The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) develops and refines standards for critical communications over cellular networks, as part of a larger set of cellular communications standards set by the 3GPP, who also developed standards for 3G, 4G LTE and 5G cellular technologies.  

These standards define the operation over cellular networks of high-priority push-to-talk (MC-PTT), video (MC-Video) and data communications (MC-Data), together known as Mission Critical Services, or MCX.  For well over a decade, Motorola Solutions has been an active participant in the creation of these standards, and we continue to develop our WAVE PTX and Kodiak solutions to support them.

In February 2025, Motorola Solutions participated in the 9th 3GPP MCX Plugtests, hosted by Texas A&M University. Plugtests are organized by ETSI and supported by the Critical Communications Association (TCCA), based in the UK. They are important to ensuring that vendors create MCX products that are interoperable and standards-based.

Motorola Solutions has been participating in these plug tests since 2017.  Our successful demonstrations highlight our commitment to promoting 3GPP standards-based internetworking. This year was no exception.  We introduced a number of new features to our MCX product line:

MCX-to-MCX interoperation

• We successfully demonstrated MC-PTT Group Calls between our system and third-party MCX systems.
• We showed that our Group-Regroup function works via patching across multiple MCX systems. This capability lets public safety operators dynamically patch talkgroups between different MCX systems in real time.
  

MCX-to-IWF interoperation

• The MCX-IWF (InterWorking Function) is the 3GPP standard for connecting MCX networks and land-mobile radio (LMR) systems.
• Motorola successfully demonstrated systems that interface with MCX-IWF gateways, by conducting an end-to-end group call between an MCX client and third-party TETRA radio systems, connected via IWF gateways from multiple vendors.  

MC-Video and MC-PTT multicast (eMBMS)

• During emergencies or planned large-scale events, public cellular networks can become congested and slow. Multicast MCX capabilities help ensure that public safety users have priority access to these systems. Because bandwidth is limited, multicast technology maximises bandwidth efficiency, ensuring timely delivery of data with minimal bandwidth consumption.
• For this plugtest, we integrated our MCX systems and clients running on our LEX L11 handhelds, with a Nokia packet core and a broadcast/multicast server from ENENSYS. We then successfully showed that this configuration was fully capable of supporting MC-Video and MC-PTT communications with mission-critical MCX Quality of Service (QoS). In a real emergency, this technology can help ensure that the most critical information arrives on time, even when bandwidth is limited.

MCX Application Server interoperability

• Our latest MCX Server software release has been tested as an MCX Application Server (MCX-AS) and proven interoperable with a wide range of third-party MCX mobile app clients and dispatch systems. The interop test included a comprehensive list of MCX-AS capabilities:
  • MC-PTT, MC-Data and MC-Video features
  • MCX common services: Configuration, Group Management, Identity Management, Key Management, Location Management
  • 4G LTE and 5G network support

Through weeks of official pre-testing and final demonstrations at Plugfest events, Motorola Solutions have demonstrated that our MCX Server release is compatible with the 3GPP MCX ecosystem.

Learn more about our MCX solutions by visiting our Kodiak Broadband PTT page.