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LMR+LTE
The Evolving Public-Safety Network
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Contents
Foreword: Sandra Wendelken, Editor, MissionCritical Communications .................4 3920B
Industry’s most comprehensive
Standards and History radio test set - the gold standard
NPSTC Releases LMR to LTE Interworking Plan, By Chris Kindelspire ...............8
LMR/LTE Interworking Standards, By Dr. Dennis Martinez and Peter Monnes ....14
The Timeline for Public-Safety LTE Standards, By Emil Olbrich .........................21
Public Safety Grade LTE: Myth or Reality?, By Joe Ross, Scott Edson, et al .....26
FirstNet’s Voice over LTE Transition, By Dr. Walt Magnussen and Yangyong Zhang ....35
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User Perspectives Industry’s first fully featured, portable
Band 14 LTE in Houston Offers FirstNet Lessons, By Jim McMillan ...................44 radio test set - the benchmark
How P25 Coverage Can Benefit FirstNet, By Bob Akins .....................................50
App Security and Privacy Vulnerabilities, By Vincent Sritapan and Karim Eldefrawy ...55
Texas’ NG 9-1-1 Transition Plan, By Dr. Walt Magnussen ...................................60
C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
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4 I LMR + LTE: The Evolving Public-Safety Network
A Dynamic Evolution
By Sandra Wendelken
NPSTC Releases
LMR to LTE Interworking Plan
By Chris Kindelspire
NPSTC has also produced a number of reports on mission-critical voice consoles. The output of the report is a series of high-level recommendations,
and mission-critical PTT (MCPTT) that articulate public-safety requirements. which also include a set of next steps.
The NPSTC reports have been used by both the Third-Generation Partnership Mission-critical voice services are an essential element of the NPSBN.
Project (3GPP) and FirstNet. 3GPP is an international standards organization They include full-duplex voice communications, full-duplex video chat and
that promotes technical requirements for LTE and creates standards for MCPTT. FirstNet, through its partnership with AT&T, is accelerating the
LMR/LTE interoperability. activation of the NPSBN and introducing non-mission-critical PTT service,
with a goal to have MCPTT available by 2020.
Public-Safety Needs An open-standards environment is required so public-safety agencies
At the core of the upcoming report is the need for first responders may access a strong multivendor marketplace. FirstNet has an obligation to
operating on LMR and LTE networks to communicate with each other. ensure that the NPSBN offers a robust set of industry solutions using open
Public-safety personnel need to communicate while responding to an standards to allow public-safety agencies to select a solution that meets their
incident, while on the scene of an incident, and while operating inside unique needs.
buildings and structures that impact network coverage. The requirement for Integration of LMR and LTE network voice services will be required to
two-way PTT communications exists across all daily operations, as well as support interoperability between users of each network. First responders will
during large-scale multiagency incidents. continue to need to communicate with other public-safety agencies that may
The use of interworked LMR and LTE talkgroups would support this be using disparate networks and with personnel from their own agencies
interoperability requirement. These talkgroups could be created in advance who are using both platforms. Interoperability solutions should carry data, as
and provide ongoing interoperability, or they could be created on an ad-hoc well as voice traffic, to allow sharing PTT ID and emergency features. There
basis to connect specific LMR and LTE talkgroups used by first responders are many ways to bridge these networks, and a standards-based solution
during an incident. Large-scale incidents may involve many public-safety will be essential to prevent implementation of proprietary systems that may
agencies and disciplines that would need access to multiple interworked not support interconnection with other systems.
LMR and LTE talkgroups to support operations. Law enforcement, fire and 3GPP standards on direct-mode communications are not keeping pace
EMS agencies may each need several talkgroups to coordinate their efforts. with the speed of deployment of PTT networks. This will likely result in
Telecommunicators in public-safety answering points (PSAP) also need non-standards-based solutions being introduced on the NPSBN.
these interoperability capabilities and must be able to communicate with first Public-safety agencies should understand that some solutions may provide
responders operating on both networks. NPSTC published a comprehensive interim direct-mode communications while standards work is completed.
report on public-safety LTE consoles, which details a number of requirements Encryption is an important component for certain tactical voice
for PSAP LTE equipment. communications, including those with LMR/LTE integrated channels. There
are many technical and policy issues surrounding encryption of LTE voice
Concerns to Address communications including a desire by local public-safety agencies to
The latest NPSTC report identified a number of issues and concerns that manage their own encryption keys. Encryption becomes more complicated
must be addressed as voice and PTT capabilities are being developed. with joint LMR/LTE talkgroups using the feature.
These issues impact all members of the public-safety community and deal A nationwide standard to define PTT ID is needed. FirstNet is providing
not only with technology but also with governance, training, standard a nationwide interoperable communications network that will allow
operating procedures (SOP) and usage. The working group initially first-responder devices to operate virtually anywhere. The identity of the
developed the report by creating a series of use cases. Information from first responder is a critical safety feature, and some form of ID is needed for
the use cases led to the creation of a matrix listing public-safety technical itinerant users who have traveled outside of their home-agency service area.
requirements organized in eight categories: interoperability, direct mode, In addition, a nationwide set of LTE talkgroup names for interoperability
talker identification (ID), emergency, encryption, scan, full duplex and LTE channels is necessary. LMR networks support access to a set of
MissionCritical Communications I www.MCCmag.com I LMR + LTE: The Evolving Public-Safety Network MissionCritical Communications I www.MCCmag.com I LMR + LTE: The Evolving Public-Safety Network
12 I NPSTC Releases LMR to LTE Interworking Plan NPSTC Releases LMR to LTE Interworking Plan I 13
FCC-designated nationwide interoperability channels. These channels yet fully defined in 3GPP standards.
allow a first responder to communicate with local agencies while they are FirstNet has accelerated the deployment timeline for the NPSBN, and
out of their home-agency service area. Nationwide LMR interoperability public-safety agencies will benefit from a variety of new services and
channels have American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standardized functionality. Mission-critical voice capabilities, including full interoperability
names to ensure that first responders from different agencies can locate the between LMR and LTE systems, are still being designed as 3GPP approves
desired channel on their radio. A similar set of nationwide interoperable LTE additional technical standards. The report offers a series of recommendations
talkgroups will be needed to mirror the existing LMR function. Those LTE to address each of the issues and concerns identified by first responders. n
talkgroups must have standardized channel names to create a common
identity in all user devices. Chris Kindelspire is the director of electronic operations for the Grundy
There is uncertainty about how 3GPP standards will be implemented by County (Illinois) Emergency Telephone System Board (ETSB). He is a
manufacturers and network operators. For example, the 3GPP scan/monitor 26-year member of the fire service. Kindelspire is a state of Illinois-
function provides for simultaneous receipt of multiple audio streams to a recognized communications unit leader (COML) and communications
user device. Some industry representatives have said LTE scan will be technician (COMT), chairman of both Region 54 700 and 800 MHz Regional
provided as a sequential monitor function similar to how LMR scan works. Planning Committees, one of two local Association of Public-Safety
First responders, including field supervisors and incident commanders, need Communications Officials (APCO) International frequency advisers for Illinois
to monitor direct-mode communications simultaneously with network-based and a participant on multiple National Public Safety Telecommunications
communications. The 3GPP standards provide for this functionality. Industry Council (NPSTC) working groups. He is also a member of the Illinois state
representatives indicate that the requirement for a dual receiver will interoperability executive committee, serving as chair of the governance
significantly change user equipment (UE) device hardware requirements committee. Email feedback to editor@RRMediaGroup.com.
and may not be commercially viable. Both FirstNet and the public-safety
agencies it serves need to understand the expected technical environment
that will support their operations.
The phrase “mission critical” has not been adequately defined. Many
vendors are using this phrase, which may cause public-safety agencies to
believe that the device or service is suitable for use by first responders in
life-and-death situations. This includes marketing “mission-critical Bluetooth”
connections and “MCPTT” on smartphones and tablets.
A video-chat function with full-duplex voice will be an important capability
for EMS personnel who need to consult with a medical control physician.
Law enforcement and fire personnel will also make use of this function.
Existing video-chat applications likely do not meet the requirements to be
considered “public-safety mission critical.”
LTE consoles will play an important role in the evolution of PTT voice and
later, with implementation of MCPTT services. PSAPs will start using LTE
PTT to support administrative functions. This will require tight integration
with existing LMR console equipment. The implementation of MCPTT will
further require a purpose-built console device supporting a rich feature set.
Integration of LMR and LTE communications is essential, and some aspects
of this function may be managed at the console level. LTE consoles are not
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14 I Section 1: Standards and History
LMR/LTE
Interworking Standards
By Dr. Dennis Martinez
and Peter Monnes
Mission-Critical Standards parallel tracks. One track is developing standards for interworking between
The standards emerging for public-safety communications include 3GPP MCPTT services and LMR systems. The second track is developing
group-based and off-network modes of operation, commonly referred to standards for interworking between 3GPP MCPTT services, which supports
as group communication system enablers (GCSE) and proximity services the important use case for interworking between multiple service providers
(ProSe). GCSE and ProSe are the foundation for the suite of mission-critical that offer 3GPP MCPTT services.
standards, which includes mission-critical push to talk (MCPTT), mission-
critical data (MCData) and mission-critical video (MCVideo). LMR Interworking
In June 2016, a major milestone was achieved when LTE Release 13 LTE Release 15 includes the framework for interworking between 3GPP
included the first iteration of MCPTT. A year later, in June 2017, the first MCPTT services and LMR systems. This release introduces a new
multivendor interoperability testing of MCPTT was performed in a plugtest functional component, referred to as the LMR interworking function (IWF),
sponsored by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) into the reference architecture. The IWF may be manifest by a gateway or
with 19 participating companies. by extensions to an LMR system itself. The scope of the emerging 3GPP
The normal cadence for standards development consists of multiple standard for LMR interworking is the interface between the LMR interworking
releases that continue to add functionality and specificity to prior releases. function and a 3GPP MCPTT service. The 3GPP scope does not include
For example, in mid-2017, Release 14 included further enhancements to interfaces between LMR systems and LMR interworking functions, or their
MCPTT. Release 14, finalized last December, also included MCData and internal structure or functionality.
