Key objectives of 6th ETSI MCX Plugtests

During the 6th ETSI MCX Plugtests that happened 8-19 November 2021, more than 1300 tests were conducted. TASSTA MCX server (T.Quasar) as well as mobile and desktop clients (T.Star, T.Galaxy) has participated in testing of MCPTT, MCData, railways-oriented features, and Interworking with TETRA and P25 land mobile radio systems.

The following high level test objectives were performed:

• Connectivity between functional elements at different levels including Access Network (LTE), IP Network, SIP/IMS, MCPTT and MCData Application level.
  At LTE level, unicast and more particularly eMBMS multicast connectivity was evaluated. Tests at IP layer targeted pure OTT connectivity regardless the underlying access network. SIP connectivity tests checked proper deployment of MCX AS over the selected SIP Core/IMS so that all SIP messages were successfully delivered from MCX Clients to Participating/Controlling MCPTT Servers and vice versa.
• Floor controlling - comprehensive interoperability analysis of complex interactions, including prioritization and pre-emptive mechanisms.
• Registration and authorization of MCX clients.
• Explicit and implicit affiliation of MCX clients.
• Retrieval and submission of location information.
• OAM related IdMS, CMS, GMS and KMS interfacing procedures.
• Security related procedures (including both signalling and media ciphering and key retrieval).
• Functional alias, multi-talker floor control and exchange of functional alias during call signalling and floor control.
• MCPTT connectivity interworking with LMR systems (Tetra and P25).
• SDS, file distribution, and emergency alerting based on MCData mechanisms.

97.6% of the executed interoperability tests were successful. This means a very high degree of compatibility between mission critical services from different vendors.