Under the contract, octoScope, in collaboration with its partner, Telcordia Technologies, will develop the mission-critical voice service architecture for a nationwide broadband public safety LTE network. The octoScope architecture will incorporate an LTE handset with mission-critical voice capabilities and an ability to automatically switch to different operating modes that allow continuous voice support with or without the infrastructure. The architecture will also include an LTE EPC (evolved packet core) interworking function to enable the new generation LTE handsets to communicate with legacy handsets in use today, including P25 and LMR radios.
Spectrum in the 700 MHz band has recently been licensed by the FCC to carry a nationwide public safety broadband network. In July of 2009 the 3GPP LTE was selected as the next generation technology for public safety communications. Because the initial thrust of LTE has been on data services, voice over LTE is still in its infancy. Furthermore, the emerging voice over LTE solutions focus on commercial voice services over cellular networks. Public safety, on the other hand, has additional mission critical requirements for voice, beyond those of traditional cellular services.
“A nationwide broadband public safety network is essential for interconnecting isolated public safety organizations. It will provide the brave men and women serving our country as first responders and emergency workers with a robust and secure wireless network capable of mission critical communications from coast to coast,” said Fanny Mlinarsky, President of octoScope. “Our solution adopts a cost-effective architecture that simplifies the LTE handset design, while relying on the infrastructure to interconnect users operating on disparate legacy networks.”