New blue light radio from Vodafone in Germany
Priority in mobile communications is given to German blue light organizations, while Vodafone operates a virtual network to also transmit images and videos.
Sometimes it's a bit of a squeeze, even in telecommunications.
(Image: Daniel AJ Sokolov)
The police, fire department and emergency services have access to broadband mobile communications. Vodafone operates a virtual network with LTE and 5G in accordance with the 3GPP standard Mission Critical Communications (MCx). It complements the established digital trunked radio TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio).
TETRA has the disadvantage of only supporting very narrowband data transmission. In practice, it is therefore not possible to transmit images or even videos. This is changing with MCx. The official users are logged into Vodafone's existing LTE/5G network, but are given priority in the allocation of network capacities. This ensures that emergency services have sufficient bandwidth, even if the mobile cell is overloaded, for example at a major event with a large number of people.
Special end devices are not required for this; standard LTE or 5G cell phones can be used. They simply need to be registered in the network as an emergency response device.
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No network slicing
MCx should not be confused with network slicing. With network slicing, part of the network capacity is "sliced out" and reserved for certain users, whether they need the capacity or not. With MCx, on the other hand, capacity is allocated flexibly according to demand and, if necessary, more capacity can be called up than would be possible with fixed network slicing.
Vodafone Germany is now launching the new virtual security network and will expand it with additional functions over the course of the year. Security forces in the first federal states will soon be using the first functions of the new infrastructure.
MCx
MCx was standardized in 2018 as part of 3GPP Release 15, but dates back two years to Release 13. At that time, the technical parameters for Mission Critical Push to Talk (MCPTT) were defined. Even earlier, elementary procedures such as eMBMS, Group Communication System Enablers (GCSE) and D2D Proximity Based Services (ProSe) were defined for MCx. The latter allows direct radio connections between devices without recourse to the mobile network.
(Image:Â 3GPP SA6)
Release 14 saw the addition of Mission Critical Data and Mission Critical Video, along with improvements to MCPTT and a framework for further MC services in the future. Release 15 brought, among other things, the possibility of connecting between different virtual MCx networks and also to older TETRA networks as well as the integration of mobile railroad radio. Further enhancements have since been added, including lower latency and the ability to multiplex multiple video streams via an eMBMS signal. Specifications for the integration of networked vehicles and drones are currently under development.
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