LONDON -- At the 2017 Global MBB Forum, Huawei held a workshop on mobile broadband (MBB) applications in the public safety sector, with 60 distinguished guests from mobile operators, vertical industries, analysts, and media. At the meeting, Huawei released LiTRA3.0, a new version of the LTE integrated trunked radio access system for MBB trunking communications.

The recent explosion of new LTE technologies has enables the MBB technology to be applied to a wide range of industries. MBB provides data rates of up to Gbps and ultra-low latency at the ms level, meeting the needs of real-time services such as mobile high-definition (HD) video. The public safety sector is another arena where MBB can play a prominent role. To date, many trunking communications networks worldwide are still running on top of private networks using narrowband or analog technology. The maximum data rates on such networks can only reach several dozen of Kbps, which is insufficient for today's public safety communications. Police officers are constantly on the move during their routine workday. They require reliable, high-bandwidth wireless broadband networks to support mobile policing, which can involve massive data transmission. Common police affairs include vehicle-mounted mobile video surveillance, positioning a reported incident for police dispatch, creating receipts, and the backhaul for traffic enforcement video.

Huawei 3GPP-compliant LiTRA solution is perfect for trunking communications in the public safety sector. This solution makes the best possible use of the ubiquitous, high-quality LTE networks. Customers can simply add a LiTRA server and upgrade the eNodeB software to deploy this solution. The latest LiTRA3.0 provides not only traditional voice PTT functionality, but also offers trunked professional multimedia services, including visual communications, video surveillance, file transfer, and geographical information system (GIS) collaboration. LiTRA3.0 exploits the broad bandwidth and low latency of LTE networks. With the help of the smart center and of video surveillance, LiTRA3.0 enables commanders to quickly learn of and respond to on-site situations, and deliver instructions to smart police terminals. In this way, public safety can be guaranteed conveniently with fewer police.

The mobile broadband network for public safety can be constructed as a private virtual network on top of the existing public LTE network and shares the LTE spectra. This greatly reduces network construction costs. The LTE-based public safety solution not only contributes to a safer city and but also to the business growth of mobile operators and this vertical industry. The LiTRA solution, complying with 3GPP specifications and providing open APIs, is bound to be applied to a wider range of vertical industries.

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd