The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently instituted a Mission Critical Voice Test Equipment funding opportunity as a means of testing public safety devices.
The effort, which includes an amount of up to $12 million, was launched through the Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program (PSIAP) and will address equipment manufacturers of all sizes.
The Public Safety Communications Research Division (PSCR) seeks to support research and development around the creation of a simulator system enabling testing of Mission Critical Push-to-Talk (MCPTT) technology. The simulator will be expected to support standardized MCPTT test cases, as well as encourage award recipients to write public safety test cases as part of their final deliverables. Additional research goals may also include the testing of Mission Critical Data and Mission Critical Video.
The NIST maintains the research will assist in establishing the foundations of 5G for Public Safety. IP-based businesses are encouraged to apply and revealed the test equipment market for Public Safety is currently untapped and ripe for research and development.
Award recipients will be well-positioned to become market leaders with an extremely collaborative user group. NIST officials noted that awardees would be able to add the NIST name to their list of collaborators in addition to financial incentives.