ETSI, with the support of the European Commission, EFTA, TCCA and UIC, organized the fifth MCX PlugtestsTM event which took place as a remote-only event from 21st September to 2nd October 2020.
What were the objectives and scope of the Plugtests event?
The concept of “Mission Critical Push To Talk" (MCPTT), “Mission Critical Data (MCData)” and “Mission Critical Video (MCVideo)” started with 3GPP Release-13 and is ongoing in current Releases.
Interoperability and Mission Critical service harmonization are critical challenges for the successful deployment and operation of Mission Critical Communication.
The goal of the MCX Plugtests event was to validate the interoperability of a variety of implementations using different test scenarios based on 3GPP Mission Critical Services in Release-15. The MCX Plugtests event would, besides mission critical features which have been tested in past MCX Plugtests, be extended to initially test railways-oriented capabilities in 3GPP Release-15, a step towards new FRMCS (Future Railway Mobile Communication System).
The tests were based on 3GPP, ETSI and IETF standards, and were designed for the following equipment:
- MCS Application Servers (MCPTT, MCDATA, MCVIDEO)
- MCS Clients (MCPTT, MCDATA, MCVIDEO)
- eMBMS Components
- IMS / SIP Cores
- Railways Communications Systems
- Consoles and Control Rooms
- MCS Test Equipments
The purpose and scope of the MCX Plugtests event were to test independently and jointly all components of the MC communication chain. The test cases are available in ETSI TS 103 564.
This fifth MCX Plugtests event focused on Over-The-Top (OTT) tests via VPN connections from the vendor labs, following the approach used during the pre-test stages in previous MCX Plugtests events and in the remote MCX#3 Plugtests event.
Who could participate?
- Vendors which develop and produce above mentioned equipment.
- Observers, which can be government organisations, mobile network operators, public safety operators, users, agencies or regulators. Observers are welcome to help define the scope (i.e. functionality to be tested) for this event and to evaluate the tests statistics in the TRT (Test Reporting Tool). New Observers have to sign the Rules of Engagement and NDA of the MCX Plugtests Programme.
What were the advantages of attending the 5th MCX Plugtests event?
- To assess the level of interoperability of your implementations
- To validate your understanding of the standards
- To test with (many) other real implementations and demonstrate end-to-end interoperability
- To debug your implementation: early bug fixing, saving time and costs
- To promote the technology and the ecosystem.
Plugtests Observer Program
The focus of the observer program was to examine the challenges of the Mission Critical Services deployment.
The observer program provided the platform to the various stake holders in Mission critical community to discuss the progress of Broadband and Mission Critical services deployment. The observer program was held remotely via GoToMeeting.
REGISTRATION
All participants registered to this event even if they participated in previous events part of the MCX Plugtests Programme.
All participants were expected to register individually. Each first person from an organization to register for the event would be de facto the official contact for technical and logistics matters.
After registration, new participants joining the MCX Plugtests Programme were invited to the preparation conference calls and be subscribed to the Plugtests mailing list dedicated to the MCX Plugtests event.
Participants who joined the MCX Plugtests Programme during the 3rd or 4th MCX Plugtests events remained by default on the dedicated mailing list and would receive invitations to the conference calls on this mailing list.
The registration deadline was 19 June 2020.
The event was free of charge.
RoE and NDA
By registering for the 5th MCX Plugtests event, new participating organisations joined the MCX Plugtests Programme and were asked to sign the Rules of Engagement (RoE) and Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) which they would receive upon registration. These RoE and NDA would cover the series of remote and face-to-face Plugtests events held as part of the MCX Plugtests Programme.
Companies which previously signed the RoE and NDA of the Programme when registering to the 3rd or 4th MCX Plugtests events do not need to sign the RoE and NDA again. Only new organisations joining the Programme would receive the RoE and NDA for signature.
Upon signature of the RoE and NDA sent to the official contact, the new participants will receive their credentials for the 5th MCX Plugtests WIKI. Participants who registered to the 3rd or 4th MCX Plugtests events and who already signed the RoE and NDA would keep their credentials which they could reuse for the 5th MCX Plugtests WIKI.
Participants were not allowed to participate in the event if the RoE and NDA of the Programme was not signed by a representative of their company. The deadline to return the signed RoE and NDAs to ETSI was 26 June 2020.
Join us on the open conference call presenting the event. No need to have registered to attend this call.
5th MCX Plugtests - Open call - Tue, May 19, 2020 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (CEST)
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