Public Safety, from Narrowband to Broadband

Dilemmas and Challenges

Directorate for Emergency Communication

Director Tor Helge Lyngstøl

When every second counts 14th November 2013

Presentation background

• Norway’s public safety TETRA radio network, Nødnett, will have nation wide coverage in 2015, approx. 2100 base stations. Network based on Motorola Dimetra version 8.

• Nødnett major investment. Government finance radio network, terminals and more than 300 control rooms.

• Minister of Justice 5. Sept. 2013: “Nødnett one of the most important initiatives for emergency preparedness in Norway ever”

• New Government 7. Oct. 2013: “Nødnett essential for Norway’s emergency preparedness”

• Nødnett heavily criticised for lack of data capacity

Present requirements to Public Safety Radio Networks

Requirements to present

Public Safety Radio Systems

• Public control – dedicated networks

– But Go-Go, Co-Co and Go-Co

• Coverage everywhere

– outdoor, indoor, tunnels (Norway p.t. 290), Air-Ground-Air

• Specific functions

– Fast group communication, one-to-one, data

• Resilient Design

– Power – transmission – fall-back BS - DMO

• Service Availability always

Mission critical vs. non mission critical

ECC Report 102:

Mission critical situations

Where human life, rescue operations and law enforcement are at stake and public safety organizations cannot afford the risk of having transmission failures in their voice and data communications …..

Non mission critical situations

Where communication needs are non critical: human life and properties are not at stake, administrative tasks for which the time and security elements are not critical.

ECC: Electronic Communications Committee within the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT)

Public safety use scenarios

Day-to-day operations Functionality and coverage

Large emergency/public events Capacity, training, working routines

Disasters Requires huge investments in resilience

Nødnett Resilient Transmission layout Switch

Switch

Switch

Ca. 300 rings and 600 access points to

transmission network

Uses existing infrastructure

Power back-up: • 85 % on 8 hours

with lead batteries • 15 % on 48 hours,

mostly with diesel generators

Base stations connected in ring

structures

Power back-up in Europe

Country Minimum back-up Back-up on prioritized base stations

Norway

(ca. 2100 BS)

8 hours at 85 % of the base stations 48 hours at 15 % of the base stations

Sweden – upgraded in 2012

(ca. 1800 BS)

24 hours at 52 % of the base stations 7 days at 48 % of the BS

Denmark

(not a lot of power outages due to

weather conditions – a large part of

the power network is in the ground

+ few forest areas)

(ca. 500 BS)

4 hours at 72 % of the base stations «Infinite» at 28 % of the base stations.

These cover almost all of the country.

Finland

(ca. 1.350 BS)

6 hours at all the base stations 200 base stations connected to

generators

Germany

(ca. 4.400 BS)

2 hours Prioritized parts of the network have

more back-up

UK

(ca. 3.500 BS)

6 hours at 60 % of the base stations 5-7 days at 40 % of the base stations

Nødnett and data

Data traffic in Nødnett

• It is commonly expressed that bit rates far greater than what TETRA can offer is strongly desired

• BUT: Nødnett is rolled out now, with components that are available now (IP core network)

• Therefore, Nødnett is planned with TEDS which provides the highest bit rates available in TETRA networks

• The majority of smart data applications of interest to emergency agencies will perform well over TEDS

• Applications developed for TEDS can continue to be used as higher bit rates become available – they will just perform better

TETRA data services comparison

Single-slot packet data Multi-slot packet data TEDS

Downloading a 10 kB file...

TEDS ≈

1 second

MSPD ≈

7 seconds

SSPD ≈

28 seconds

Expectations and technical requirements to future mission-

critical voice and data

Functionality expectations to future PSRN

– Group Calls, Private Calls and SDS

• Short set up time

• Good voice quality with noise reduction

• Security requirements to Authentication and Wiretapping

– Functionality built on high speed data capacity and availability also during disasters and large events 1)

• Medium and low speed dedicated data application for the agencies

• Video transmission up- and down-link

• Wide range of high capacity specially designed applications

1) Ref. application matrix from LEWP / CEPT / ETSI

Building blocks

Applications

User equipment (Hardware and Software)

System infrastructure

PSRN

Voice

Positioning

Messaging

TETRA - TEDS

Pictures

Frequencies 350 MHz 2500 MHz

Commercial operators

GSM - GPRS - UMTS - LTE

Video

Applications

CDMA

Common infrastructure (masts, electricity, transmission lines)