MCVideo standards. Collectively, MCPTT, MCData and MCVideo standards A guiding principle in defining the interworking interface was to have the
leverage a 3GPP common services core that includes functions such as interworking function behave like a peer MCPTT system as much as possible,
configuration, group, key, identity and location management. which provides several advantages. Interfaces defined for use between
MCPTT servers can be reused in most cases with little or no modification for
Interworking Standards LMR interworking. The MCPTT user experience is to be maintained as much
Up through Release 14, 3GPP mission-critical standards essentially as possible while interworking with LMR users. Encapsulating LMR-specific
defined stand-alone networks, meaning a service provider could offer a functionality in the IWF reduces complexity on the MCPTT server.
service built on the standards to support communications between users Another guiding principle was to support a robust set of existing LMR
that access the service via suitably equipped LTE devices or applications features across the interface, as well as a robust set of MCPTT features.
residing on a desktop device in an operations center. The architecture supports the following features across the interface:
As such, Release 14 standards have limited utility because they don’t n MCPTT homed group communications
provide adequate mechanisms for interworking with legacy mission-critical n LMR homed group communications
systems, such as LMR, that are the primary PTT networks used by public n Group regrouping and broadcast groups
safety. Furthermore, there was also no interconnect mechanism between n Private calls
peer MCPTT systems, though this feature is included in Release 15. n Emergency calls
Somewhat related is migration, where a user can be a visiting user on n Emergency alerts
another system. That too is planned for Release 15. n Floor control by either the LMR or MCPTT server
Interworking is essential to enable a graceful and gradual incorporation of n Group and individual short text messaging
LTE MCPTT capabilities into current public-safety operations and to enable
public-safety agencies to migrate to LTE MCPTT as such services achieve The architectural definitions for end-to-end voice encryption, encryption
public safety grade and as agencies deem them ready for use as a primary key management, late entry and vocoder negotiation are nearing completion.
PTT capability. 3GPP Release 15 stage 3 work (protocols) for interworking is underway and
Beginning in 2016, 3GPP began to address interworking, along two slated for completion in 2018.
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18 I LMR/LTE Interworking Standards LMR/LTE Interworking Standards I 19
North American Markets As work progressed within WTSC-JLMRLTE, it became clear that this
Current work within 3GPP only partially addresses the totality of the work was taking place in advance of work within 3GPP for the mission-critical
functionality required for an operationally complete interworking capability standards, and the joint project was placed on hold in September 2015,
between LMR systems and 3GPP MCPTT services. At least part of the pending 3GPP Release 13. Work on WTSC-JLMRLTE has resumed with an
remaining challenge is that 3GPP standards are targeted at worldwide inaugural meeting to resume work held Dec. 12, 2017.
markets, while LMR standards tend to be regional. The expected deliverables from WTSC-JLMRLTE are called out in an
In the U.S., the primary standard for public-safety LMR is Project 25 (P25), updated issue statement: “Joint ATIS/TIA specification(s) on use cases,
a standard developed by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) requirements, architecture, call/message flows and implementation
in partnership with the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials guidelines would be developed in support of this issue. As application and
(APCO) International, spanning a period of more than 20 years. In Europe service protocols evolve, the work should accommodate, in so far as is
and much of the world, the primary standard for public safety is TETRA, an possible, interoperation of new broadband public-safety features with new
ETSI standard. Much discussion occurred in 3GPP on this dilemma, and features of TIA-102 and TIA-603 conventional FM systems.”
ultimately 3GPP chose to limit the LMR interworking scope to the interface Given the current state of 3GPP MCPTT standards, WTSC-JLMRLTE is
between the LMR interworking gateway and the 3GPP MCPTT service. expected to address the interfaces between 3GPP interworking gateways
In addition to the statutory mandate for FirstNet to represent the interest of and LMR systems. Central to this issue is the use of standards as a key
public safety in standards development activities, there is a second mandate method for achieving interoperability. One provision in the statutes was the
for NIST to “accelerate the development of the capability for communications mandate for the FCC to establish the Technical Advisory Board for First
between currently deployed public-safety narrowband systems and the Responder Interoperability, with the duty to “develop recommended minimum
nationwide public-safety broadband network.” technical requirements to ensure a nationwide level of interoperability for
In recognition of that provision in the statute, the Alliance for the nationwide public-safety broadband network.” The published FCC report
Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) Wireless Technologies and was one of the requirements FirstNet included in its request for proposals
Systems Committee (WTSC) initiated a joint project with TIA in September (RFP) process.
2012 to support FirstNet and the National Telecommunications and In the FCC’s report, there is an important set of requirements for the use
Information Administration (NTIA) in execution of their statutory mandates. of standards as the basis for interoperability with the NPSBN through the
The project name is WTSC-Joint LMR and LTE (WTSC-JLMRLTE). interfaces exposed by the NPSBN to public-safety entities. By inference and
There have been other joint ATIS and TIA projects, addressing topics on the basis of what has transpired since the FCC’s work, the implication is
such as the commercial mobile alert system (CMAS) and short/multimedia that where suitable standards exist for interconnecting LMR systems into
message service (SMS/MMS) text to 9-1-1. Given the key role that ATIS has the NPSBN’s MCPTT services, those standards must be used in lieu of
played in 3GPP and the central role TIA played in developing digital P25 proprietary interfaces. Furthermore, where standards do not exist, the FCC’s
(TIA-102) and analog (TIA-603) LMR standards, the joint ATIS/TIA project is report requires the use of solutions based on open specifications available to
significant because it seeks to address interworking between 3GPP MCPTT all authorized parties.
services and existing LMR systems in the U.S. One of multiple likely outcomes of WTSC-JLMRLTE is the specification
The charter for WTSC-JLMRLTE is for ATIS’s WTSC’s system and networks of standards-based interfaces between P25 systems and LTE MCPTT
(SN) and radio access network (RAN) subcommittees and TIA’s TR8.8 services, for example, via the P25 Inter RF Subsystem Interface (ISSI).
subcommittee to collaborate on public-safety MCPTT voice interoperation The ISSI is an important interface within the suite of P25 standards because
between LMR and LTE systems. More specifically, the issue statement that it enables public-safety entities to interconnect their P25 systems in a
defines the WTSC-JLMRLTE “proposes that ATIS WTSC (SN and RAN) multivendor environment. This means that P25 systems can interwork
initiate work with TIA TR-8 to develop joint ATIS/TIA specification(s), with ATIS across the ISSI, independent of the provider of the P25 system. This
as the lead standards development organization (SDO).” standards-based approach will be an important component of the work
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20 I LMR/LTE Interworking Standards Section 1: Standards and History I 21
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22 I The Timeline for Public-Safety LTE Standards The Timeline for Public-Safety LTE Standards I 23
FirstNet initial operational capability (IOC) timeline. standards is just starting. Stage one requirements were completed in 2014,
When LTE was first launched, it was based on 3GPP Release 8. Soon and the study on the architecture of the evolved packet system (EPS) and IP
thereafter, Release 9 included many critical feature and bug fixes. Most of Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) was then completed in 2015.
the LTE networks deployed globally are based on at least 3GPP Release 10 The group is busy finishing the functional architecture to support MCPTT.
because of the support of voice over LTE (VoLTE) rollouts. This includes defining some crucial requirements for security, group
The 3GPP release schedule can take three years or longer to get to a management, configuration management, identity management and support
freeze date for the release. Release 12 was “completed” in March 2013, and for on-network and off-network call control, floor control and broadcast
in 2016 we started to see some of those features in commercial networks. control. Typically, all this functionality would require the use of the IMS.
Now, we have a view into when the various releases will be frozen, but that’s However, PTT over cellular (PoC) is not new, and several companies have
only part of a bigger story. offered feature-rich solutions for years. A smart move by SA6 was to
Device and infrastructure companies traditionally race to be the first to recognize this and allow the use of non-IMS systems as long as the system
market to offer a particular feature. This often grabs headlines and is interfaces are compliant to MCPTT/IMS standards. This means that while
important in helping drive the industry to implement these features. However, FirstNet is building out, a jurisdiction could implement a compliant system
even though a vendor may be able to demonstrate a feature in the lab, at a that could potentially be integrated into the NPSBN.
trade show or in a limited deployment, widespread adoption does not happen Let’s take a look at how this correlates to the timelines published by
unless a major commercial carrier implements or requests the feature in its FirstNet and 3GPP. The FirstNet request for proposals (RFP) states that
network. Even though a feature may be in an official 3GPP release, it the offeror must deploy MCPTT based on the 3GPP Release 13 standard.
historically takes 18 – 24 months to hit the street. FirstNet assumes that MCPTT will generally be available two years after the
award of the RFP, which occurred in March 2016. This means MCPTT would
Public-Safety Features be available, according to FirstNet, by the end of 2018. 3GPP completed
HPUE. One of the first public-safety features implemented was the HPUE. Release 13 in March 2016, and we saw the first MCPTT trials in June 2017,
This feature allows the UE (LTE device) to increase transmit power to +31 so it seems that 3GPP and FirstNet goals are relatively close.
decibel-milliwatts (dBm). Increasing power from a paltry 200 milliwatts to 1.2 QoS Class Identifier. In conjunction with MCPTT, the key differentiator
watts of power was seen as a potential boon to public safety because of the for public-safety LTE is QoS. With the pursuit of FirstNet to offer band 14
possibility that it could extend coverage into rural areas. As a comparison, spectrum for lease to AT&T for non-public-safety traffic, it truly becomes
700 MHz portable two-way radios generally have a transmit output power of necessary to be able to differentiate the traffic. The QoS class identifier (QCI)
1 – 3 watts (W). table defined in 3GPP TS 23.203 has been updated for MCPTT, non-MCPTT
The HPUE was initialized in Release 11 and finished in September 2013 and mission-critical data. MCPTT was the centerpiece of the changes to the
for LTE band 14, Region 2 (North America) support. Although the standard QCI table and bearers for user plane and control plane. Now that VoLTE is
has been complete for several years, only one UE vendor (Bittium) has becoming prevalent in usage and it uses QCI 1 with a priority of two, 3GPP
developed an HPUE. It is highly speculative whether the market will support saw the need to have a higher priority level (the lower the number, the higher
the HPUE even though 3GPP standards support its use. A study item the queue priority) for mission-critical applications. Creating these QCI
proposal included in Release 14 offered a sliver of hope for another HPUE values will provide the opportunity to implement QoS specific to public safety.
specific to band 41 for Sprint. QoS has been part of LTE since its inception more than 10 years ago. The
Mission-Critical PTT (MCPTT). The big dog of features for public-safety regulatory landscape in the United States and other countries, coupled with
LTE is MCPTT. It has been vaunted as one of the crucial features needed to the advent of over-the-top (OTT) applications may have prevented carriers
help supplement and perhaps offer a replacement for LMR. Cellular voice from implementing QoS. VoLTE, which uses QCI 1, has taken years to be
communications by definition is unicast. Although applications can mimic deployed and optimized because of its complexity. Implementing a new
one-to-many communications, the integration of MCPTT into the 3GPP feature such as MCPTT and the impacts of QoS implemented on a bevy of
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24 I The Timeline for Public-Safety LTE Standards The Timeline for Public-Safety LTE Standards I 25
applications will present new challenges for fully realizing end-to-end QoS for data and video are confusing to be sure. The intent seems to be creating use
public safety. cases for group-based communications and improvements to LTE bearers
Proximity Services. Commercial cellular networks have typically for mission-critical video and data packets. The issue is that they are based
connected users to each other with a centralized architecture. A cellphone on GCSE/eMBMS and LTE-D as the transport bearers. The LTE-D part
connects to a cell site, which is connected to a core network and rerouted makes sense to develop as this requires some important requirements to
the same way to another user on a cellphone — even if they are sitting next ensure reliability, security and usability. The GCSE development is a fruitless
to you. Public-safety users, particularly those in fire service, use direct exercise — the amount of work required versus the impacts to the system
communications in their daily jobs. The ability to operate in a walkie-talkie are negligible. Both mission-critical data and mission-critical video are set to
mode where one device can communicate to another device, without any be completed in Release 15.
infrastructure in between, has multiple use cases for first responders. 3GPP, The cautionary tale is that 3GPP is full of well-intentioned features,
and specifically LTE, has addressed this with the creation of proximity such as MBMS, that never see the light of day in a commercial network.
services, also known as ProSe, LTE-direct (LTE-D), direct mode or device to Public-safety users are passionate about their features and at times demand
device (D2D). This is a big departure from what and how cellular networks them in their networks — often for good reason. 3GPP is making headway
have operated in the past. and recognizing the importance of these features, which is good news. LTE
LTE-D offers the ability to bring proximity and location concepts together will soon have the features to support the vast requirements of public safety
and provide proximal location awareness to the user in relation to other in the future, and we’ll be there to test them. n
users. Once you know that other users are available, you can establish a
reliable link, and the devices can operate in a single or group fashion to Emil Olbrich is president of PrimeLime and has more than 25 years of
exchange data. This data could take the form of voice communications, but experience in the field of wireless telecommunications. Previously, Olbrich
that is a ways off from full realization. LTE-D uses the uplink portion of the was the head of Long Term Evolution (LTE) research and development
licensed spectrum to accomplish this, so there are no concerns about using (R&D) for the Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) program.
unlicensed spectrum. The majority of commercial-based features were Email comments to emil.olbrich@primelime.com.
completed in Release 12. However, commercial-based LTE-D is a different
animal than public-safety LTE-D, which is partially included into Release 13
with more features and frequency bands in Release 14. Pre-standards trials
are already taking place for commercial LTE-D, and several publications
touting the performance of LTE-D are available. Several band 14 devices
have hit the market. LTE-D is an exciting feature but an extremely complicated
function to implement, and it may take the commercial market to drive it to
realization for public safety.
Group Communication System Enablers (GCSE). This feature was
intended to enhance LTE for one-to-many communications. The intention
was to use eMBMS as the mechanism to help enable this feature. Even
though eMBMS and MBMS have been available for years, the change in
video on demand, fueled by Netflix and YouTube, has caused carriers to
delay or halt eMBMS deployments. Without large carriers driving the need
for eMBMS, the implementation of GCSE is not on the front burner anymore
and may fall by the wayside of well-intentioned but poorly executed features.
Mission-Critical Data and Video. From some perspectives, mission-critical
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26 I Section 1: Standards and History
Recently, there has been some debate on the meaning and definition of
“public safety grade.” The 2017 hurricanes underscored the need for clarity
on what it means and what public safety needs with regard to reliable data.
A National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) document
published in 2014 provided a definition that the overall system design
enables system and service to achieve 99.999 percent availability.
What does availability of this magnitude mean in lay terms? Availability
at 99.999 percent (five nines) results in net outage of five minutes per year.
Availability at 99.99 percent (four nines) results in net outage of roughly 53
minutes per year. Both factors are better than the general commercial carrier
availability of 99.0 and 99.9 percent availability (between 88 and 8.8 hours
respectively per year). This creates a significant difference in expectations
because the devil is in the details of how availability is calculated versus
measured in an operational network. The First Responder Network Authority
(FirstNet) is highlighting the importance of data in public-safety operations,
and as public safety wrestles with a 25-year commitment decision with the
selected vendor, it becomes one of the cornerstones of the eventual solution
that will last a generation.
If FirstNet and data communications are ever expected to become
“mission critical,” public safety must be able to rely on data communications
as much as LMR, built to five nines availability, which is needed to achieve
public safety grade. So, a definition is less material than whether FirstNet will
be as reliable as public-safety radio communications. If in five or 25 years, neighborhoods and many sites. Likewise, earthquakes, ice storms and other
broadband data is only slightly more reliable than existing commercial events can affect power to tens of thousands of homes for a day or more,
networks, the mission-critical element of broadband data will not occur. causing outages to a dozen sites, and long after a two-hour battery pack is
Public safety needs a concerted effort to work toward public safety grade, exhausted. Road and storm conditions often prevent deployment of portable
defined as 99.999 percent service availability. Five nines, among many other generators at the affected sites if enough personnel and generators are even
requirements, is mandatory for broadband to replace LMR. available to address the outage. Long multisite outages most certainly create
large coverage holes, SON or no SON.
Overlap and SON The final flaw in the argument that a commercial network can withstand an
Most public safety grade talk has been diverted to the cell overlap that individual site outage is that the system was designed to include the failed
exists in a commercial network and a feature called self-organizing network site. Engineers assume it is in service, and when it is out of service, problems
(SON) to automatically fix problems when a site is out. SON can slightly occur. The initial problem is that signal levels from the neighboring sites are
mitigate the loss of coverage from a site, but it is a far cry from solutions that probably similar and are all low. Therefore, the signal to noise ratio in the
completely resolve the outage. area will be poor, along with performance. Next, the missing site is likely to
First, cell sites have been dramatically reduced in height. Carriers originally cause a substantial traffic load on neighboring sites, further increasing
used 300-foot towers, but now towers are 30 to 50 feet tall in urban areas, interference levels. And while first responders will have priority on the network,
allowing them to only cover so much area, no matter which way you point the if the signal levels do not sufficiently exceed the noise levels, public-safety
antennas. The SON feature can automatically uptilt an antenna, but this will performance will suffer.
only slightly increase received power at the cell edge and only slightly fill While power outages are frequently the cause of wide-scale cell service
the gap for an off-air site. In urban areas where there is substantial density outages, they are not the only source. A major transmission line that affects
because of capacity, there may be enough overlap that public safety may not many sites without a truly redundant path — a fiber cut of redundant lines
notice an outdoor coverage issue, but in suburban, rural and edge-of-network in the same conduit — can be cut. As the NPSTC document points out, the
areas where there is far less overlap, there will be a hole with the loss of a need for hardening is not limited to long-term power supply; multiple forms
single site. There is no overlap at the edge of coverage where some of the of redundancy for power, transmission, path and space diversity must be
biggest overall improvements are needed to deliver reliable communications deployed to achieve 99.999 percent availability across the service area.
in rural areas.
Second, the largest concern in urban areas from loss of a cell site is loss No Four Nines Without Hardening
of capacity and in-building coverage. Steel and concrete construction, While not the desired level of reliability, four nines of availability simply is
combined with LEED-compliant windows result in buildings that cause the not achievable without substantial network hardening. Network transport
signal to degrade 1,000-fold by the time it reaches the building interior. services — the connection between cell sites and the core network —
There are only two ways to achieve coverage in this scenario — a cell site generally have service level agreements (SLAs) that only guarantee 99.9
a quarter- to a half-mile away or a distributed antenna system (DAS). It is percent service availability. For higher service availability, multiple unique
not feasible to have a DAS in every building, so the economical approach connections to the cell site are required. A connection that uses the exact
is substantial cell density. With a cell-site density of every quarter mile, an same path is not unique and is likely to experience outages at the same
outage will cause a hole inside the buildings in the immediate vicinity. time. The most common outage for leased-line connections is fiber/cable
Third, an outage is rarely only a single site. Most outages affect more than cuts. Improving the availability of transmission circuits requires both path and
one site in an area. This occurs because a power outage often affects a space diversity through the use of bidirectional ring topologies connecting
neighborhood, and with earthquakes and hurricanes, the outage can affect multiple RF sites with multiple paths to connect to the core. The RF sites
an entire region. This is precisely when a mission-critical network is needed. must have physically diverse facilities entering and exiting the site location,
As demonstrated after the recent hurricanes, power outages affect many and use separate routes back to the core. That means separate and distinct
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30 I Public Safety Grade LTE: Myth or Reality Public Safety Grade LTE: Myth or Reality I 31
manholes and conduit paths entering and exiting the site that have more counties on day one, but the counties at the southern tip of the peninsula
than 25 feet of physical separation with each route heading north or south had more than 50 percent of their cell sites out, while 80 percent of the sites
from the facility. For this reason, public safety builds truly redundant in Monroe County, home of the Florida Keys, were out. A whopping 739 of
microwave links and rings and uses diversity to achieve five nines of avail- 1,435 cell sites in Miami-Dade County were out. And while cell density in
ability on its own, as well as creating fiber rings to achieve public safety built-up Miami may help with some overall service availability, large pockets
grade reliability. were without cellular service.
Likewise, a power-related event caused by equipment failures or major While it may be difficult and challenging to achieve four nines, much less
weather events is not going to deliver four nines. These events frequently five nines of availability, public safety needs most sites for each region, city
have average downtime durations of a full day. A single event could then and county to be hardened to ensure that local public-safety officials can rely
cause an entire region to experience less than 99.9 percent reliability. It is on FirstNet wherever they live and work. Los Angeles Regional Interoperable
not feasible that a commercial carrier could achieve nationwide 99.99 Communications System (LA-RICS) asked AT&T and FirstNet to provide
percent availability without hardening the majority of its network. hardening details for this reason. Public-safety stakeholders in Los Angeles
County need to make sure that all portions of the county have sufficient
Local Public Safety Grade hardening to be survivable.
When public safety builds systems to public safety grade, the availability
applies to the system itself. Not every site is guaranteed to achieve 99.999 Different Backups
percent availability, but overall, across all aggregated sites, the construction LMR networks are not only more survivable and available, they have better
and commitment are generally 99.999 percent. Each site, connectivity and backups. Because public-safety radios come with simplex or talkaround
core that support each other must be designed collectively for greater than capabilities, when the network fails, public safety can still communicate.
99.999 percent availability. So, a purpose-built network for a city or county In addition, LMR networks have failure modes that allow for a graceful
achieves 99.999 percent availability in that city or county. A nationwide degradation of service. For example, multiple transceivers can be used as
commitment, on the other hand, could mean that areas where it is difficult a control channel in a trunked radio network or sites can be configured to
to achieve a high degree of availability — areas that experience frequent operate in stand-alone mode, separate from the core network if necessary.
hurricanes, for example — could be sacrificed because of expense. For LTE sites have some backups. There are generally multiple transceivers
example, if AT&T’s network in Los Angeles County failed for an entire day, it per sector to support multiple bands and other technologies, and there are
would have little impact on AT&T’s nationwide compliance but would result multiple sectors for each site that may provide some coverage in the event
in, at best, 99.7 percent availability in Los Angeles County. AT&T and of a sector failure. But an LTE eNodeB will generally have one or more single
FirstNet might consider this a success, but an outage affecting Los Angeles points of failure that present a risk on top of other hardening factors for the
County serving 10 million residents for a day would cause major problems site itself. There has been little to no dialog on this aspect of hardening sites,
and put lives at risk. and commercial LTE infrastructure providers are not likely to enhance
While many tout the just 5 percent of cell sites knocked out by Hurricane eNodeBs this way.
Harvey as a success, a more detailed look is not so encouraging for some We have heard that if 4G access fails, the 3G network will fill in the gaps.
counties. Aransas County, Texas, for example, had 95 percent of its cell sites This presents two problems. A 3G network will not provide the required data
out for three consecutive days. Refugio County had 85 percent of its cell throughput, will not support future IP-based push-to-talk (PTT) systems, and
sites out for two days. And while Harris County, where Houston is located, are dependent on the vehicle modems installed. LTE-only modems can’t fall
experienced outages of only 5 percent of sites in the worst case, those back to 3G. Also, a fallback to 3G generally will fail because if the LTE site
outages could have been clustered in an area that had dramatic needs for fails, the entire site fails (loss of power or connectivity), 3G and 4G included.
public-safety communications. However, entire technology and core network failures that would cause such
Hurricane Irma knocked out 27 percent of cell sites in the affected Florida a scenario are rare. This is a welcome backup but certainly will not help get
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32 I Public Safety Grade LTE: Myth or Reality Public Safety Grade LTE: Myth or Reality I 33
to public safety grade availability. The greatest factor to achieving 99.999 withstand flooding with elevated platforms outside of the flood plain and high
percent availability occurs at the site level, not at the core. The carriers gen- winds and for AT&T to be accountable for availability during such events.
erally do a good job of achieving more than five nines of availability at the In addition, upgrades, modifications and preventive maintenance work
core and the network backbone that connects the cores and major arteries. should be planned to least impact the system and cause minimal outages.
On the talkaround front, there is an LTE standard called proximity services These upgrades and other maintenance efforts need to be performed
(ProSe) that allows direct mode. However, the range of ProSe is only a without affecting service availability. Public safety works 24/7 and needs a
fraction of an LMR radio, and commercial interest in developing the 24/7 network. Outages that occur because of maintenance should be
capability is unclear. Though the standard exists, it may never make it into considered as any other outage. AT&T needs to make such events rare
public-safety devices. There is industry chatter that other solutions are under and short.
consideration, but it will take years to develop devices, get them into the There are no easy answers to these problems. There is often not enough
marketplace, and provide the kind of networking environment that mimics space to harden every site, and truly redundant backhaul is problematic at
what Project 25 (P25) direct mode does for voice communications. As a many sites. AT&T and FirstNet should seek out-of-the-box solutions to these
result, an outage on the FirstNet network is more impactful than an outage problems. Perhaps a low earth orbit (LEO) broadband satellite option could
on the LMR network, amplifying the effects of applications and capabilities serve as a backup to the primary fiber link? While it may not be hundreds of
that become mission critical. megabits per section, it could provide a lifeline of communications for public
Finally, network subscribers must use best operational practices. Many safety. Perhaps, a fully redundant solution direct from LEO satellites to a
outages are caused by human error. LMR systems are not immune to this, handheld device would take the process one step further by making the
but often, human error on commercial networks can cause major outages. terrestrial infrastructure irrelevant to 24/7/365 service. Iridium, OneWeb
A major 9-1-1 outage recently occurred because of an incorrect whitelist and O3b have commercial solutions that combine low-profile antennas, high
that restricted traffic for 9-1-1 call routing. With a nationwide public-safety speed and low latency under development or deployment. On the power
broadband network, more is at stake than thousands of local LMR networks. front, perhaps fuel cells, solar or other enhancements could be pursued
Strong change management, robust testing, solid interdepartment where permanent generators are not possible.
communications and other network operations best practices are mandatory Sharing situational awareness information among first responders at an
to achieve high levels of system availability. As integration of network incident scene needs to be as pervasive in five to 10 years as PTT voice
systems and elements increases, the complexity level of broadband systems communications is today. Public-safety professionals put their lives on the
skyrockets and so must the level of scrutiny of changes to a nationwide line every day to serve the public; delivering rock-solid communications
broadband system. solutions is the least we can do for them and benefits the public in the worst
of times. n
No Caveats
The NPSTC document highlights the particular challenges associated Joe Ross is a senior partner at Televate, a consultancy specializing in
with different regions of the country. Mother Nature cannot be a caveat in system engineering and program management for public-safety
the design. communications. He has nearly 25 years of leadership in designing and
Public-safety communications are needed the most during hurricanes, operating LMR and commercial cellular systems.
earthquakes, ice storms and major power outages. Public safety grade
systems are built to withstand these events. They have more robust towers, Steve Sidore is a senior subject matter expert with Televate. Sidore has 36
are built to higher wind speeds and higher loads, have generators with years of industry experience.
sufficient fuel to last several days, and many other characteristics that make
them survivable during these events. There simply cannot be any “force Scott Edson is the executive director of the Los Angeles Regional
majeure” or similar caveats in the calculation. We need systems that can Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS). He is the former chief of
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34 I Public Safety Grade LTE: Myth or Reality Section 1: Standards and History I 35
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36 I FirstNet’s Voice over LTE Transition FirstNet’s Voice over LTE Transition I 37
Unified communications. Unified communications includes instant practical over LMR. Having native voice capabilities is critical to improving
messaging, chat and presence-type services. It can support short messages safety and adoption of the network.”
between first responders that do not require real-time communications. More than 15 years ago, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
These services often use the same signaling protocols that support voice released a signaling protocol designed to operate over IP. The protocol is
and video services. known as the session initiation protocol (SIP), and it’s the foundation of
Non-mission-critical push to talk (PTT). This service will support signaling for every major telephone company in the world. Signaling protocols
non-mission-critical services such as LMR talkgroup access for administrative are used to set up and disconnect telephone calls, and SIP was intended to
and support personnel. eventually replace the common channel, signaling system 7 (SS7), developed
Next-generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1) to first responder voice and video. in the 1960s for network signaling.
The vast majority of information about an incident is conveyed from citizens With both legacy and IP networks in place, we depend heavily on gateways
and begins with a call to 9-1-1. This call is, in turn, transferred to the to do the translation between legacy and IP networks. As these legacy
appropriate dispatchers, who contact the first responders. The 9-1-1 operators networks are decommissioned, the need for any legacy translations will
capture the caller’s information and pass that information to the appropriate ultimately disappear. At this time, both the major landline service providers
emergency service dispatch office for action. In the future, dispatchers will and both the major wireless service providers have set a target date of
have the ability to transfer voice and video calls directly to first responders, sometime during 2020 for elimination of legacy network services.
thereby allowing a direct citizen to first responder dialog. This direct contact The importance of a SIP discussion on the FirstNet network is that all
will be useful for emergency medical response, active shooter incidents and of the voice and video services are supported using either proprietary,
other similar response situations. over-the-top (OTT) applications or through the use of SIP. The advantages of
using SIP are:
The Importance of Voice n Integration into other applications;
The importance of voice services became apparent to Harris County, n Generally lower cost of standards-based solutions;
Texas, officials as they prepared to go into production with their FirstNet n The basis of NG 9-1-1;
early adopter service. They had to be cost conscious with the consideration n Support for multimedia — voice, video, text and more;
that any service they offer must have voice services from the outset. A n The foundation of every wireline and wireless service provider;
public-safety smartphone with no phone capability meant that first responders n Web browsers are supported through Web Real-Time Communications
must carry yet another device for incidental calls. This has both operational (WebRTC); and
and cost implications. The cost issue is paying for multiple wireless air plans. n Native SIP stacks will be built into every smartphone in the future, and
The presentation of the additional FirstNet handheld phone caused a first many already have this feature today.
responder at the Houston Livestock Show to ask, “Where on my belt do you
propose that I hang this?” The rest of this article assumes the use of SIP with the understanding that
“Providing native voice capabilities on band 14 is very important, not just there are nonstandard, OTT applications in play that do not use SIP.
for the practical use for the end users, but for the long-term success of the There are requirements and functional elements for the FirstNet network
network,” says Shing H. Lin, director of public-safety technology services at that are specific to providing voice services. At this point in the process, it
Harris County. “From a practicality perspective, public-safety users are is best to discuss these systems in generic terms and avoid a lengthy
already saddled with a lot of devices that they must carry. The band 14 discussion of detailed implementation.
device must help consolidate capabilities and functionalities to reduce their
burden. Aside from practical considerations, voice communications is an System Elements
important part of day-to-day activities. While LMR is available for mission- The first system would either be an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) border
critical communications, not all voice communications are appropriate or proxy or an IMS full core. While a full core would not be required for partial
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38 I FirstNet’s Voice over LTE Transition FirstNet’s Voice over LTE Transition I 39
functionality, it would be required for full functionality. IMS is an architecture Although it remains unknown what the mix of ownership of TAS elements
that is, similar to the LTE specification itself, defined by the 3GPP standards will be, it will certainly be some sort of combination of FirstNet, service
body. It is implemented by all of the major service providers for voice providers, state jurisdictions and local jurisdictions. While there will be a
integration between disparate networks, such as wireless and landline-based combination of carrier-grade and enterprise TAS systems in the final
networks. It is also anticipated that IMS will be required to support voice and solution, the core FirstNet TAS will likely be a carrier solution. These
video traffic between NG 9-1-1 networks and the FirstNet network. carrier-grade solutions scale to large networks so that the final support cost
There are functional elements in the IMS that provide the required services. is about $3 per month per subscriber. Enterprise solutions support costs are
These elements include the home subscriber server (HSS), which manages typically four to five times this amount, certainly not sustainable for FirstNet.
user authentication; call session control functions (CSCF), which manage One scenario that demonstrates this combination of TAS elements is an
SIP registration and call routing; and application servers (AS), which support instance where a video call is transferred to a first responder over FirstNet,
IMS applications. There are several other functions in IMS architecture, but but later a subject matter expert, such as a bomb expert sitting at his or her
this provides a general idea. The primary function of the IMS is to manage desk, is added to the call. This scenario would involve multiple TAS elements
quality of service (QoS) and authentication across domain boundaries under separate domains routed by ENUM.
between NG 9-1-1 and FirstNet networks. A large telephony equipment There is a large list of unknowns when it comes to supporting voice on
manufacturer has donated an IMS system to the Internet2 Technology public-safety networks. The ITEC at TAMU is at the center of this research.
Evaluation Center (ITEC) at Texas A&M University (TAMU) to support With more than $6 million of donated equipment, including IMS cores,
ongoing public-safety research. FirstNet LTE systems, a carrier grade TAS, an NG 9-1-1 Emergency Services
Another important system in the provision of voice services on FirstNet IP network (ESInet) and several other services, the center has the
will be electronic number mapping (ENUM), a standards-based system that capabilities to deploy a complete ecosystem in support of public safety.
tells the network how to route a call. Each first responder on the FirstNet ITEC has been testing these capabilities in the field through experiments
network will be assigned a unique ITU-T E.164 address. E.164 addresses and exercises. Experiments such as the Winter Institute, held each fall at
are the telephone numbers that we use for dialing. They are made up of the TAMU, and the Canada-U.S. Enhanced Resiliency Experiment (CAUSE)
country code, area code, office code and subscriber number, in the expected have given us feedback from first responders who actually use the voice
x-xxx-xxx-xxxx format. On legacy networks, the call routing is managed by a applications in scenario-based experiments. These experiments further our
static database using the SS7 network. On future telephone networks, understandings of the best methods to support these services.
ENUM will be used for call routing. The 2015 Winter Institute involved connecting voice and video calls to an
ENUM is a hierarchical registrar with a root that points to domain onboard U.S. Coast Guard rescue vessel using the 700 MHz band 14
authorities. For example, a registrar could assign control of 1-979-845-xxxx FirstNet network. The CAUSE IV experiment included SIP session persistence
to TAMU. At that point an ENUM server managed by TAMU would define all when roaming between a Canadian public-safety LTE network and FirstNet.
valid telephone numbers on campus. This system allows local control of The ITEC also has a cooperative research and development agreement
numbers in a system that scales to a global network. SS7 is used to route (CRADA) with the National Telecommunications and Information
calls through the legacy network, but that network supports only voice traffic. Administration’s (NTIA) Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR)
As we add video and other media to calls, understanding how to route calls labs in Boulder, Colorado, to make these applications available for FirstNet
without SS7 dependence becomes increasingly important, particularly as research.
SS7 services are discontinued. The 2016 Winter Institute was held at Disaster City on TAMU’s campuses
Another critical element is that of the telephony application server (TAS). in both College Station and Galveston, Texas. The focus was the integration
This server manages all of the advanced features, such as multiperson calls, of voice and video services between NG 9-1-1 networks and FirstNet.
status-based calling or do not disturb, voicemail and others, in VoIP networks. TAMU also supported voice services for Harris County for the 2017
An example of a TAS could be a city’s Cisco CallManager. Super Bowl. n
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40 I FirstNet’s Voice over LTE Transition
Walt Magnussen Jr., Ph.D., runs the Internet2 Technology Evaluation Center
THANK YOU
(ITEC), an emergency communications lab at Texas A&M University (TAMU),
and has an appointment with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ),
to All of Our Sponsors for
National Institute of Justice (NIJ) as a senior policy analyst. He had an
appointment with Internet2 for a Broadband Technologies Opportunities
Making This LMR+LTE e-Book Possible!
Program (BTOP) grant to build national infrastructure for public safety as the
RadioResource
Public Safety Advocate. He also served on the FCC’s Emergency Response TM
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Section 2:
User Perspectives Power Conversion
Band 14 LTE in Houston Offers FirstNet Lessons, By Jim McMillan .......................44 Products Since 1991
How P25 Coverage Can Benefit FirstNet, By Bob Akins.........................................50
App Security and Privacy Vulnerabilities, By Vincent Sritapan and Karim Eldefrawy .......55
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System Coverage
The system gives users mobile coverage across 95 percent of the county.
County officials rely on externally mounted antennas connected to in-vehicle
modems for mobile coverage. This allows the county to operate a system )LUVW1HW&HUWL¿HG™ Secure Pu
ush to Ta
alk with Inttegrated GPS Loca
ation Tracking
with fewer overall tower sites than the number of sites required to operate a
portable coverage system, which would more than double the number of • Instant Secure
S Push to Tal
a k Voice and Group Te ext Communications
existing sites. Add in an indoor coverage requirement, and it becomes nearly • Live andd Historical (Bread Crumb) Tracking & Mapping
unattainable without a significant capital investment.
• Carrier Enhanced Quality of o Service (QoS)
Forty sites across the county provide mobile coverage. Based on county
coverage mapping, officials estimate 96 sites are needed to get the required • P25 to LTE PTT Voice and d Location Integratio
on via ISSI
portable coverage. This could increase slightly depending on the exact loca- • DMR to LTE PTT Voice and Location Integrattion via AIS
tions, as the predicted areas often do not match perfectly with what can be
achieved through the site acquisition process.
• Dispatch Console Integratiion via CSSI
Uplink is typically the weakest link, so when evaluating coverage, the • Cloud and
a Customer Hoste ed Server Options
county focuses on inbound signal coverage, optimization and site placement • Compattible with Future 3GGPP MCPTT Netwo orks Booth 2759
based on predictions and drive tests. The county conducted drive testing as
well as predictions to determine coverage. The drive tests were overlaid with
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MissionCritical Communications I www.MCCmag.com I LMR + LTE: The Evolving Public-Safety Network
the predictions to verify that they matched, and for the most part, they did. At the end of the day, 20 megahertz of spectrum limits what can be done.
The predictions were a little optimistic in dense urban areas, requiring the The announcement by AT&T that priority is being offered on all LTE spectrum
county to plan an additional site in the downtown areas. is exciting because this opens up the ability to see much higher throughput
Harris County primarily uses the Verizon Wireless commercial LTE service averages than seen on just band 14. Advanced standards of LTE allow for
as a backup to band 14, so when users drive outside the coverage area, the techniques such as carrier aggregation, meaning that 700 MHz bands 14
devices reselect to Verizon. Some partner agencies choose to hand over to and 17 could potentially be combined in a session without any user inputs to
AT&T as their backup. Harris County has 50 phones from Sonim Technologies give a user access to 40 megahertz of spectrum in that instant.
set up with dual subscriber identity modules (SIM), meaning they are
registered on both the AT&T commercial network and the Harris county Super Bowl LI
network. Currently, these devices require a manual switch, so the end user During preparations for Super Bowl LI, held in February 2017, Harris
has to be trained to do that. County demonstrated that in-building coverage on portable devices was
Brazos County, Texas — northwest of Houston where College Station and lacking, and something had to be done to support the venues where the
Texas A&M University are located — has one site because of the FirstNet National Football League (NFL) had major events scheduled. This prompted
spectrum management lease agreement (SMLA). The county is only partially deployment of the first commercial LTE band 14-capable indoor distributed
covered but has nearly 70 modems on the system and Verizon LTE service antenna system (DAS). Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center
as a backup. The county uses technology for session persistence so that the along with the adjacent Discovery Green Park served as the venue for the
handover to Verizon and back to the Harris County LTE network occurs NFL Experience event.
seamlessly. This event was identified as key for the band 14 LTE use cases defined
in several working groups. Initial walk testing inside the venue showed nearly
Throughput: How Much and How Fast? zero coverage throughout. Harris County partnered with the city of Houston,
Public-safety users can’t stream 20 4K-resolution cameras at full resolution and this partnership helped complete the DAS in time for the event. The
simultaneously in the same sector to be viewed on a 720p desktop monitor. system supported LMR and 700 MHz band 14 LTE, along with commercial
It is important to understand and set expectations, and have discussions with carrier networks. The many hours spent by both city of Houston and Harris
end users as devices are activated on the system. County officials to assist the vendor with system optimization and
On average, the throughput is 30 Megabits per second (Mbps) downlink commissioning were critical for the successful deployment of the
and 15 Mbps uplink, sometimes worse, sometimes better. The county uses much-needed indoor system.
four-way receive (4xRX) diversity on nearly half of its sites and typically A “FirstNet After Action Report” on the Super Bowl reported that it was the
achieves higher averages in the uplink on those sites. first large-scale special event to incorporate the use of mobile apps as key
4xRX is a technique where four receive elements are used, which gives operational tools to support public-safety communications from the beginning
an overall gain of 4 dBm on average and provides more coverage on the of the planning process. The use of mobile data and applications became a
cell edge. Improved signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) allows for core element of the communications during the event and proved incredibly
higher modulation to be used, giving an overall system performance gain. valuable in augmenting LMR for improved situational awareness and multia-
This is typically an option or license feature for a carrier and is highly gency information sharing.
recommended. The costs of the license could potentially offset the cost of
an unnecessary additional site. Coverage modeling can be set to account Applications for the Event
for 4xRx, as well as antenna spacing on the tower, and produces vastly Harris County coupled Moxtra, a collaboration application used for
different results when run with no spacing and only two-way receive (2xRx). portable devices, with Sting for situational awareness. For in-vehicle
Industry partner Motorola Solutions owns the prediction tool that was used in modems, the county used NetMotion for seamless network handoff. Other
these cases, and the county’s drive testing showed the model was accurate. applications used included ESChat’s push to talk (PTT) over broadband
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48 I Band 14 LTE in Houston Offers FirstNet Lessons Band 14 LTE in Houston Offers FirstNet Lessons I 49
application, Neon’s indoor tracking software and GoCoder for mobile live not see any throughput issues during the Super Bowl, although only
streaming. public-safety personnel used the system.
Nearly 1,000 public-safety personnel across 10 local, state and federal Public safety in general will benefit from FirstNet. Without a doubt, a new
agencies, including 250 to 400 daily active users, were trained on the apps. standard is on the rise in data communications, and FirstNet has already
Messaging, picture/video sharing and field reporting were the primary uses. changed the game. With the offering from AT&T on the table for opt-in states
Law-enforcement users included undercover, security supervisors, special and the competitive nature of other providers, we will soon see a shift to
events and specialized units. Fire and EMS users included medics, priority service models and offerings, no matter the carrier. The lessons and
hazardous materials (HAZMAT) and special events. knowledge learned from early builder projects can assist in public safety’s
In the absence of a prescribed planning process in the incident command transition to broadband technology. n
system (ICS) framework, the team developed an ad hoc process that included:
n Creating a concept of operation to guide product selection and device Jim McMillan is senior manager of communication services for Harris
distribution; County (Texas) Public Safety Technology Services in Houston. He has
n Developing an information architecture to support the organizational been working for Harris County since February 2015 where he built the
structure and operations plans; and public-safety Long Term Evolution (LTE) 700 MHz band 14 network. Prior
n Writing standard operating procedures (SOP) to guide who produced/ to that, McMillan worked with AT&T for 15 years in design, RF performance
received content, how information was distributed, naming conventions and and optimization engineering. At Harris County, he manages the public-
other operational and technical elements to facilitate efficient and secure safety LTE and LMR systems from budget and business process to
information sharing. engineering. Email feedback to editor@RRMediaGroup.com.
A Successful Deployment
The Houston Police Department (HPD) was the lead organization for
public-safety operations for the Super Bowl. HPD leadership recognized
Harris County as the experts in LTE and looked for guidance to facilitate the
process, while it provided the necessary participation of key staff to develop
and execute a plan that would successfully support the overall incident
action plan (IAP).
The deployment was successful. The use of the LTE system and mobile
apps significantly reduced radio traffic and dispatch time through real-time
location services. The network also provided a secured mechanism for
sharing sensitive information and improved information sharing across
agencies and different units within those agencies. Group messaging
allowed for the immediate redistribution of information. Redistribution of
original content and sharing of pictures and videos reduced the amount of
misinformation. The incident commander (IC) could monitor events in real
time from any location, and there was reduced noise and chaos in the
forward command post.
One significant lesson learned from the event is that it is important to
provide ubiquitous coverage throughout an operational area so that end
users have access to the tools regardless of their location. The system did
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50 I Section 2: User Perspectives
RadioResource
How P25 Coverage TM
Now that the First Responder As a professional in the critical communications industry,
Network Authority (FirstNet) is a you are aware of how quickly the industry is evolving and
online
realistically expect the NPSBN to cover all of these areas with reliable
coverage right out of the gate. Therefore, if agencies focus on proper
planning and coverage modeling when building new and expanding existing
P25 networks, they will take the first step toward integration with LTE, as well
as ensure communications among first responders in all service areas.
System Design Process antenna heights can all be modeled with any number of area study types —
A successful system deployment or expansion requires sophisticated RF shadow map, received power at remote, field strength and interference
planning software to model the service area environment, take into account calculations. A thorough network design shortens the time to deployment,
the integration of a variety of technologies and system architectures, and ensures required coverage, and establishes a properly balanced and robust
consider signal quality, interference and redundancy requirements. This network that meets budget requirements.
process allows the user to predict coverage based on these parameters.
In any system design or coverage prediction process, the user must first Ray Tracing
create a model using service area data that accurately depicts terrain Regardless of the planning process chosen, not every real-world scenario
elevation and land use. Because structures, foliage and other elements in a can always be accounted for. In a typical propagation model, you look at the
service area impact system performance, it is imperative that the data is path between a transmitter and receiver and calculate the path loss between
current, accurate and granular. Not only does data provide an accurate them. However, in the real world, environmental factors complicate matters
representation of building footprints and roadways, it is specifically designed because signals can reflect and diffract off of objects not within the direct
for RF planning and regularly updated to reflect new service area path. Ray tracing is a propagation model that is an accurate representation
developments. This data places different geographic areas in their respective of the signals based on environmental factors because it takes into account
categories — industrial, residential, retail — with an associated attenuation the behavior of each ray. Ray tracing uses building data along with other
value assigned to each category at varying frequencies. Because of the details of the service area environment to provide accurate site-specific
increasingly complex nature of service areas that contain a mixture of calculations and predictions of how signals will interact within complex
land-use types, a wireless system may behave much differently even in the environments. However, with recent graphics processing unit (GPU)
smallest geographic areas. Successful system planning will depend greatly accelerated ray tracing models, study processing times are orders of
on the accuracy and resolution of these databases. magnitude faster than traditional ray tracing and have become a more viable
option.
3D Models
Some networks must cover complex service area environments that In-Building Coverage
require an agency to create a 3D model to efficiently plan the deployment. Obviously, not all networks will be outdoors. For any mission-critical
A 3D model may consist of land-use height data that will not only depict network, it is vital to ensure in-building coverage. A thorough software-
land-use areas with associated attenuation values but will also assign a planning suite allows agencies to create a detailed 3D model from floor plan
height to each category. For example, the heights of structures found in an drawings and includes RF modeling algorithms to predict signal behavior
industrial area may be different than those in a residential area. Clutter within that space. Additionally, these models should accommodate tuning of
height data will depict this information. In addition, an agency might procure site-specific variability in that environment, such as the RF properties of
a building database to get an idea of building footprints and the heights of walls and other objects located in a particular structure. For a greater level
each individual building in a given area. Creating such a model can of system accuracy, agencies must also consider cables and connectors
accurately model coverage of mobile units being deployed in a dense urban in the design plan with losses assigned based on lengths, including
area, for example. interconnections between levels in a multifloor building.
It is also important to consider each piece of hardware, along with its Design software also aids in the process by storing a database of the
specifications and limitations, in conjunction with the service area equipment used and producing a bill of materials for the final design. Many
characteristics where the network will be deployed. For example, a given network designs must consider complex service area scenarios, including
piece of hardware that is deployed in a dense urban area may not be outdoor-to-indoor coverage. With the available tools, including terrain and
appropriate in a sparsely populated rural area. Equipment parameters such land-use data along with 3D building data, users can seamlessly ensure
as transmitter power, antenna system gains and losses, antenna types and there is isolation between outdoor and indoor networks as well as identify
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54 I How P25 Coverage Can Benefit FirstNet Section 2: User Perspectives I 55
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56 I App Security and Privacy Vulnerabilities App Security and Privacy Vulnerabilities I 57
pilot project was conducted in partnership with DHS S&T, NIST and In early 2017, the goals of the pilot and its testing process were explained
Kryptowire, with the goal to improve mobile app security for first responders to the participating developers. Kryptowire then conducted automated app
and the broad public-safety community. testing and produced reports for developers that explained items requiring
Previous DHS S&T research efforts involved funding Kryptowire to develop remediation. After completing testing and remediation, feedback on the
an automated app-vetting solution, specifically based on government process and evaluation criteria was solicited from developers. The results
standards — National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) requirements were presented at the APCO 2017 Annual Conference in August.
for vetting mobile apps. S&T supported this research to address the federal The mobile app analysis tools produced concrete evidence about
government’s need for standardized, cost-effective, automated methods potential security and/or privacy issues in an app and the conditions that
and tools to vet, deploy and manage mobile apps — a key enabler of the trigger such issues. This evidence included potential code vulnerabilities,
government’s adoption of mobile technologies. Several federal agencies use bad coding practices or weaknesses an app exhibited. The test report
the S&T-funded testing platform to test apps they use. informed APCO and the developer about potential vulnerabilities found in
each app. The report identified specific code segments that contain the
Pilot Details offending capabilities, enabling developers to fix identified issues. The
The objectives of the pilot were to determine the vulnerability state of testing approach leveraged static and dynamic analysis methods to
public-safety apps and lay the foundation for a sustainable model for testing explore the code and behaviors of the target apps, including any third-party
the security and privacy of these apps. Using APCO’s AppComm to identify code and libraries used in the app. The tools also reported all of an app’s
popular public-safety apps, the pilot evaluated 33 apps, counting iOS and performed activities, network communications and program functionality.
