Celona Expands the Reach for Motorola WAVE Push to Talk (PTT)

Introduction

Push to Talk (PTT) is a proven communications technology that is often considered to be "mission-critical" in many environments and use-cases including:

• Public safety
• Manufacturing plants
• Warehouses
• Construction sites
• Hotel and hospitality venues
• Restaurants/Retail
• Assisted living centers

One of the most popular PTT subscription-based services comes from Motorola and their WAVE service. While Motorola WAVE has been around for years, the technology continues to evolve -- migrating away from analog and toward digital broadband technologies using standard VoIP protocols. Thus, WAVE hardware and software can now operate on any IP-based wireless infrastructure including Celona's LTE/5G private radio access network (RAN) that operates in the Citizens Broadband Radio Spectrum (CBRS).

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WAVE and Celona compatibility/flexibility

Motorola's WAVE platform offers the ability to communicate over CBRS using their popular TLK line of SIM-capable two-way radios. However, it must also be pointed out that WAVE can be used on a Celona network also using smartphones and tablets running the Motorola WAVE mobile app for iOS and Android. This app effectively turns a phone or tablet into a PTT handset, significantly lowering the CAPEX cost when deploying or expanding a PTT service. Many of the most popular phone manufacturers and models including Apple, Motorola, Samsung, and LG already support cellular connectivity on private spectrum, such as CBRS in the United States, with many more models slated to be compatible soon.

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The importance of reliable and guaranteed wireless transport

The flexibility of device options as part of the Motorola’s WAVE service and low-cost connectivity options using devices that employees already use while at work opens the door for a much wider range of use cases for the service. Business departments and teams will see the low-cost entry point of the WAVE system and will find use-cases that take advantage of a reliable and convenient communications system with PTT devices. This means that an organization must start thinking about how they can ensure their wireless infrastructure is capable of handling:

• An increased number of simultaneous PTT users
• Areas where carrier LTE/5G service is poor or not available
• Locations where Wi-Fi has challenges to offer predictable latency for PTT voice

While PTT technologies such as Motorola WAVE are technically not real-time streaming communications platforms, they operate in wireless environments far more effectively when traffic latency and packet error rates (PER) can be kept to a minimum. This is where Celona’s private LTE/5G network is the perfect match for many enterprise deployment scenarios where predictable performance is required.

Note that business critical PTT communications platforms such as Motorola WAVE are only as good as the wireless network the service travels over. In many cases, relying on a public LTE or 5G carrier is neither cost-effective nor provides the necessary coverage in areas where businesses need connectivity the most. While Wi-Fi infrastructure could be deployed to provide a localized stop-gap solution, they can sometimes be overly challenging to deploy, might be subject to unpredictable wireless interference and lack the ability to enforce service level agreements (SLA) on latency and packet error rate metrics beyond wireless quality of service (QoS).

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Running Motorola WAVE service on a Celona network

Motorola WAVE customers that instead choose to deploy a Celona private LTE/5G solution, on the other hand, will find that they can integrate a private mobile network using far fewer access points compared to Wi-Fi (up to 4x less indoors and up to 10x less outdoors) and can rely on Celona’s patent-pending MicroSlicing™ technology to enforce wireless QoS with SLA.

With Celona MicroSlicing™ enabled, RAN administrators can set up SLA-backed network policy for the assignment of specific latency, packet error and throughput rates that can be applied to all Motorola WAVE traffic flows traversing the RAN. The Celona platform then proceeds to dynamically manage traffic flows to strictly enforce QoS levels for the Motorola WAVE across the RAN and within Celona's enterprise-friendly LTE/5G mobile core. The CelonaMicroSlicing™ configuration can be accomplished in minutes and provides peace of mind from a transport-reliability perspective.

‍Here are the configuration steps of both the Motorola WAVE service and the Celona network.

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Operate Motorola WAVE on an interference-free spectrum

For Motorola WAVE deployments to truly be resilient and reach into challenging environments where critical communications are needed the most, Celona’s private mobile network comes to the rescue. Not only is the solution offers QoS for PTT voice with SLA, the fact that the technology is built to operate within the private spectrum frequency range, such as the CBRS spectrum in the 3550-3700 MHz band in the United States, band is also a major benefit from a Motorola WAVE service reliability standpoint given that it promises interference free wireless connectivity.

In areas where Wi-Fi spectrum is overly congested, private spectrum options for LTE/5G wireless such as CBRS will continue to operate interference-free. For critical communications platforms such as Motorola’s WAVE PTT service, the protection against outside spectrum interference should be considered a must.

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