Calgary Police Service puts
Canada’s first Public Safety
LTE Network to the test
Superintendent Guy Slater
Overview
1. Calgary Police Service (CPS) introduction
2. CPS current mobile communications
3. Public Safety Broadband Network (PSBN)
4. PSBN proof of concept
5. What we learned
6. What’s next
CPS Technology Vision
Leverage technology to create operational
efficiencies allowing our members to focus more
effectively on community concerns and crime
issues.
CPS Overview
• CPS has roughly 2,200 sworn officers and 500 civilian staff
• Operations in 8 districts via roughly 450 vehicles as well as foot patrol,
motorcycles, mountain bikes, horses and aircraft
• District offices and large facilities linked back to Westwinds HQ via City
fiber
• Smaller satellite locations are connected via mixed leased facilities
– DSL
– Cable Modem
– Wireless Modem
• Motorola Astro 25 LMR system
– 8 tower sites
– 6,500 subscribers
– Serves most Calgary PS users
• Mobile Broadband− 2,500 Blackberrys
− Small mix of IOS and Droids
− ~450 in-car cellular devices
− Also tablets, aircard enabled laptops
CPS – Mobile Communications
• CPS today uses Carrier (Telus) based LTE for:
– Mobile, non LMR voice communications
– Mobile data from cars for CAD/RMS and enterprise data
– Mobile data from tablets and laptops for access to enterprise data
– Video backhaul from security and surveillance cameras
– Remote office connectivity
• CPS operates close to 4,000 total mobile devices, some of
which can now be considered mission critical
• The City of Calgary corporation in total operates close to
15,000 mobile devices
• Have negotiated with Telus to reduce costs where possible,
but remains a large OPEX budget
• No method of prioritization for Public Safety (PS)
CPS – Mobile Communications
• Large scale events have resulted in unfavourable impacts
to carrier communications networks
– Calgary Stampede and Parade
– 2014 Enmax Vault Fire
– 2013 Flood
• Trend towards mobile
– More capabilities delivered to officers while mobile
– Increasingly critical to have wide area communications for command
and control
– Reduces reliance on office infrastructure
– Increases reliance on Telecom/Network services
– Availability is crucial
• The need for a secure, high availability platform
increasingly becomes more important
Public Safety Broadband
• CPS has been very engaged in the discussion of PS
Broadband including:
– Engaging with the National 700 Broadband initiative to ensure that
PS-LTE would be available as an option to address mobile needs into
the future
– Participating through CITIG and CACP to further PS-LTE discussions
– Extensive conversations with Innovation, Science and Economic
Development Canada (Industry Canada) officials to allow for the
licensing to be made available for the purposes of a technology trial
– Engagement with The City of Calgary to discuss options for large
scale, mobile broadband requirements moving forward
• CPS and City IT Exec generally agree that PS-LTE needs to
be considered as a municipal-wide solution
Public Safety Broadband
• Expected benefits of PS-LTE:
– Greater reliability = Safer community
– Self reliant: No shared spectrum or infrastructure w/commercial users!
– Planned system downtime: No UNPLANNED upgrade outages
– Controlled site environments: Ability to harden sites for disaster
scenarios to PS standards as well as high security needs
– Increased technical capabilities & performance
• System control: Ability to pre-empt users and prioritize users
• Peak performance: Throughput/Latency improvements w/out commercial
users
• Coverage: Coverage where City needs it, not where carriers want it
• Extension of City LAN: Increased security and local application
performance
Proof of Concept Genesis
• Motorola approached CPS regarding a limited-term Public
Safety Broadband network trial in 2014 in an effort to allow
client-based operational capability testing
• After much discussion, an agreement was signed in March
2014 for a partnership with Motorola for a 1-year Proof of
Concept Public Safety LTE system
– Spectrum issued as developmental licence
– 700 MHz Band class 14, 10+10 MHz
• Design and construction of the network began in April 2014
• Sites were operational by May 2015
• CPS is the first police service in Canada to actively test a
Public Safety Broadband Network (PSBN)
Purpose of Calgary PSBN Proof of Concept
• For CPS to evaluate a private and secure PSBN in the City of
Calgary on the 700MHz public safety spectrum which can be
used as a national showcase for public safety applications.
• For CPS to evaluate the complexity and resources required to
design, commission and operate a PSBN and allow us to
determine what a future operational model may look like.
• Additionally, the test will be used to determine if PSBN provides
any benefits or capabilities not currently available on the
commercial LTE services in use today.
• The PSBN network will enable powerful and innovative solutions
for first responders. With the network, the CPS can validate the
operations by giving users real-time access to information that
will provide enhanced situational awareness.
PSBN Proof of Concept Evaluation Criteria
1. Costs between commercial cellular provider costs vs.
private LTE network
2. PSBN technical metrics such as data upload and
download speeds, benchmark and under load,
geographical loading and coverage, network capacity, and
determination of bottlenecks
3. Installation challenges into vehicles, such as power drain,
space and configuration, and equipment integration
4. Impact of use for users/workforce – is PSBN transparent
and does it add any capabilities?
