Our Vision for Critical Communications

The move towards Network Hybridization

In critical communications contexts, network hybridization involves integrating various communication and data networks to bolster operational capabilities.

This may entail merging land, air, and maritime networks, alongside integrating traditional communication systems with advanced technologies like satellite networks, drone networks, and tactical communication systems.

The primary goal is to enhance interoperability, resilience, and security of critical communications while facilitating effective coordination of operations in demanding scenarios. The secondary objective is to reduce costs.

Network hybridization in critical communications enables organizations to establish robust and adaptable connectivity, vital for managing emergencies, public safety, and other mission-critical activities in dynamic environments.

One typical example of Network Hybridization is the move from Narrowband (Tetra) to Broadband (4G/5G) Networks for Critical Communications. However, these 4G/5G Networks have a major drawback: their default architecture are not designed for “one-to-many” applications.

It is generally recognised within the public safety/critical communications community, that multicast solutions will play a vital role in the successful migration of existing narrowband TETRA or P25 solutions to the next generation 3GPP-based solutions of LTE, 5G, and beyond.

ENENSYS Critical Communication Solution, based on multicast technology, guarantees safety of life and maximum operational efficiency, allowing first responders and other critical users to communicate under any conditions: 

• Public Safety
• Transportation (Railways, Maritime, logistics…)
• Utilities 
• Extractive Industries (Mining, Oil & Gas…)
• Private Networks (Industry, Enterprises…)

As more & more public safety public sector private networks agencies/users adopt 3GPP LTE, 5G technology as their replacement for TETRA or P25 solutions, the need to keep up to date with what’s going on in the whole mobile telecoms space becomes more imperative.

At ENENSYS, we have a long experience & expertise developing & implementing solutions with typically esoteric monikers such as eMBMS 5GMBS multicast that turn out to be essential for delivering the latest generation of critical communications at scale.

In simple words, emergency communications require large numbers of first responders – sometimes, hundreds or even thousands – to communicate with each other instantly, clearly & efficiently. 3GPP solutions inherently involve one-to-one comms, whereas TETRA or P25 are inherently one-to-many. This means that 3GPP networks can quickly become congested or out-of-sync – even when applying large amounts of spectrum or dedicated spectrum resources – so one-to-many (broadcast/multicast) is required for very specific use-cases. 

We are now seeing more & more agencies mandating the use of eMBMS/multicast; an increased interest in our solutions at ETSI MCX Plugtests & an increasing number of publications highlighting the challenges facing public safety agencies switching from TETRA to 3GPP-based technologies.

The coming years are key for the critical communication industry as more European & global public safety organisations look to incorporate advanced capabilities such as ENENSYS Technologies multicast functionality into their next-generation solutions to enable the most demanding use cases & move towards the completion of the transition from narrowband to broadband.