution made by young engineers to critical communications, and hopefully will encourage young people to join our industry.
 
How much power do you want?  Important survey needs your input!
What is the future for High Power User Equipment (HPUE) - help us to influence it!
Many organisations are planning to deploy broadband technologies - 4G and 5G - to deliver mission critical communications that will greatly enhance the safety and operational efficiency of first responders and mobile workers.

Image courtesy of Motorola Solutions
The 3GPP standards define HPUE as classes of broadband devices that operate with higher transmit powers than typical commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices. Our HPUE task force, led by Board member Tim Clark, has put together a survey to gain insight into and better understand the use cases and requirements for mission critical HPUE devices.

Ultimately the results of this survey will be used to give advice to users and operators on successful deployment and use of mission critical HPUE devices; to identify and help to overcome issues that may prevent deployment of mission critical HPUE devices, and provide guidance to manufacturers to help create an ecosystem of HPUE devices that meet mission critical requirements

The survey is short and to the point - please take a few minutes to help us influence the way forward. Thank you for your support.
 
Sounds like a critical spectrum discussion …

The World Radiocommunications Conference 2023 later this year will make key decisions around the future use of spectrum. For critical communications, it is essential that spectrum is made available. In this Omdia podcast, key members of TCCA Luz Fernández del Rosal, vice chair of CCBG, and Noel Kirkaldy discuss the spectrum requirements for the critical communications community, and what spectrum options exists today. Our sector needs support to ensure those requirements are met - take some time to listen to the podcast and consider if and how you could help. 
 
Investigating the IoT

Just a reminder that if you want to participate in this Omdia study commissioned by TCCA, please contact the lead analyst Ildefonso de la Cruz. TCCA is championing this comprehensive assessment on the IoT hardware, services and software market ecosystem that will shape the mission critical communications industry. The goal of this collaboration is to categorise the IoT application landscape relevant to the mission critical communications market; identify the fundamental factors and KPIs driving the adoption and expansion of MC IoT networks, and analyse and forecast the size of the IoT market that will support the mission critical needs of governments and industry. Your collaboration in this study is invaluable to help to shape the critical communications of the future. 
 
 
Upcoming events

TCCA presenting at BAPCO 2023, Coventry, UK – 7-8 March 2023


The annual BAPCO event is the UK’s largest public safety exhibition and conference. TCCA will be represented on the stage by our chair Mladen Vratonjić, vice-chair and chair of CCBG Tero Pesonen, and co-chairs of our Future Technologies Group Robin Davis and Iain Ivory from Actica Consulting. These TCCA executives will be presenting the work of the Association and promoting our members. Full details here

IWCE 2023 – 27-30 March, Las Vegas


Board vice chair and chair of CCBG Tero Pesonen, TCCA CEO Kevin Graham and our Technical Forum chair Harald Ludwig will be making presentations at IWCE – full conference details are here. There will be many TCCA members at the event – please support their presentations and take the time to visit their booths in the exhibition.

EENA Conference and Exhibition 2023 – 19-21 April, Ljubljana


TCCA will have a stand at the EENA event to spotlight the work of TCCA members, and we will be presenting on Mission Critical Communications on 20 April – conference details are here. We look forward to seeing you in Slovenia.
 
Working Group Reports
Australasian Critical Communications Forum (ACCF)
Report by director Anton Abrahams
The ACCF Board undertook a market study and member survey in January tabled in a directors’ meeting on 14 February. A key outcome of this exercise was the creation of a vision and mission statement that influences ACCF future activities and guide all marketing initiatives in the foreseeable future and to meet the ongoing expectations, preferences and behaviours of the ACCF membership as a chapter of TCCA.
The survey respondents agreed with the positive benefits of being a member of the Forum but also some of its shortcomings that we need to address. Overall a worthwhile exercise – if you would like a copy of the survey report please contact Anton Abrahams.
ACCF will be represented at CCW 23 by Anton.
Broadband Industry Group (BIG)
Report by chair Marc Balliet and vice chair Jason Johur
BIG is leading the following task forces involving the CCBG community:
  • Cybersecurity for Critical Communications. The structure and the different chapters of the white paper have been defined. Now the content needs to be written by the different owners of chapters.
  • Massive Mission Critical Video: brainstorming about the key questions and key topics that the white paper will address is being performed. Many topics have already been identified. Still the end user community is asked about the key question this white paper should address.
  • Mission Critical Applications. This task force is the continuation of the white paper already issued, focusing on MC App developer engagement, Ecosystem supplier engagement and Knowledge sharing.
  • High Power UE. This Task Force is the most recent one that has been kicked off (last December) and a market study has already been launched (see separate entry earlier in this newsletter)
BIG would like to thank all the contributors to these task forces for all their time and efforts provided so far.
During CCW23 in Helsinki, BIG will be animating different Focus Forums around:
  • Mission Critical Applications
  • Spectrum for Critical Communications: What are the options and future technology needs
  • Cybersecurity for Critical Communications
  • Massive Mission Critical Video
  • (NTN Non-Terrestrial Networks … still to be confirmed)
PPDR Band 68/28 Ecosystem Development
Ericsson, Nokia and Crosscall announced support for PPDR B68/28 during the previous BIG/CCBG Plenary session held in Genoa, Italy. These and other members of BIG agreed investigate the possibility of demonstrating a cross-industry show of this capability at CCW23.
Furthermore, interested BIG and CCBG members will work together to draft a work item to add support in PPDR B68/28 for 5G NR and carrier aggregation options (working with European commercial operator bands).
Defining Quality of Service, Priority and Pre-emption (QPP)
A review process is currently under way to agree on a common industry definition for the widely used term ‘QPP’ amongst the global mission critical community. Although used frequently in conversations, it is not strictly defined in 3GPP and therefore open to interpretation. Therefore, an effort is under way led by TCCA members and supporting community to define and agree this during 2023.
Critical Communications Broadband Group (CCBG)
Report by chair Tero Pesonen
The next CCBG plenary will be held online from 12-13 April 2023 – if you would like to propose content for the agenda please contact ccbgesc@tcca.info
The Device API white paper has passed Members’ Enquiry and will be presented to the Board for review and approval for publication.
Working with the Technical Forum, the TETRA Interworking Service Overview is out for review with the members of the CCBG IWF and Technical Forum. There will be a workgroup session on March 6 to address any received comments to improve the Service Overview. The next step is to work on a draft for a Request for Information.
Legal and Regulatory Working Group (LRWG)
Report by chair Nina Myren
LRWG has identified availability, interoperability, sovereignty and national security, users of the Service and working with Commercial Operators as the main areas where legal and regulatory tools are needed for securing mission critical broad band services. Our first meeting this year was the two-day workshop in Oslo in January, where the objective was to agree on progress and deliveries during 2023. The workshop resulted in a common baseline document where different "problems" and their respective gap analysis are identified. This will be a living document and a tool for prioritisation of the work.
At the second meeting held on February 21, LRWG members voted to work on the first topic, related to Quality, Priority and Preemption (QPP). For the users it is crucial that their traffic is transmitted in the network without delays or hindrances, independent of technology. Some countries have introduced new national laws to secure users’ needs, other countries have established commercial agreements with the commercial operator. In many countries it is not yet clear how this will be solved.
A task force has been established to progress the QPP work item, and participants from BDBOS volunteered to lead this, with support from several other countries. The goal is to have a result, most likely a white paper, for approval by the CCW event in May 2023. In parallel, we are working to have some more detailed information available on the LRWG webpage on tcca.info.
Thank you to all participating members – your support is invaluable! The next meeting will be held on 15 March 2023.
Security and Fraud Prevention Group (SFPG)
Report by chair Trevor Evans
The SFPG is responsible for operational issues in the area of security and fraud prevention which involve interests of critical communications system (including TETRA) operators, manufacturers and government bodies, and are not, or cannot be, managed within the open standards.
One of the main tasks of the group is to monitor fraud and threats for all types of operational critical communications systems. For this the group will produce Recommendations for security and fraud prevention and will propose work items for standardisation.
Technical developments
ETSI has published a set of new algorithms with 192-bit keys – TEA5, TEA6 and TEA7.
Like TEA2, TEA5 has been designed for use by Public Safety and Military Organisations and has been assigned by ETSI for use exclusively in the European Union and associated countries.
SFPG has updated the document ‘Overview of Standard TETRA Cryptographic Algorithms and their rules for management and distribution’ to reflect the introduction of the new algorithms. The document has added to the SFPG area on tcca.info.
Technical Forum
Report by chair Harald Ludwig
The Technical Forum meeting #106 was held on 30 January 2023 as an e-meeting. During the meeting there was a suggestion to look into 160 MHz band for TETRA usage. This discussion will be followed up via e-mail.

