The 4G Transformation is Coming… Is Your Public Safety Organization Ready?
As 4G public safety systems move closer to reality, public safety organizations can start preparing themselves by considering five important questions before they begin deploying their next-generation networks.
We’re about to see a transformation in public safety communications. Next-generation 4G wireless broadband systems will enable access to media-rich information from anywhere at anytime, thus delivering enhanced situational awareness, better collaboration and increased productivity to first responders.
In the United States, public safety organizations have been waiting many years for these next-generation 4G systems to become reality. Almost two years have passed since the ill-fated auction of the 700 MHz D block spectrum that the Federal Communications Commission held in March 2008, which the industry had hoped would result in the buildout of a shared nationwide public/private 4G system.
Although the fate of the D block spectrum remains unknown, the industry continues to move forward in anticipation that additional spectrum will soon be available for public safety, and industry players have made some important progress toward making 4G for public safety a reality.
First, many U.S. public safety industry advocates – from the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International to the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) – have aligned behind a single 4G standard, Long Term Evolution (LTE). Second, the public safety industry has reiterated support for the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST) to serve as the managing agency for public safety spectrum.
Third, several municipalities have filed waivers for access to 700 MHz broadband spectrum. And last but not least, research and development on LTE technology continues. Some public network carriers have already begun commercial trials, and long-term LTE commercial contracts are already being awarded.
Meanwhile, in areas of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) as well as in some regions of Latin America and Asia – where in most cases no spectrum has yet been dedicated to public safety – first responder organizations are eyeing WiMAX technology for 4G.
Five Questions to Consider Before Implementing 4G
Today, with key decisions on technology standards already being made, it appears as if momentum for 4G public safety systems is finally building around the globe. But before these systems become reality, public safety organizations need to begin asking some important questions to ensure future 4G networks meet their specific needs. These questions include:
1) Who are the end users of the network?
First responders such as police and fire are obviously those most in need of the new services that will be enabled by 4G systems. Anywhere, anytime access to information will arm them with better information in real-time so that they can make better decisions.
But other potential users of 4G networks exist as well, and sharing network resources with government administration, public works, and other government departments could greatly improve productivity and offset some of the costs of future 4G networks.
Another way to potentially offset the costs of future 4G networks is by taking advantage of the additional bandwidth they provide to deploy more “unmanned” devices – such as parking meters, traffic sensors or video surveillance systems. These “electronic eyes” can serve as force multipliers and free up invaluable first responder human resources.
2) How will my public safety organization use the 4G network?
From sharing video transmissions with the command center to accessing mug shots of potential suspects and supporting license plate recognition systems, the possible applications for 4G are almost endless.
But it is important to remember that different applications put different demands on the network. Some applications are very bandwidth intensive, while others require real-time or short delays. For instance, email attachments and content-rich database queries tend to place high bandwidth demands on the network while other applications, such as location or voice, require very low delay. Real-time video, requiring both high bandwidth and short delay, is perhaps the most demanding application on a network.
That means that municipalities that want to give their first responders access to real-time video as they are headed toward a crime scene will need to build much more robust 4G networks than those that want to support applications that are less taxing on the network, such as license plate recognition systems. Understanding what applications will be used and how they will be used is critical to designing a system that can effectively support the required traffic demands.
“The number of base stations and sites you need in an LTE network depends heavily on what kind of data speeds and coverage is required. It is possible for an organization to start out with a network that serves its basic data needs and grow it from there,” says Dan Naylor, product management of broadband solutions for Enterprise Mobility Solutions (EMS) at Motorola. “The better public safety organizations understand their own priorities and where they can get the greatest payback, the better off they are because they can build the network that best meets their needs.”
3) Which 4G devices are right for my organization?
The good news is that leveraging an international standard such as LTE will likely result in the availability of multiple types of devices, including: fixed modems, rugged handhelds, data adaptors and rugged vehicular modems.
The bad news is that device choice can also significantly affect network design. A low-powered portable device used primarily at pedestrian speeds has very different characteristics and network requirements than a high-powered vehicular modem traveling at 120 mph.
Public safety organizations should examine characteristic such as throughput and power requirements in any 4G devices they select. And as public safety organizations make choices about which 4G devices they want to carry, it is critical to remember one other thing as well: They need to make sure they select 4G devices that are extremely easy to use.
“No matter how complex the device becomes, the operation of that device still needs to be second nature for the user,” says Chris Lonnett, director of market solutions for Enterprise Mobility at Motorola.
4) What level of service does my organization need to support?
The applications and devices that first responders use can also impact the minimum acceptable service level that the 4G network must support. A low-powered portable device may have difficulty with bandwidth-intense applications at the edge of network while a high-powered fixed device may not experience the same difficulty.
First responders might also have difficulty operating some devices indoors – unless the network is designed with a more aggressive site density to support in-building needs, which of course ultimately increases the cost of the network.
In addition, different levels of service may be needed for the various users, applications or incidents. For example, a building inspector accessing building permits may not need the same level of priority access as a firefighter downloading a building floor plan. Likewise an officer responding to a burglary alarm may need higher priority than another officer filing a report.
5) How will the 4G network co-exist with other networks?
Most public safety agencies have already invested in P25 or another narrowband mission critical communication system and want to get the most out of that investment. The good news is that deploying a 4G network does not require the removal of existing wireless voice or data networks.
In fact, existing networks will be maintained to support existing mission-critical voice, while the new 4G networks can be deployed to support new mobile broadband services. Even when 4G systems are widely deployed, narrowband systems will still play a key role in first responder communications – in large part because voice over IP technology today is just not mature enough to support mission-critical voice applications.
“Existing P25 narrowband voice networks have literally thousands of features that have been built into talk groups for voice, from subsecond response times to direct radio-to-radio communications,” says Mike Larson, senior business development manager of Integrated Data Solutions at Motorola. “So all of that feature functionality has to be mapped and replicated into this new 4G platform, which takes time.” See article Built to Withstand the Heat.
Broadband networks can also overlay and interoperate with narrowband data networks and WiFi mesh networks to balance coverage and capacity for data applications. Alternatively, public safety agencies may wish to partition their 4G network by keeping mission-critical users separated from government administration users.
The advent of interoperable 4G networks nationwide will make it possible for law enforcement officials to use advancements in video and other technologies to do their jobs better than ever before. Public safety organizations that take the time to ask themselves the right questions today will be the best positioned to take advantage of the crime-fighting 4G communications tools that will be available in the future.
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