Airbus Defence and Space and its partner RIKS (the State Infocommunication Foundation), the technical operator of Estonia’s national TETRA network, is performing a two month field trial combining the public broadband network and the TETRA services of Airbus DS' Tactilon Agnet smartphone application.
The operation is establishing if voluntary civil defence and governmental organisations can use Tactilon Agnet in typical mission-critical communication. Airbus DS and RIKS will also validate the use of various types of smartphones in different operational situations. Tactilon Agnet enables smartphone users to make instant group calls using the push-to-talk feature and send messages to TETRA users as if they were equipped with TETRA devices.
RIKS has set up, in cooperation with commercial operators, a regular LTE network on the 800 and 2600 MHz frequencies. The complete test environment also includes a mobile LTE base station that is connected to the core network by a broadband satellite link.
Airbus Defence and Space has provided a service cloud environment and delivered an RCS9500 integrated radio dispatching system, an automatic vehicle location solution, a TETRA base station, several TETRA radios, and different types of smartphones equipped with the Tactilon Agnet application.
Estonia’s public safety organisations have communicated within a nationwide TETRA network from Airbus Defence and Space since 2007. In 2015, the company delivered critical communication solutions enabling the use of LTE networks, which will also be used to test the Tactilon Agnet application. This solution provides high availability and secure access through commercial LTE network services.
“As we observe an increasing demand for broadband group communication with multimedia features among mission critical users, Airbus Defence and Space offers a unique solution called Tactilon Agnet,” said Olivier Koczan, head of Secure Land Communications at Airbus Defence and Space. “It provides fully-fledged, seamless and secure integration of Tetra radio users with those who use Tactilon Agnet on their smartphones.”
