May 12, 2020

3GPP Partner ETSI will host the 5th MCx Plugtests remote event, taking place from September 21 to October 2, 2020.

The event has evolved over the past three years, from an initial focus on Mission Critical Push To Talk (MCPTT). The test cases now also cover a variety of Mission Critical Data (MCData) and Mission Critical Video (MCVideo) features.

The 5th MCx remote Plugtests will validate the interoperability of a variety of implementations using different test scenarios based on 3GPP Mission Critical Services in Release-15 and on new features for railway communications – specifically for the FRMCS (Future Railway Mobile Communication System).

In addition to testing against the 3GPP specifications, the event will take ETSI and IETF standards to broaden the test brief to the following equipment:

• Mission Critical Services (MCS) Application Servers
• MCS Clients
• MCS Test Equipment
• Railways Communications Systems
• eMBMS Components
• IMS / SIP Cores
• Consoles and Control Rooms

The arrival of the test sceanrios for future rail is a first for the event. The organisers are expecting to draw interest for testing equipment’s capabilities to register and de-register FRMCS Functional Identity(ies), Voice and video calls using the Functional Alias(es), Advanced floor control operations with Functional Alias and multi-user talker control for voice communication - As well as the use of 3GPP LTE-Advanced Pro as a FRMCS transport.

The purpose and scope of the ETSI MCx Plugtests event is to test independently and the components of the MC communication chain. Previous test cases are documented in ETSI TS 103 564; Plugtests scenarios for Mission Critical Services. The tests from the 2020 edition will also be added there. 

This year's event will focus on Over-The-Top (OTT) tests via VPN connections from the vendor labs, following the approach used during the pre-test stages in previous MCx Plugtests events and in the remote MCX#3 Plugtests event. 

The registration deadline is 19 June 2020 - Participation is free of charge and the event is officially supported by the European Commission, EFTA, TCCA and UIC (FRMCS).

Go to the ETSI web page: 5th MCX remote Plugtests

Contact for this article: Kevin FLYNN, Marketing and Communications Officer, 3GPP

Note: Plugtests™ is a trademark of ETSI registered for the benefit of its Members.