Officials for 3GPP, the standards body for LTE technology, say the organization plans to establish a standard for mission-critical-voice functionality over LTE early next year. That action could have significant impact on both 4G LTE initiatives and LMR plans for public-safety and critical-communications entities.   To help ensure that this aggressive timeline can be met, 3GPP has created a new working group—called SA6—specifically to tackle the challenges associated with mission-critical applications, with an initial focus on mission-critical voice, according to 3GPP officials.

Mission-critical radio and core-network functionality is part of LTE Release 12, which is scheduled to be functionally frozen in March, according to this 3GPP video. The new SA6 working group’s development of an LTE standard for mission-critical voice functionality is scheduled be part of LTE Release 13, which is scheduled to be finalized next year.

“I think we’ve got very challenging targets,” Andrew Howell, 3GPP’s SA6 convenor, said during a video interview conducted from the SA6 working group’s first meeting. “But I think that people are realizing that and are working towards it.

Read more at  http://urgentcomm.com/3gpp/lte-standards-group-targeting-mission-critical-push-talk-specifications-early-2016

Courtesy Urgent Communications