The Multi-Standard Base Station platform combines the PMR technology of Airbus Defence and Space with the LTE technology of Alcatel-Lucent.
At the Critical Communications World (CCW) fair in Singapore, Airbus Defence and Space introduced a new Multi-Standard Base Station (MBS) platform, combining the Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) technology of Airbus Defence and Space with the long-term evolution (LTE) technology of Alcatel-Lucent. This important network element allows PMR networks to add broadband services to their existing Tetra (terrestrial trunked radio) or Tetrapol systems with no impact on the quality of the voice services.
With the MBS, Airbus Defence and Space presented at the CCW the first commercially available LTE solution (eNB) of its kind that operates in the 400MHz frequency range, which is reserved for the military and for public safety organisations. It completes the Evercor offering of Airbus Defence and Space and Alcatel-Lucent for mission-critical broadband, enabling larger data transmission by using existing PMR networks.
Public safety organisations like the police, fire and rescue services, as well as military users, are facing an increasing need for larger data capacities. “Traditional PMR technologies like Tetrapol and Tetra are evolving to cope with the new needs, aiming for very high-speed broadband capacities that are required more and more by public safety and emergency service users,” said Eric Davalo, head of Product and Service Portfolio at Airbus Defence and Space. “Our users need to be sure their systems will be operational today and also support tomorrow’s ways of working. We have designed the eNB with that in mind, by using an architecture that supports a smooth and cost-efficient migration towards LTE 400.”
The new MBS operates across all traditional ultra-high frequency bands, such as 380MHz-400MHz, 410MHz-430MHz and 450MHz-470MHz. As a prerequisite of the development, it is fully compliant with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which defines new LTE specifications to set the path for the mission-critical solutions of the future.
The Evercor solution – launched by Airbus Defence and Space and Alcatel-Lucent during the Tetra World Congress 2011 in Budapest – brings the benefits of the latest 3GPP standards to mission-critical users in the preferred and available frequency range. After first complementing currently proven mission-critical PMR systems like Tetra or Tetrapol with true broadband data performance, the system will evolve to support today’s needs for data and tomorrow’s requirements for efficient group calls, security, resilience and control by the user organisations. At CCW, a high-power modem in the 400MHz spectrum (HiPo Modem) was also introduced as another new element of Evercor.
