As part of the newly launched KoPa_45 project, the Federal Agency for Public Safety Digital Radio (BDBOS) is setting up a programme to promote innovation for broadband digital radio. On the one hand, the aim is to utilise the advantages of 5G and, in the future, 6G mobile radio standards for mission-critical communication networks. On the other hand, the programme aims to research the potential uses of edge and cloud technologies in mission-critical areas. The funding programme is expected to start in the 3rd quarter of 2022 and is scheduled to run until the end of 2024.

The resources for the funding programme come from the economic stimulus package “Combating the consequences of corona, securing prosperity, strengthening future viability”, which was launched by the German government in June 2020. The BDBOS was allocated funds from the 45th element of the economic stimulus package for the targeted promotion of the economy in its area of responsibility.

To prepare and focus the content of the funding programme, the BDBOS has spent the past few months developing research questions that are of interest with regard to future broadband mission-critical mobile radio networks. Target groups include research institutions, terminal device manufacturers in the field of public safety, network operators, measuring device providers, providers of control centres and mobile base stations, software and application providers, system component manufacturers and module manufacturers, as well as cross-sector industries such as the (Industrial) Internet of Things.

Source: BDBOS/Hasbach, Infographico

To test ideas and products, the BDBOS is using project funds to provide its own broadband development environment with LTE, 5G and – if available by the end of the project – 6G technology. This should make it possible to simulate the transitions between networks of different technologies, in particular to the TETRA standard of Public Safety Digital Radio. The development environment is provided as a stationary and mobile campus network and contains the technically required equipment for mission-critical broadband services (MCx) as well as an interface for network coupling with the TETRA part of the BDBOS's own test platform. This allows the expected network conditions in broadband digital radio to be simulated as far as possible beyond 2030. The setup allows extensive testing in a 5G environment with 100 MHz bandwidth as well as backwards compatibility with LTE.

Further information on the project and the funding programme will be published regularly on the BDBOS website.