Demonstrating New Advanced Technology for Mission Critical Communications
The following is the text of a PRESS RELEASE issued by Catalyst at IWCE 2025 in March.
IWCE 2025, Las Vegas, NV
March 17,2025
Catalyst is accelerating the development and deployment of innovative new technologies and partnerships in support of First Responders and Mission Critical Communications. After celebrating its 25th year providing communications solutions to the critical communications industry in 2022, Catalyst has continued to deliver even more capabilities to the marketplace that enhance public safety communications to keep our communities safe. A Broadband Interoperability Platform, audio quality enhancements, Routing Unit ID Between LMR and LTE Networks and capturing and displaying location of LTE devices are just some of the innovations being demonstrated at IWCE Booth 1037
A Broadband Interoperability Platform
At IWCE, Catalyst will demonstrate progress that it has achieved developing a Broadband Interoperability Platform (BIOP) to connect different Push-to-Talk over Broadband (PTTOB) services (both standards-compliant and proprietary) funded through a contract with the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology (DHS S&T) Directorate. DHS S&T understood that, with the proliferation of different PTTOB services, there is now a need for a solution to enable users on these different LTE-based systems to communicate with each other. Catalyst will demonstrate communications between a smartphone running FirstNet Push-to-Talk and a smartphone running Mission Critical Push-to-Talk (MCPTT) on Southern Linc’s CriticalLinc™ service. The flexibility of Catalyst’s interoperability solutions allows dispatch and land mobile radio (LMR) to also be part of this solution. The equipment that Catalyst will be demonstrating is shown below.
The “any-to-any” capabilities of Catalyst’s architecture provide flexible solutions for communications interoperability that can be tailored to the unique requirements of each public safety organization.
In addition to live demonstrations of these communications capabilities, the progress that Catalyst has made will also be discussed during the IWCE Session “Broadband Interoperability – Closing the Loop of Interoperable Communications.” This panel discussion is on Tuesday March 18 at 2:55PM, and Catalyst president Robin Grier will be joined with presentations by Sridhar Kowdley; Technical Manager, Department of Homeland Security, James Holthaus; Subject Matter Expert, Department of Justice, and Ken Rehbehn; Founder and Principal Analyst, Critical Communications Insights, LLC, who will moderate the session.
Learning as we go: New Innovations from Catalyst derived from our initial LMR-Broadband Deployments
Catalyst now has multiple installations of our groundbreaking IntelliLink™ Interworking solution, enabling users on legacy LMR systems and LTE networks to communicate. As these systems are used in the field, we’re learning – and as a result providing administration tools and technical advancements that make communications simpler and more efficient for first responders and mission critical communications dispatchers. Three of these innovations are on display at the Catalyst booth. They are:
- Interoperability Naming Conventions – the need to Manage Talk Group Administration in Multi – Network Environments
Catalyst has invented a Talk Group Naming Structure designed to simplify the identification of talk groups easily on different systems, distinguishing between talk groups a user’s radio system and talk groups on neighboring systems. At IWCE, Catalyst will promote the use of this naming convention and recommend that users begin using this system now to avoid confusion in the future, as it’s difficult to change talk group names once they are set up and established in the field.
- Improved Audo Quality for Mission Critical Communications
The technology used to change analog audio to a digital format so that it can be sent over IP Based networks is called a codec, and in P25 and other legacy Land Mobile Radio systems, a narrowband codec delivering “radio quality” is used due to the low data rates supported by legacy LMR. With new PTTOB systems, the data rate possibilities are much higher, and so a higher quality, wideband codec can be used to improve audio quality that is closer to “telephone quality”, i.e., what we hear daily on our smartphone conversations.
Especially for communications between users on different Broadband Push to talk systems – (think FirstNet® Built with AT&T and Southern Linc’s CriticalLinc™, for example) using a higher quality wideband can have dramatically improved audio quality between end users. At IWCE, Catalyst will demonstrate these audio quality differences that will be apparent to booth visitors.
3. Advanced Application Technology: Routing Unit ID Between LMR and LTE Networks
Catalyst has developed a unique process for transmitting Unit ID between portable Land Mobile Radio subscriber units and Smartphones on LTE Networks with standards-compliant 3GPP Mission Critical Push-to-Talk applications. This capability, common among digital LMR networks, has previously been unavailable when communicating between MCPTT LMR and LTE networks.
At IWCE, show attendees visiting Catalyst Booth 1037 can witness a demonstration of a user on a MCPTT smartphone receive the unit ID and alias from a user transmitting on a P25 Land Mobile Radio system, AND a user on a P25 Land Mobile Radio system receiving the unit ID and Alias from a user on a MCPTT smartphone transmitting from a broadband network.
Location Awareness from LTE Devices: InterLoc™ support for Smartphones with 3GPP-Compliant MCPTT Applications
Last but certainly not least, Catalyst will demonstrate InterLoc™ (Catalyst’s location function for mission critical radio networks) now acquiring the GPS location of individuals with MCPTT applications on Smartphones connected to these LTE networks. Maps display and differentiate between various LMR and LTE users with distinctive graphics. The InterLoc™ system from Catalyst is unique because it does not require expensive map licensing or cellular data charges for LMR devices, making the system very cost-effective compared to typical AVL solutions. InterLoc™ is seamlessly integrated with Catalyst’s dispatch and interoperability solutions, and dispatchers can initiate text and voice communications to individual users directly from the map. Maps can display subscriber status (for example, ”Emergency”) and dispatchers can center the map on any resource with the click of a mouse. Multiple maps, and multiple types of maps, can be simultaneously displayed, and a robust toolkit provides map customizations that help dispatchers to better manage critical communications resources.
Visit Catalyst at IWCE 2025 at Booth 1037 to see the Propulsion Broadband Dispatch solution and advanced dispatch and interoperability capabilities, including communications between disparate LTE Networks: FirstNet Built with AT&T and Southern Linc’s CriticalLinc™. We’re ready to discuss innovations in multi-network administration, voice quality enhancements, Location Services and our line of Mobility Solutions, including ICE™, our Incident Commander Element / digital repeater solution, Go Kit™, our portable Dispatch Solution, Go Tab™, our tablet Dispatch solution, and other innovations from the leader in Dispatch, Interoperability and Incident Command for the critical communications marketplace.
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