Participants in the TF#106 online meeting
The AIF WG is currently very active in updating the TIPs and Test Plans to include the new security algorithms for TETRA which ETSI published recently. There may be impacts on the ISI as well which the ISI WG will follow-up.
The TF was informed about the service overview for the TETRA-MCX interworking function which is currently produced by a TCCA task force. Once a stable draft is available it will be also sent to TF for review.
There were no TETRA IOP test sessions conducted since the last TF meeting, but the certification body received a number of requests for 2023 which will be scheduled and announced in due course.
The next TF#107 meeting is planned for 20 March 2023 as a e-meeting online; the TF#108 meeting will be a face-to-face meeting on 22 May 2023, the day before the CCW in Helsinki, Finland.
The IOP Test Engineers workshop this year is planned for 17-18 April 2023 in Rome, Italy.
We are planning a TF face-to-face meeting for 22 May 2023 in Helsinki, the day before CCW.
TETRA Applications Group
The TETRA Applications Group has published the third article in its series around TETRA and Data. The article highlights automation related examples of TETRA data applications that are available from a wide ecosystem of innovative developers - learn how you can benefit from TETRA data applications today!
TETRA can be used for automation, control including IoT (Internet of Things) and IoLST (Internet of Life Saving Things), M2M (machine to machine) and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) solutions as TETRA is a mission critical network.
 


TETRA Industry Group (TIG)
Report by chair Francesco Pasquali
The TIG has started activities related to the preparation of the Critical Communications World 2023 event.  The group is setting up a Focus Forum Expert session with an attractive programme aimed to present recent TETRA developments with a specific reference to new security features which will make TETRA future proof for the next decade or even beyond. The significant innovations, introduced by ETSI in close cooperation with TCCA’s TETRA Industry Group, will allow TETRA to maintain its outstanding and unrivalled level of security throughout the next decade and beyond - ensuring strong protection in a continuously evolving and challenging environment, where new cyber threats are due not only to isolated cybercrime actors, but also organised hostile countries, through complex and more powerful technological means (e.g. quantum computers). Moreover, thanks to its capabilities specifically tailored for critical comms users, and its evolution with the addition of complementary broadband technologies, TETRA will deliver key components of the hybrid multi-technology model of choice for future mission critical communications. The session will also touch other important topics such as TETRA data applications and TETRA unique features for use in specific verticals.
 
From the CEO

This newsletter again demonstrates the massive collaborative efforts being made by TCCA member and partner organisations, our Working Groups and task forces, and the individuals within these to influence the future outcomes for our critical communications industry and users we serve. The forthcoming event participation by our community shows the significant commitment and investment being made across the entire critical communications ecosystem.
I look forward to catching up with all members attending Mobile World Congress 2023 this week in Barcelona and BAPCO 2023 from 7-8 March in Coventry, UK and wish all involved in these much success. My personal thanks also to GSMA APAC for their kind invitation to participate in a 5G industry community roundtable at MWC with sector leaders from across this region. Building TCCA partnerships with peer associations where we have existing or emerging synergies will be important in broadening information exchange and an awareness of the importance of standard based critical communications at regional and international levels, as well as the role TCCA and its members are playing. Harmonising and aggregating scale for our critical communications industry is essential given the small, but important stake we have in the total global telecoms market.
May I urge each reader to do their part to support these efforts by promoting these events, including our own Critical Communications World (CCW) 2023 from 23-25 May in Helsinki,) and other TCCA activities within their circle of influence both within and outside your organisations, and through social media connections. And of course, please take a look at the categories in the International Critical Communications Awards and submit your entry – the deadline is now 13 March.
Our CCW2023 theme “Success in co-operation” really does underscore our 2023 agenda and I thank all for your valued and ongoing contributions to our programs.
Kevin Graham
CEO
 
 
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