Today’s test is part of the Korean government’s official verification process for the first phase of a PS-LTE network project. During the test, 20 departments from eight fields, including medical, police, fire protection, military and government services, used the same PS-LTE network deployed by Samsung and responded in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).

“Through the successful demonstration, we showed our PS-LTE end-to-end innovation and stability by using the actual PS-LTE network, soon to serve public safety in live situations.” said Dong Soo Park, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Sales & Marketing, Networks business at Samsung Electronics. “We’re thrilled to see that Samsung’s technical leadership can contribute to ensuring people’s safety in Korea,” he added.

“Today’s comprehensive verification test indicates a significant milestone where a number of government agencies and business entities were able to rehearsal effective measures to overcome any challenging moment in emergency that are directly connected to people’s safety in the country,” said Mr. JinHong Shim, the Director of Ministry of Public Safety and Security (MPSS). “We could see today our efforts toward perfection by assuring both network performance and SOP and we hope to contribute to nation’s safety through world’s first 3GPP Standard-based PS-LTE project in first four cities by this month and nationwide by the end of next year.”

During the test, various PS-LTE communications were demonstrated, such as instant messaging in emergency situations, voice calling by multiple groups, voice/video Push-To-Talk (PTT) communication and video conferencing between field and command center utilizing the PS-LTE network deployed in the area.

For example, during the virtual simulation, a situation was created to test the response to a fire, explosion or building collapse at an international event. Based on the steps of SOP, a volunteer called 911, and a responsible organization then reported the situation to all relevant groups instantly. The first responders arriving at the site delivered the message regarding the real-time situation through video-calling or HD group-calling, after which every organization would perform their own rescue operations organically based on the steps taken above.

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Samsung was selected as a sole provider of the PS-LTE end-to-end solutions by the Korean government in January 2016. For this event, Samsung provided 700 MHz base stations, a virtualized core solution including key PS-LTE features, such as IMS and PTT, as well as rugged-type smartphones.

Following today’s event, the Korean government’s PS-LTE network will be launched in four cities beginning this month. The government will continue expanding the coverage until it provides a nationwide PS-LTE service.

Samsung will deploy the initial PS-LTE network in Seoul, where the main control center and core equipment are located, and in Gangwon province in early 2016. Coverage of the network will then be expanded in stages, until it provides a nationwide PS-LTE service by 2017.

“It is delightful to see how our 4G technology leadership can help society to function better. The demand for effective public safety communications has increased dramatically, so it’s important that our technology is able to serve that need,” said Youngky Kim, President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “We will accelerate the process to implement cutting-edge standard-based PS-LTE solutions for accurate and timely decision-making in critical situations.” he added.

Samsung is the only vendor delivering end-to-end solutions, from infrastructure to devices. Samsung’s infrastructure offerings include not only base stations but also core equipment such as an IP-Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS), virtualized EPC (vEPC) for flexible operation and Push-To-Talk (PTT) server, which is an essential feature of PS-LTE solutions. In addition, Samsung introduces a rugged-type smartphones for PS-LTE service.

All these offerings support 700MHz, which was recently identified as a PPDR (Public Protection and Disaster Relief) spectrum by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and is expected to be adopted by public safety networks globally.

Each component of Samsung’s PS-LTE solution is based on the 3GPP Release 12 standard, and ready to provide the key features of Release 13 via a simple software upgrade. Functionality such as Mission Critical Push-to-Talk (MCPTT), will be enabled when Release 13 is scheduled to be announced in the first quarter of 2016.

Samsung will also complete a PS-LTE interoperability test, to make sure that emergency calls are always available across the different types of network. It includes an interoperability test with legacy technologies such as TETRA and VHF/UHF which will be co-located with PS-LTE for several years. It also includes other safety networks such as LTE-Railways, LTE-Marine and even commercial LTE networks for roaming purposes.

Samsung’s PS-LTE solutions will be exhibited at the Exhibit Hall 2 Stand 2M10 during Mobile World Congress 2016, February 22-25 in Barcelona, Spain.