TETRA++: Expansion of TETRA through new generation broadband networks

Although TETRA is an established and very robust technology in government and enterprise radio communications, there are efforts to replace or complement it with new commercial broadband technologies, such as the fifth generation (5G) cellular technology standard. One reason for this is that the technology allows only low data throughput for the most important services of mission-critical applications, such as voice and short messages. New services, such as video, may offer potential benefits. From an economic point of view, migrating TETRA applications to a mass-market network technology can be advantageous in terms of return on investment, e.g. in chipset development.

For this reason, the TETRA++ project will validate for the first time in two real applications for official and business radio the extent to which 5G mobile radio is sufficient (technologically, organizationally and economically) for future mission-critical communications. It will be tested to what extent the technical functions defined in the mobile radio standards for mission-critical communications can be used to meet the specific requirements of these applications, such as compatibility, confidentiality through authentication and encryption, or call priorities. Gaps in practice are identified, e.g. in the areas of interoperability with TETRA services or performance data (availability, network response times, etc.). TETRA++ also examines how an architecture for brownfield migration to a new radio technology for mission-critical communications can look in practice. The innovative content of the solution lies in the experimental approach in real environments to ensure and improve standards.