The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), Small Business Innovation Research program’s award will fund new research on Land Mobile Radio (LMR) Project 25 and Long Term Evolution (LTE) Mission Critical Push-to-Talk Interface Service.

Murus, a specialized communications security consulting firm, has partnered with Zetron, a global leader in integrated mission-critical communications technology and provider of LMR and LTE command and control solutions, are set to conduct the research.

“LTE and mission critical push-to-talk technology has the promise to bring enormous benefits to first responders, enabling them to react to emergencies more quickly and safely,” said Gary Schluckbier, managing director for Murus Cybersecurity. “But these complex technologies could also potentially inhibit communications, as has been the unfortunate reality in past generations of new communications. Murus is excited to partner with Zetron in supporting S&T’s requirements to develop technology that will enable a standards-based inter-working function to seamlessly and securely connect first responders across disparate technologies and carriers.”

As the need for situational awareness between users of disparate systems and technologies increases, so too will the demand and subsequent development of interoperability solutions, which will enter the market with or without standards in place to guide them. Historically, proprietary solutions emerging in the absence of standards have significantly hindered longer-term progress in building pervasive interoperability across communications platforms.

“Public safety communications is transitioning from narrowband LMR to broadband LTE,” said Randy Richmond, standards and regulatory specialist for Zetron working on the project. “But this transition will take time, so while the need for LMR/LMR interoperability is prevalent today, there will have to be LMR/LTE interoperability in the short term, and cross-carrier LTE/LTE interoperability in the future as the newer technology pervades.”

The in-depth research planned by Murus and Zetron aims to uncover the true state of relevant standards and identify key gaps where new standards are needed. Additionally, the companies plan to further collaborate on technology development for prototypes of proposed solutions in subsequent phases of the project.