Android versions separately, created by 20 developers. Kryptowire provided Based on this information, security and privacy concerns could be identified
access to its mobile app software-testing platform, and mobile app security as items for the developer to either fix or justify as necessary risks for the
experts at DHS and NIST identified a subset of the government’s NIAP app to properly function.
criteria as app characteristics most relevant to public-safety users. There were two severity classes for the findings:
The steps of the pilot workflow included the following: n Red flag items — six on Android and 14 on iOS — that required
n Identify a subset of the most frequently used public-safety apps from developer action
AppComm n Orange flag items — 52 on Android and 57 on iOS — that required
n Recruit mobile app developers to participate in testing developer explanation
n Establish a developer registration process and submission portal
n Submit apps to Kryptowire directly from AppComm — no source code Only one of the 33 tested apps did not have any vulnerabilities. Five of 15
required Android apps had red flags, while all 15 had orange flags. Thirteen of the 18
n Use a combination of dynamic testing and code analysis to evaluate iOS apps had red flags, while 17 had orange flags.
applications The developers then received findings requiring developer action or
n Generate confidential app testing reports for developer organizations explanation. Each finding included information describing the importance
n Engage in a remediation dialog with developers of the flagged issue and any relevant context to assist the developer in
n Resubmit apps for evaluation after remediating or providing rationale for resolving or tracking down the cause. Orange flag items that required
identified issues developer explanation contained editable form fields for the developer’s
n Review test results and developer responses and make an app response. These forms were returned to Kryptowire and APCO for validation.
suitability determination
n Potentially post the mobile app in the directory if it passes all checks Remediation and Developer Feedback
and receives a positive determination After the application developers provided responses to the identified
concerns, the team created a feedback loop in which APCO and Kryptowire
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58 I App Security and Privacy Vulnerabilities App Security and Privacy Vulnerabilities I 59
verified the developer’s responses or replied with additional comments or n Result in remediation of vulnerabilities identified by security evaluators;
questions. Developers could request clarification or provide feedback n Illustrate software quality issues in app source code, which once
regarding testing or results. Giving developers access to Kryptowire im- addressed, improve the overall quality of the app;
proved the efficiency of the testing process. Two developers discussed their n Demonstrate how the analysis process provides a mechanism for
questions about the analysis results during calls with Kryptowire. In both developers to justify app behavior that may be deemed risky; and
instances, this direct communication led to an expeditious resolution of the n Improve state-of-the-art in-app vetting by providing valuable feedback to
identified security issue. security experts concerning false-positives.
Many developers used the results provided in Kryptowire’s reports to make
changes to their apps, enhancing security. For example, Kryptowire’s analysis A key takeaway from the pilot is that developers must have sufficient
showed that certain apps had disabled Apple’s App Transport Security, which incentive to participate in an app evaluation and vetting process. While the
enforces encrypted communications. The app developers recognized the model’s cost burden is relatively low, developers must see a clear benefit
issue and remediated it. Kryptowire’s analysis also identified apps that to justify the time and potential fees of app vetting. Apps that provide public-
requested permission to write to the external device storage. The external safety services must be reliable because a large number of users depend on
storage on an Android device is not secure; any app on the device has read them in critical moments. These apps also must be secure; otherwise, attacks
access to that data. The developers confirmed this permission was no longer could cause serious consequences by jeopardizing the safety and security of
needed and removed it from updated app versions. users and the public.
The information developers provided on items that required explanation DHS S&T reached the following conclusions from the pilot:
proved useful to APCO and Kryptowire evaluators. In many cases, it n Mobile apps used by first responders and the public for emergency
provided insight into the development process and methodology, enabling response or other public-safety purposes are potentially vulnerable and
the team to better understand the security precautions taken when accessing warrant further inspection.
critical device functionality. For instance, the testing flagged one Android app n Semi-automated testing based on established and clear criteria,
for using the device’s external storage; however, in its response, the developer complemented with manual analysis to establish a risk-based assessment, is
noted that all information written to external storage was encrypted using a a feasible and effective approach to app security evaluation.
secure algorithm with a key derived from the user’s password. This approach n Continuously evaluating app security is necessary, especially when a
provided assurance that the developer worked to ensure the data remains mobile app is updated or a new version is submitted to an app portal.
secure. n Developers are willing to pay for app evaluations if the right incentives
are in place.
Lessons Learned n There is still a lack of awareness in the first-responder community about
Mobile app security should be of concern to the public-safety community the state of mobile app security. Further education and training are required
given the number of issues and vulnerabilities identified by the pilot. A First to increase demand for app security evaluation. n
Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) official said in January that the
FirstNet network is the pass-through pipe for data, but agencies and Vincent Sritapan is a mobile security program manager at the Department of
governments are responsible for data security. The findings demonstrate Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate (S&T), aiming
the need for a formal, ongoing app evaluation process with appropriate to accelerate the adoption of secure mobility for the homeland mission.
incentives for developer participation. Email him at vincent.sritapan@hq.dhs.gov.
An automated mobile app vetting capability could be integrated into a
resource such as AppComm to assure public-safety app users that apps Karim Eldefrawy is a senior computer scientist at SRI International. His
have met certain security criteria. The interaction between app developers research interest and publications span systems and networking security, as
and app security evaluators should: well as applied cryptography. Email him at karim.eldefrawy@sri.com.
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60 I Section 2: User Perspectives Texas’ NG 9-1-1 Transition Plan I 61
Texas’ NG 9-1-1 (NENA) to create the Industry Collaboration Events (ICE). ICE industry
interoperability testing events occur about once a year, with industry
Transition Plan assembling to perform the testing in a nonthreatening environment. The
privacy is ensured by the ICE code of conduct, which mandates detailed
By Dr. Walt Magnussen information about testing not be disseminated outside the ICE community.
During the past five years, ITEC has focused much of its efforts on the First
In 2015, the state of Texas Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) public-safety broadband network.
Commission on State Emergency The most current efforts have been in the area of the eventual integration of
Communications (CSEC) signed an NG 9-1-1 and FirstNet.
interlocal agreement with the Texas A&M The goal of the project is to educate CSEC about NG 9-1-1 functional
University Internet2 Technology elements, interoperability of NG 9-1-1 with E9-1-1 and traffic migration to be
Evaluation Center (ITEC) for testing able to make informed decisions as the commission embarks on its transition
next-generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1) to the NG 9-1-1 network. The project will enable CSEC to develop a
functional elements in the ITEC lab comprehensive request for proposals (RFP), ask the appropriate questions
environment. The agreement is part of during contract negotiations and understand what is needed to manage the
an NG 9-1-1 strategic plan that allows network once it is installed.
A frequently asked question is why the project is needed if ICE provides
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62 I Texas’ NG 9-1-1 Transition Plan Texas’ NG 9-1-1 Transition Plan I 63
transitional devices. Functional elements will be required until the E9-1-1 requirement to bid on any future solicitation.
to NG 9-1-1 transition is 100 percent complete nationwide. The elements During the phase two network project, a multilevel ESInet was built to
include the legacy network gateway (LNG), legacy selective router gateway emulate what will eventually be our reality. CSEC will have an ESInet that
(LSRG) and legacy systems required to support them, such as automatic will support a PSAP, but there will likely be other ESInets within the state of
location information (ALI) databases and the selective routers. Texas. NG 9-1-1 is designed on a hierarchical architecture, allowing local
Phase two, which began in March 2016, researched the ESInet functional entities to manage their own location-based call routing while still being a
elements. These include the emergency call routing function (ECRF), part of a larger network. Interconnected local networks connected to
emergency services routing proxy (ESRP) and border control functions state-level ESInets, which would in turn connect to a national ESInet, are
(BCF). Phase three, which began as soon as phase two was complete, envisioned. It is possible that someday a global ESInet layer will interconnect
evaluated the customer premise equipment (CPE) that will be housed in the all countries. This project is designed to explore the various ways of
PSAPs. All three phases were scheduled to be completed and test reports supporting these interconnected networks.
finalized by Aug. 31, 2017. An important part of phase two was the integration of testing and
To test the phase one transition devices, it was necessary to obtain access performance monitoring and reporting systems. Tools integrated at this point
to legacy networks. Obviously, it is never a good idea to interconnect to live included WireShare for doing packet capture, Oracle network management
networks for a test project, so this required some out-of-the-box thinking, and monitoring systems, and Assure Networks for network issue reporting.
along with great service provider support. The final solution involved the This aspect of the network received a lot of attention from the FCC in the
installation of an IP security (IPSEC) tunnel between the CenturyLink labs in E9-1-1 space during the past few years so it is important that we don’t lose
Littleton, Colorado, and the ITEC labs in College Station, Texas, providing any momentum because of the transition.
access to the CenturyLink DMS 100 based selective router. Another IPSEC The state of Texas DIR is an important participant in this project. A set of
tunnel to Intrado’s labs in Longmont, Colorado, provided access to ALI and Juniper routers was installed using virtual router fabrics at the TAMU ITEC
location information services (LIS) databases. The donation of a legacy lab and the DIR labs in Austin to allow us to emulate the ESInet layers. The
Airbus DS Communications PSAP by the Brazos Valley Council of DIR will be the underlying network infrastructure using MPLS or some other
Governments in Texas also made the project possible. The PSAP will be technology, and it is important that this aspect of the network be understood
used to test the transfer of an NG 9-1-1 call from an ESInet to a legacy as well. The transport will be one of the largest operating costs going forward,
PSAP. Solacom and Acculabs donated the transition devices for this phase. especially in rural communities. A thorough understanding of this aspect of
While the phase one project was intended to focus on legacy transition the network will undoubtedly add resilience and reduce costs.
devices, ITEC staff had to install enough ESInet elements to test the entire
call flow. The center received donations from Juniper (core router), Oracle End Results
(BCF), Geocomm (ECRF) and Experient (ESRP and PSAP). To document the test results, the CSEC is requiring formal test scripts,
each of which is based on a NENA i3 specification requirement. The i3
Phase Two specification is the one and only complete specification that will ultimately
Phase two focused on ESInet functional elements. To ensure participation ensure industrywide interoperability, enhanced functionality and reduced
from the entire industry, CSEC sent a call for donations to all manufacturers costs. These scripts are being generated by Capgemini and vetted by all of
of NG 9-1-1 functional elements. The donations would be made to the Texas the project participants.
