On 1-5 July 2024, ETSI’s Centre for Testing and Interoperability, with the support of the European Commission, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the Critical Communications Association (TCCA) and the International Union of Railways (UIC), is hosting the fourth Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) Plugtests™ event, at the ETSI premises in Sophia Antipolis, France.

The fourth edition of the Plugtests™ event will conduct in-person lab tests at ETSI, focusing on verifying the interoperability of a variety of implementations, using different test scenarios based on the 3GPP Mission Critical Services framework. It will also test the railway-oriented capabilities defined in 3GPP.

The concept of Mission Critical Services such as “Mission Critical Push To Talk” (MCPTT), “Mission Critical Data” (MCData) and “Mission Critical Video” (MCVideo) started with the 3GPP Release-13, and continues to be present in current releases. FRMCS is based on these Mission Critical Features.

The FRMCS Plugtests™ event aims to confirm the interoperability of various implementations using different test scenarios based on the 3GPP Mission Critical Services framework with a focus on rail [1] specific features. It will also test the railway-oriented capabilities defined in 3GPP.

Additionally, the FRMCS Plugtests™ event is part of the MCX Plugtests™ programme. The tests will be based on 3GPP, ETSI and IETF standards, and are designed for the following equipment:

• FRMCS capable MCX Application Servers (MCPTT, MCDATA, MCVIDEO)

• FRMCS capable MCX Clients (MCPTT, MCDATA, MCVIDEO)

• UEs and cab radios

• eMBMS components

• IMS/SIP Cores

• RAN equipment (5G)

• Packet cores (5G)

• Consoles and control rooms

• Test equipment

The purpose and scope of the event are to independently and jointly test all FRMCS components. Railway-related test cases are available in the ETSI TS 103 564 standard. Additional railway-oriented test cases will also be developed for these plugtests.

The event is free of charge and is open to both ETSI members and non-members. Registration is open until 31 March 2024 at https://www.etsi.org/events/2316-frmcs-plugtests-4.