5. Ability to integrate existing CPS applications into PSBN
PSBN Proof of Concept Evaluation Criteria
• Features still to be evaluated:
1. Mobile RAN/Core systems (deployables)
2. Compare to LA-RICS and Harris County (USA) results
3. Dynamic priority and bandwidth management
4. Roaming to other systems – commercial and PSBN
5. Testing compatibility with other subscriber equipment
System Overview
• Motorola supplies and
operates:
– LTE Evolved Packet
Core (EPC)
– 7 eNodeB RAN site
– 100 subscriber
devices
– Installations,
commissioning,
management and all
required equipment
• CPS provides facilities
to support the radio
sites and core
(including physical
space, power and
backhaul)
EPC (Core) in Calgary
Motorola Solutions
Managed Services
Canada core
Capacity for all
Category 1, 2, 3 Users
in Canada
First of two planned
cores, providing
Canada Geographic
redundancy
eNodeB Ericsson RBS6201
2x2 MIMO
Macro eNodeB
RF Components
3 sector, high gain
Site Selection
Use of The City’s established infrastructure (police stations, fire
halls, fiber etc.) means that a great deal of the opex cost of the
infrastructure is covered by Calgary with little incremental cost.
Motorola LTE Sites
Dark Green – upload coverage from subscriber device
Light Green – download coverage from subscriber device
VML750 – Vehicular Modem
Specifications
• B14/B13/BC4 LTE
• B0/1 CDMA support
• Local WiFi Access Point
and router
• Client capabilities for real-
time file uploads
• Trunk mounted operation
• MIL SPEC rugged
• Improved reach with vehicle
mounted antennas
• Internal GPS support
Car Installs
Devices have been installed
in patrol cars, vans, sport
utility vehicles (SUVs) and
pickup trucks, as well as
mobile command vehicles
and helicopters.
Applications
Now• Video
• Surveillance
• In-car streaming
• CAD/Records/email
• Crime scene
• Group messaging &
mapping
• Broadband PTT (Non-Mission
Critical)
Future• Integration with LMR
• RTOC
• Body camera
• Replace commercial carrier
• Mission Critical PTT
Virtual Policing
• Virtual beat cop – remote monitoring of high
crime areas
• Surveillance systems supporting covert
operations
• Intersection cameras
Plans for Integration of Data Capture Devices
• Situational awareness supporting officer
safety
– In-Vehicle Cameras
– Robotics
– Drones
– Body Worn Cameras
Eventual System Users
• CPS has been successfully sharing the LMR system with other Calgary
agencies for years, with a strong governance system in place
– Fire, Airport, Bylaw, ENMAX (city-owned utility)
– Now in process of adding Transit and Public Works
• With appropriate city governance and implementation of dynamic quality
of service, priority/preemption, CPS supports other non-consumer users
on the PSBN system
– Fire
– EMS
– Transit
– Electrical Utility (ENMAX – remote metering and control systems)
• The addition of these agencies
– Increases the subscriber quantity to an economically viable level
– Provide valuable network resources by providing physical sites and
backhaul for RAN
– CPS does not support consumers use on this network
Learnings So Far
• CPS has gathered some learnings to this point of the proof
of concept:
– The equipment (both EPC and RAN) requires a level of power
infrastructure that was more than we were ready for and quite a bit
of augmentation was required.
– Network backhaul via fiber greatly reduced the complexity of having
to deal with carriers and provides essentially unlimited bandwidth to
the RANs.
– In Calgary, a much more laborious permitting process is required if
antenna structures will be more than 15 metres higher than the
roofline of the building they are mounted on. Therefore, the site
design was made to allow for mounting heights accordingly.
– Permitting, even to CPS as an internal City department, took
far longer than we expected.
Learnings So Far
• Managing the site commissioning was very resource intensive, even
though Motorola performed most of the work. CPS resources had to
coordinate access and provide escort into secure areas, as well
delivery and storage of all equipment required.
• CPS resources were drawn from Telecoms, Network Services, Fleet,
Facilities, Finance and Police Operations to complete the work.
Although detailed records of the number of hours were not kept, it
wasn’t insignificant.
• Installation of the modems into the cars required multiple antenna
mounts and took up more real estate within the car – always a
challenge. In the utopian future state, replacing LMR and cell carrier
equipment with only PS-LTE would be of great benefit.
• Due to the non-operational nature of this network, getting full
cooperation from operational units proved challenging until a
dedicated sworn member was brought onto the project team.
Next Steps
• Extension of existing proof of concept
• Evaluation of proof of concept
• Coverage expansion
• CPS will be working towards an RFP to procure a
city-wide PSBN
• Leveraging core to other agencies nationwide
Summary
• Trusted partnership with Motorola
• CPS starting to form closer relationships with aligned PS Agencies
across the country to advance PSBN discussions both locally and
nationally
• CPS is comfortable with the technology and capabilities PSBN adds to
law enforcement – it’s capable of providing very high quality, high
volume data connectivity that is adaptable to the needs of PS
• Implementation of the PSBN networks is much more than just a
technical challenge – it involves significant logistical and procedural
hurdles as well
• The business case to proceed with full scale implementation is a
challenge that needs full cooperation of agency partners to successfully
gain approval to proceed
• Management of the PSBN systems needs to be closely examined
in order to find the right fit for agencies
Thank You