Interesting introductory whitepaper I came across at the TCCA on TETRA / PS-LTE interoperability… see here: https://tcca.info/fm_file/2018-may_tetra_connectivity_to_lte-pdf/
As has been recently the growing industry consensus – the death of LMR / P25 and TETRA have been rather exaggerated! In this non-technical whitepaper, the TCCA suggests co-existence of TETRA and PS-LTE, and not replacement and evolution. Or at least the evolution will be very long and likely a hybrid “network of networks” for the path ahead. The article provides a nice vendor- (read propaganda-) agnostic overview of MCPTT (“Mission Critical Push to Talk”) interworking architectures, for non-technical audiences.
From a philosophical stance – it’s nice to see that a solution for LMR and TETRA interoperability – (which has often been a patchwork quilt historically, with islands of interoperability) – is finally close to reality. And the irony is that it’s the integration of LMR with LTE broadband that will in turn drive the defacto integration of these legacy TETRA & P25 LMR networks for First Responders.
3GPP’s Release 16 Standard – due out in late 2019 – will bring MCPTT services to TETRA and expand MC services in general for new verticals, such as the railway industry and PMR. Given the lag from standard to marketable solutions, we’re likely to see implemented product for TETRA oriented MCPTT integration in the 2021 / 2022 timeframe. In the mean time proprietary vendor solutions will bridge the gap – but great that a standards based integration is finally just around the corner for the TETRA world…