B-TrunC Becomes an International Broadband Trunking Standard for Public Protection and Disaster Relief Operations

SHENZHEN, China, Feb. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- LTE-based broadband trunking communication (B-TrunC) has become the first standard from China to be accepted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as an international Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) broadband trunking air interface standard. It was included in the new version of the Recommendation ITU-R M.2009, which was approved at the 9th plenary conference held by the the ITU's Radio communication Bureau (ITU-R) Study Group 5 (SG5) in Geneva, Switzerland in November 2014, and was published on February 3, 2015.

Developed by the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA) and approved by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the standard has been developed to address evolving needs driven by the emergence of new services such as video, image and high-speed data transmission. Traditional narrowband trunking can no longer provide the bandwidth to support such services.

B-TrunC supports various carrier bandwidths ranging from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz and provides the main features of LTE. B-TrunC can support one-to-many voice calls and one-to-many video calls by leveraging the new one-to-many transmission mechanism in its radio interface. Mission critical communications is essential for fast response time to ensure the safety and order of communities, firefighting, public health, national security and economic stability. After recognizing and understanding this need, the B-TrunC standard was developed to enable mission critical communications for PPDR operations.

The development and internationalization of the B-TrunC standard

The development of the B-TrunC standard to support various trunking services began in November 2012 and was conducted by the CCSA. The interfaces defined in the standard are designed to cover both the LTE bearer and service layers. It provides enhanced broadband trunking for services such as group voice calls, group video calls, private voice calls, private video calls, real-time short data, text messages, idle group call release, dynamic regrouping, remotely enabling and disabling terminals, forced release or break-in, recovery from failure, as well as enhanced service security, prioritization, and network reliability.

Since November 2013, the CCSA has submitted documents to the ITU-R Working Party 5A (WP 5A) to introduce and provide updates on the development of B-TrunC standard. Huawei was invited to speak on behalf of CCSA and worked with the China delegation to promote B-TrunC standards among administrations and organizations around the world.

On May 27, 2014, the CCSA founded the B-TrunC Industrial Alliance to promote the internationalization and industrialization of LTE broadband trunking. As a key contributor to the development of the B-TrunC standard, Huawei was selected as a core member of the Alliance.

B-TrunC standard drives development of broadband trunking industry

The standard has laid a solid foundation for the deployment of LTE-based broadband trunking products and solutions to address needs across different industries. Standardized components facilitate the interoperability of equipment and systems from different vendors. In addition, it supports the integration of solutions to help protect enterprises' investments.

Huawei has been developing B-TrunC standard compliant products and solutions since 2013. These products and solutions have been deployed across China by the Nanjing Government, Tianjin Government, and the Lijiang Police, and in other markets for the Government of Ghana's National Security Network and Kenya's police force. At the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games held in August 2014, Huawei's enterprise LTE (eLTE) broadband trunking solution was used to provide efficient PPDR communication services for a greener, safer, smarter and more efficient event. This marked the first time for 4G LTE broadband multimedia trunking communication technology to be applied at a large-scale sports event.

The internationalization of the B-TrunC standard not only shows that the development of broadband trunking industry is on the right track, but that it will serve to further drive industry development. As an international standard, B-TrunC will help to accelerate the commercialization of the entire LTE broadband trunking industry chain. It supports the development and testing process of equipment providers, device manufacturers, integrators and industry customers by providing a unified trunking standard. This will ultimately foster development within the ICT industry and pave the way for next generation trunking products of the future.

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