TCCE WG1 Terms of Reference

Primary Objective

Working Group 1 is responsible for producing the User Requirement Specification (URS) for TETRA and Critical Communications Evolution. This is a mixture of extensions to TETRA functionality and requirements for operation of critical communications over a broadband link such as LTE technology. The deliverable shall be a set of Technical Reports (TRs) which will be used by all the other TC Working Groups as a basis for their work on drafting standards. The main role of WG1 is seen as being "the voice of the TETRA and Critical Communications Market", with the objective to collate what are often conflicting requirements from different user entities, such as Public Safety users, commercial users, network operators, etc., into one or more coherent and generic URSs.

Membership

The membership of WG1 consists mainly of the representatives from the user community, i.e. Network Operators/ Service providers and the end-user organisations, the manufacturers, the Regulators etc. WG1 shall seek the potential new users of TETRA and Critical Communications Evolution technology and, wherever possible, encourage them to join WG1.

Methodology

The methodology adopted by WG1 in producing the Requirement will be broadly based on the following:

• Identifying the user groups making up the target market, in co-operation with the members of TC TCCE and TCCA especially TCCA CCBG 
• Defining the services and facilities required to be delivered by either TETRA technology or new technologies such as LTE. Wherever possible some indication of their distribution across the various user entities would be provided. The use of services and facilities would be supported by examples of typical applications, aiming to identify the benefits of these services to the users 
• Prioritising the set of user requirements according to their business attractiveness Liaising closely with the Working Group, in order to ensure that considerations such as feasibility and cost are balanced against the Requirement Producing and Maintaining documentation in a form of User Guide / Designer Guides, which would help users with the understanding of how their requirements can be met 
• Monitoring the Regulatory environment relating to TETRA and its evolution

Once the User Requirements Specifications have been approved, Working Groups are expected to continue with consulting WG1 for further clarifications of the user requirements and their relative priorities. WG1 is expected to decide on priorities of user requirements and, in case there are several possible technical solutions, analyse and prioritize user benefits of each as inputs to the selection process.

Technical WGs add criteria to those provided by WG1 in areas other than user requirements, and translate criteria provided into detailed criteria. Technology selection is the responsibility of the Technical Working Groups.

In addition, WG1 is expected to continuously monitor the market in terms of new technologies and the services and facilities they offer to the users, and to assess their potential impact on TETRA Release 2 and Mission Critical Broadband Communications, with the view of taking the necessary steps to keep the standards up-to-date.