Revolutionary Public Safety LTE Communication Trial Underway

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

The public safety community has long called for mobile broadband to support its mission to save lives. With the adoption of LTE mobile broadband technology, public safety networks can benefit from the advantages of fast and reliable broadband data and real-time video services, opening up new communications possibilities for rescue missions and disaster recovery situations.

LTE (Long-Term Evolution) is a standard for high-speed wireless communication for mobile devices and data terminals. Nokia and SK Telecom (SKT) are conducting a major trial of LTE public safety technologies in South Korea to establish the application of first responders in sharing mission-critical voice, video and other data simultaneously in real-time with multiple members of first response teams.

Nokia has deployed its ViTrust public safety solution – which includes LTE radio access, Cloud Packet Core and other commercially available technologies in the network trial in several locations in South Korea. The trial is being conducted with first responder teams to enhance communications and response time in emergency situations.

Working with local vendors to deliver services for the trial, Nokia is deploying its Mission-Critical push-to-talk (MCPTT) technology to allow a single user to simultaneously connect with multiple first response personnel on a network.

Using enhanced Multimedia Broadcast Multicast technology, HD-video and other data can be transmitted efficiently to all devices even in high-traffic situations, to give all first responders a clear and complete view of an emergency and its needs, according to globenewswire.com.

The trial involves one of the world’s first public safety networks to interwork with SKT’s existing evolved packet core system. This interworking will ensure network reliability, coverage and availability ensuring public safety workers can communicate at all times.