PPDR BB “User requirements”

Mobile Broadband user requirements for public safety and civil protection • Several projects inside European countries • Assembled by Law Enforcement Working Party in the “User

Requirement Matrix” • Developed further by TCCA, ETSI and CEPT

PPDR BB frequency requirements

Spectrum requirements to support Mobile Broadband for public safety and civil protection – “700 MHz at the moment the most promising spectrum” • Harmonised spectrum World Wide

• CEPT and ETSI have calculated PPDR need for data to 2*10MHZ • Harmonisation in Europe and World Wide is a target to;

• Facilitate economy of scale in equipment production and • Enable cross border communication • USA, Canada, Australia and Asia have dedicated spectrum in the

700MHz band for PPDR already • For later Voice introduction in LTE existing 400MHz band is a candidate

Are dedicated networks or use of Commercial LTE networks the future

for PPDR?

European Public Safety Radio Networks

Country Area (km2) Population (mill.)

Density ( pr. km2)

No. of TETRA base stations

Inhab./base station

Holland 41.000 16,8 404 510 33.000

Denmark 43.000 5,5 128 500 11.000

Belgium 31.000 10,4 335 580 18.000

Norway 324.000 5 15,6 2.100 2.400

Finland 338.000 5,4 16 1.350 4.000

Sweden 449.000 9 20 1.800 5.000

France* 549.000 65 118 1.900 34.200

UK 244.000 61 250 3.500 17.400

Germany 357.000 82 230 4.400 18.600

* France uses TETRAPOL with 1.400 BS in 400 MHz and 500 BS in 80 MHz

Oldest networks

Functionality in present networks specified 1998-2005

Dedicated LTE PPDR networks realistic?

• Everything depends on access to spectrum

• In countries with older radio networks, high density of population and relatively low area the investment may be acceptable

• In larger countries with low density of population investment in dedicated networks with national coverage will be very costly

• Hybrid dedicated/commercial networks probably financially most realistic in most countries in a short perspective

Benefits with Commercial networks

• Public safety use of commercial networks expected to give both access to the necessary functionality and fantastic economy of scale – much lower cost is expected

• For society service availability for public safety is crucial. Incidents have to be handled even in situations where mobile networks are overloaded and during extreme weather conditions

• Society’s expectations to public safety services go far beyond normal mobile user’s requirements to communication services

Challenges for resilience

• PSRN is to a large extent based on existing telecom infrastructure

• The root cause of mobile / radio network outages is nearly always power outages or transmission failures

• Resilience is key issue in dedicated public safety radio networks. Most commercial networks have very limited resilience

From Dedicated to Commercial networks

• PPDR-functionality must be included in the LTE standard

– Thereafter this functionality has to be included in the manufacturers’ systems and offered to the market

– Additionally the functionality must be implemented in the Commercial networks

• Why should commercial operators include PPDR functionality in their networks when only 0,5 % of their customers want it?

• What is the incentive for commercial operators for installing more resilience when only 0,5 % of the end users demand it?

Regulatory challenges

– Spectrum is limited – regulators will question whether it is right to dedicate spectrum to public safety networks when demand for commercial services is high and traffic is normally low in public safety networks

– What conditions could be applied to commercial parties that get spectrum permits in certain bands?

• Requirements to PPDR functionality to be implemented?

• “Free ride”/priority for Public Safety?

• National/international roaming for public safety?

Summing up

Facts

• Present PPDR Radio Systems are dedicated networks

• Public expectation that these networks have built in resilience

• Present networks lack high speed data functionality

• Likely that LTE will be the future mobile technology also for PPDR

• PPDR requirements can technically most probably be satisfied in either dedicated or public LTE networks

• Commercial networks not prepared for mission critical use (“Network is not an emergency network”)?

Conclusion

• Important for society that PPDR always have access to reliable communication

• Governments’ options:

– Pay operators for required PPDR functionality and resilience

– Use of regulatory instruments and dedicate spectrum to PPDR use

• Reliable radio communication for public safety is a political issue that must be addressed as an integrated part of how the mobile market should be regulated in the future

• Naive to expect that commercial operators will deliver a sufficiently resilient service without being paid significant amounts

DNK website: www.dinkom.no

Questions?