Key deployment milestone for UK's Emergency Services Network

The UK Home Office’s transition from the current Airwave TETRA network to the future Emergency Services Network (ESN) has been boosted through the delivery of a key integration milestone: certification of Etherstack’s Interworking Function (IWF) with the existing Airwave network.

Etherstack’s IWF provides the critical interoperability bridge between the Airwave network and the ESN, which will ensure continuity and operational effectiveness during transition activities. This latest milestone thus represents an important step towards enabling the bulk transition of Great Britain’s frontline users onto the ESN.

As explained by Etherstack, the milestone demonstrates that standards-based TETRA-to-MCX interworking can be readily achieved within complex, multi-supplier environments at a national scale. Combined with the company’s recent deployment for AT&T FirstNet in the United States, it shows that open standards adoption can enable structured transition between existing LMR networks and emerging MCX broadband networks across multiple vendors and technologies. This is important for operational continuity, investment protection and lower-risk technology evolution.

“Achieving Airwave certification is a significant milestone in the development of Etherstack’s Interworking Function (IWF) and its role in supporting interoperability between Airwave and the Emergency Services Network (ESN),” the Home Office said. “The certification provides important evidence of the IWF’s interoperability with the Airwave network.”

Etherstack said the certification demonstrates the maturity of its IWF technology to support one of the UK’s most challenging public safety communications transitions over the current and next decade as the ESN progresses towards nationwide deployment, delivering what the Home Office describes as “secure, resilient and mission-critical communications capabilities for frontline users”.

“The Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) will assess the operational readiness of the complete Interworking Gateway (IWG) solution through the wider program of integration, testing and assurance, including end-to-end interoperability with the ESN MCX service; compliance with ESN-specific requirements; and performance, capacity and resilience at the required operational scale,” the Home Office concluded.

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