Keysight and Alea First to Validate 3GPP EUTRA Mission Critical Test Case

Keysight Technologies and Alea S.r.l have validated the first mission-critical 3GPP Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (EUTRA) test case for mission-critical-push-to-talk (MCPTT) at the recent Global Certification Forum (GCF) Conformance Agreement Group (CAG) meeting. The validation was conducted using the Keysight S8704A Protocol Conformance Toolset.

Mission Critical Communications (MCX), including MCPTT, has emerged as a groundbreaking standard within the 3GPP, offering a reliable, efficient, and feature-rich communication solution for mission-critical situations such as public safety, security, transportation, and utilities. Facilitated by TCCA (The Critical Communications Association) through the promotion of open standards, MCX is transitioning from narrowband to broadband technology to bring new features such as video calling. Conformance testing, not present in narrowband, is being adopted to ensure standards compliance and ensure high reliability, performance, and interworking mandated by mission-critical communications.

To assist MCX device makers conduct conformance testing, Keysight validated the first test case for MCPTT using the 3GPP-defined LTE MCPTT EUTRA test case and an Alea Mission Critical Services (MCx) User Equipment (UE) Client. The test case covers the major steps the MCPTT client undertakes to be configured with the MCPTT server. This includes Long-Term Evolution (LTE) attach, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) registration, user authentication and key management via Internet Protocol Security (IPSec), identity management, user service authorization, and user configuration data sharing including group management.

Keysight's S8704A Protocol Conformance Toolset supports MCX protocol conformance test requirements. This solution features a user-friendly interface for configuring the device, preparing test plans, executing tests, checking results, and generating reports. This solution is required for all device acceptance test cases including conformance and carrier acceptance.