Terms of Reference for Technical Committee (TC) Critical Communications Systems (CCS)

 Approved/Revised at Board#157, 28 March 2026  

Scope

The main objectives of TC CCS are to be responsible for:

• The preparation, provision, maintenance and continuous development of standards for secure critical mobile communication services over both broadband and narrowband systems. 
• Collecting and specifying requirements from relevant stakeholders:
  • Governments including policy makers and regulators,
  • Emergency Services,
  • Mobile Network operators,
  • Military,
  • Transportation,
  • Utility and Industrial organisations.
  • Satellite and airborne vehicles
• Ensuring that work programmes within ETSI TC CCS are co-ordinated with other European and International Standards making bodies to avoid duplication of work. 
• The preparation of specifications and reports in support of the European Critical Communications System (EUCCS).
• The maintenance and the continuing development of the TETRA standard. 

Areas of activity

The activities of TC CCS include the following broad areas:

Broadband mobile critical communications

• Identification of requirements for mission and business critical broadband services.
• Development of ETSI deliverables, standards and reports, that in some cases may be adopted and transposed from 3GPP Mission Critical Communication specifications and other specifications where relevant, to support the establishment of the EUCCS and other MC Broadband requirements.
• Identification of standardisation gaps in 3GPP and other specifications (which are a technical baseline where relevant).
• Development and maintenance of test specifications for EUCCS requirements.
• Development of specifications for conformance, interoperability, performance and testing of MCX systems.
• Support for the MCX Plugtests programme.

• Formalisation and elaboration of the EUCCS architecture.
• Development of ETSI standards that ensure minimum feature sets that shall be present in national mission critical broadband systems (MCBB) to ensure operational mobility and seamless roaming between national MCBB networks.
• Development of profiles from relevant 3GPP TSs selecting features, functions, procedures and/or parameters in signalling messages that are mandatory for EUCCS (roaming/interconnection).

• Support for the GCF MCSWS (Mission Critical Services Working Stream) when appropriate

Narrowband mobile critical communications

• The identification of requirements for the further development of the TETRA standard.
• The evolution and enhancement of TETRA critical communications services as required by the market with the provision of new services, facilities and functionality made possible by new technology innovations and standards.
• The development of Interworking functions between critical communications broadband systems and narrowband TETRA systems.
• The provision and development of proportionate security measures for TETRA critical communications services and their gateways into MCX systems.
• The maintenance of the TETRA standard.

Organisation

TC CCS is organised and will operate as follows:

• TC CCS shall work in accordance with the ETSI Directives and, in particular, the Technical Working Procedures.

• TC CCS shall provide progress reports to the ETSI Board and OCG from time to time.
• TC CCS shall comprise a number of Working Groups (WGs) structured in such a way to undertake the activities aforesaid in a way to address the different user requirements and technical aspects of the required standardization. These working groups shall be organised into separate critical communications narrowband and critical communications broadband subject areas except where there are common requirements (e.g. Interworking between Narrowband and Broadband systems).
• TC CCS plenary meetings shall take place at least twice a year at which TC CCS members shall be invited to attend.
• The work of ETSI TC CCS shall depend upon effective co-operation and liaison with other TBs. Some typical examples of co-operation and liaison are; 3GPP for broadband standardisation, RT for rail transport broadband standardization matters, ERM for spectrum and EMC matters, EMTEL for emergency communications, RRS for recommended CR/SDR spectrum management solutions, CYBER for security matters, SAGE and TSA for security algorithms.
• As well as liaison with standards bodies, TC CCS relies heavily on and shall co-operate and liaise closely with TCCA, GSMA, GCF particularly in regard to the development of requirements, use cases and architecture for mission critical communications standardisation. TC CCS will cooperate and liaise closely with the DG HOME Mission Critical Experts group (MCCG) and EUCCS preparation programme and PSC-Europe in regard of the EUCCS realisation.

Participation

Participation in TC CCS is open to all ETSI members in accordance with the Technical Working Procedures. Observers and non-members may participate at the discretion of the Chairman in line with clause 1.4 of the Technical Working Procedures.

Annex A (informative): Collaboration with other bodies

ETSI groups

• TC EMTEL
• TC CYBER
• TC RRS
• SC TSA
• TSC SAGE
• TC ERM
• TC RT
• TC MSG
• TC SES
• 3GPP
• TCCA
• PSC-Europe
• DG HOME MCCG
• GSMA
• GCF
• UIC

External groups

• 3GPP
• TCCA
• PSC-Europe
• DG HOME MCCG
• GSMA
• GCF
• UIC