ETSI, with the support of the European Commission, EFTA, TCCA and UIC, is organizing its fifth MCX PlugtestsTM event. The remote-only event will take place from 21 September to 2 October 2020. Pre-testing started on 31 August to debug any connectivity issues before the main event.

The goal of this MCX Plugtests event is to validate the interoperability of a variety of implementations using different test scenarios based on 3GPP Mission Critical Services in Release-15. Testing sessions 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 remote event is enabled by the MCX remote lab which facilitates the interconnection of remote sites to ETSI and supports remote participation to the Plugtests event.

Highlights of the testing sessions include initial railway-oriented capabilities in 3GPP Release-15, a new step towards Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS), standardized by ETSI. New test cases for MCPTT, MCDATA, MCVIDEO, FRMCS are also an addition to this interoperability test event.

The technical specification ETSI TS 103 564 will be updated accordingly with the tests feedback studying more than 200 interoperability test scenarios for 3GPP Mission Critical Services, including railway-oriented features.

In parallel, an online Observer programme is organized for the various stakeholders within the critical communication community to discuss the progress and challenges of Broadband and Mission Critical services deployment.