A&M University ITEC and would need to include some limited engineering We have already learned a lot. One example is in the placement of the
support. The lab donation process began about a decade ago and has legacy network gateway elements. It was not initially clear whether the i3
resulted in almost $6 million in donations of NG 9-1-1 and public-safety specification would be a service provider function or if it was an integral part
broadband network Long Term Evolution (LTE) equipment. While donations of the ESInet. After discussions with NENA staff and some of the people who
will help to build the knowledge base, they are not intended to be a wrote the i3 specifications, we ensured that we had it in the right place prior
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64 I Texas’ NG 9-1-1 Transition Plan
Walt Magnussen Jr., Ph.D., runs the Internet2 Technology Evaluation Center
(ITEC), an emergency communications lab at Texas A&M University (TAMU),
and has an appointment with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ),
National Institute of Justice (NIJ) as a senior policy analyst. He had an
appointment with Internet2 for a Broadband Technologies Opportunities
Program (BTOP) grant to build national infrastructure for public safety as the
Public Safety Advocate. He also served on the FCC’s Emergency Response
Interoperability Center (ERIC) technical advisory committee and serves on
the FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council
(CSRIC). He sits on the MissionCritical Communications editorial advisory
board. Contact him at w-magnussen@tamu.edu. Sponsored by
Media Group
Section 3:
Applications: PTT, Video and More
Why MCPTT Interoperability Is Critical, By Emil Olbrich .........................................68
Critical Issues for Video Policy, By Don Zoufal ........................................................75
The Importance of PTT Interoperability, By Josh Lober and Brett Moser ...............80 The Only
Search-and-Rescue Robots, By Dr. Robin Murphy and Dr. Walt Magnussen .........85
LMR and LTE for Transportable Coverage, By Richard Wong .................................90
Dispatch and LTE PTT Integration, By Randy Richmond........................................94
Website You Need
Go to the All New MCCmag.com
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vital industry links, white papers, e-books, products,
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68 I Section 3: Applications: PTT, Video and More Why MCPTT Interoperability Is Critical I 69
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70 I Why MCPTT Interoperability Is Critical Why MCPTT Interoperability Is Critical I 71
boundaries. FirstNet has stated that its application network is closed, and application space is inundated with feature-rich, cost-effective systems that
PTT services will be offered on its network with no cross-carrier network in- work across networks. OTT PTT applications have had success in both the
teroperability. It is unknown if the same will be true for MCPTT implementation. commercial and public-safety markets. Google Play has more than 150
Verizon’s hosted PTT+ service from Kodiak Networks offers radio over IP applications that purport to offer PTT functionality available for download.
(RoIP) and Project 25 (P25) Inter RF Subsystem Interface (ISSI) LMR Two years ago there were only 16 such apps. An advantage of nearly all
interworking via a virtual private network (VPN) connection from the agency OTT PTT applications is the ability to work on multiple broadband access
interface to the Verizon/Kodiak hosted solution. Verizon offers some quality technologies such as Wi-Fi, LTE and even 3G data on multiple platforms.
of service (QoS) differentiation with its private network traffic management Innovation is the other benefit of OTT applications. Without the constraints
solution. However, for public safety, Verizon committed to upgrade to MCPTT of the network or standards process, they can integrate data sharing, video,
with priority and pre-emption capabilities at no additional user costs. photos, text and location-awareness capabilities enabled from a device.
Verizon is the only operator currently offering cross-carrier support for PTT Integration into Digital Mobile Radio (DMR), LMR and P25 ISSI is available
with the Kodiak solution. Because the Kodiak solution is hosted in the cloud, with many solutions. A major advantage of OTT applications is that they can
it provides service from the same system to Verizon, AT&T and Sprint. In work on a variety of devices and across multiple carrier networks because
theory, this service could be used on other LTE networks such as rural and these are application-layer-enabled systems.
regional carriers using an internet connection. The biggest issue with OTT PTT is that once a vendor is selected for
Verizon cross-carrier interoperability service is in use by a few agencies, the application, everyone needs to have the same application. For instance,
and Verizon could begin marketing it this year. AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint a Harris BeOn PTT system cannot directly communicate with a Motorola
declined to interoperate with Verizon talkgroups on its solution; thus, a new Wave PTT system. This quickly destroys interoperability and becomes a
Verizon talkgroup definition must be added to manage the users. Verizon large-scale management problem. Therefore, MCPTT that adheres to 3GPP
supports advanced encryption standard (AES) 256 bit and is looking at standards should be implemented. Because of this common need for voice
Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2-compliant devices, communications, MCPTT development has been accelerated in 3GPP for
but the cost seems prohibitive. the past two years.
Verizon is also committed to providing ISSI and Console Subsystem
Interface (CSSI) console interfaces into a Third Generation Partnership MCPTT Standards
Project (3GPP) MCPTT solution. The carrier is pushing Kodiak/Motorola to MCPTT is a global standard that is being led by system architecture group
provide it with a 3GPP MCPTT-compliant solution by mid-2018. Verizon is six (SA6) of 3GPP. The seminal document for MCPTT is “3GPP TS 23.279
also creating an Excel template that can be provided to agencies to define Functional Architecture and Information Flows to Support Mission Critical
talkgroups in a common schema. This spreadsheet can then be automatically Push-To-Talk (MCPTT).” This document was initially part of the 3GPP
uploaded to the MCPTT application server with all the proper talkgroups Release 13 specification, and the latest version reflects Stage 2 requirements
defined. for 3GPP Release 15. This document specifies the functional architecture,
From a QoS perspective, a major issue for MCPTT support is from the features and data flows for MCPTT, and it addresses making MCPTT calls
device vendors, although the current Kodiak solution supports both iOS and on multiple networks.
Android devices on multiple carriers globally. The Kyocera Duraforce Pro and MCPTT requires an integrated client application of the LTE device and an
Sonim XP5 are the only devices that support PTT+ and QCI on Verizon’s MCPTT server that connects to the LTE core network. The MCPTT server
network, but the carrier could provide this capability to a majority of its device can also run the database functions, as this is all software implemented. The
portfolio in the future for MCPTT. use of the IP multimedia system (IMS) is optional for MCPTT. MCPTT without
the IMS function can simplify call processing, reduce cost and allow for
Over-the-Top PTT unique deployments such as backpack deployable systems. Unlike voice
With carrier-agnostic applications for Android and Apple, the PTT over LTE (VoLTE), which mandates use of IMS, MCPTT offers some flexibility.
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72 I Why MCPTT Interoperability Is Critical Why MCPTT Interoperability Is Critical I 73
It is likely, though, that MCPTT delivered from an operator will use the same applications support calls over Wi-Fi and use of corporate Wi-Fi indoors.
IMS core as VoLTE. Current MCPTT implementations would lose this capability and require
The primary interface from the MCPTT application server to LMR will be innovation beyond what is being proposed in 3GPP. One of the indoor
accomplished via the interworking function (IWF) interface, defined in “3GPP coverage solutions provided by FirstNet is use of AT&T’s more than 40,000
TS 23.283 Mission Critical Communication Interworking with LMR Systems.” Wi-Fi hot spots. If MCPTT is not available while in Wi-Fi coverage, this must
Interworking in this context is a way to communicate between MCPTT and be addressed from either a coverage or functionality perspective to ensure
LMR systems, whereby users with service from a MCPTT system can MCPTT works indoors.
communicate with LMR network users. The IWF’s purpose is to adapt LMR
data and signaling to MCPTT data flows, which means that there will be no Recommendations and Deployment Options
direct connection between a P25 ISSI and the NPSBN without an IWF MCPTT can be deployed in a variety of ways. This flexibility has caused
implemented. As of the latest version of the document for Release 15, there some vendors to explore the options. There are some functional and
remains a tremendous amount of work to further define the IWF. operational differences in each deployment, but the majority of the MCPTT
Although work to define the LMR IWF gateway interface specifications is deployment options are business-case driven.
being done in 3GPP, the actual specification from an LMR network to the The following are suggested requirements that public safety should adopt
LMR IWF gateway is not being defined by industry standards organizations. in a MCPTT solution:
MCPTT to LMR communications will be required to transcode from the 1. Use a 3GPP standards-based MCPTT solution that can be software
Advanced Multiband Excitation (AMBE) codec to the Adaptive Multi-Rate upgradeable with each system’s release in both the device client and
(AMR) audio codec. Transcoding is not a problem in itself, but one of the application server.
issues with P25 implementation is that each P25 network uses its own 2. The application server and client application should have open APIs for
expensive code and has unique security and encryption protocols, thus software development kits (SDKs) to allow maximum vendor interoperability
making key sharing costly and complicated. Every ISSI connection to the and competition for best-in-class implementation, such as the Mission
IWF must be separately and securely connected — making management Critical Open Platform (MCOP) API.
and cost of this implementation unfeasible. Use of an ISSI hub would be a 3. The system should allow for both hosted and local implementations for
more efficient way to interconnect MPCTT to state and local LMR networks; integration into existing P25 ISSI, CSSI and non-ISSI-based systems. This
however, there is a cost for hardware, software and maintenance of such a includes the ability to relay simplex LMR communications on MCPTT.
solution. 4. The MCPTT service should work across all mobile operator networks
However, not all is well in the land of 3GPP when it comes to MCPTT used by public safety, including international roaming and Wi-Fi.
interoperability. One thing that the standards process does not do is define 5. The MCPTT solution should be able to implement all of the various
the applications programming interface (API) between the MCPTT device talkgroups already defined across the state, with proper authentication and
application and the MCPTT application server on the network. This means security, allowing only those authorized access to specific talkgroups.
you could have a 3GPP-compliant MCPTT application on a device from 6. Support for both Android and iOS devices is required.
vendor A being served by a MCPTT application server from vendor B and 7. The MCPTT solution must be cost effective to implement for all agency
how the device interoperates with the network is not clearly defined. This is sizes with minimal to zero impact on cost and complexity to the user.
similar to initial voice over LTE (VoLTE) implementations where there were
subtle differences in IMS protocol stacks between vendors. Those working One of the most important capabilities is the ability to operate across
on MCPTT should avoid this pitfall. mobile network operators. This capability can be achieved with hosted
Lastly, MCPTT is designed to work on an LTE network, and in the current MCPTT solutions offered by several MCPTT vendors and by carriers willing
3GPP specifications, there is no additional functionality to support non-3GPP to offer this service. Based on what is known, the current AT&T/FirstNet PTT
access. This is potentially a big issue for several reasons. Current OTT solution will not be interoperable with any other users who are not on their
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74 I Why MCPTT Interoperability Is Critical Section 3: Applications: PTT, Video and More I 75
Creating a Subcommittee
The DHS S&T office requested that the VQiPS Working Group’s Policy
Subcommittee provide guidance for government agencies crafting written
policies and procedures for the use of CCTV video data and metadata in a
variety of public-safety applications. The subcommittee, consisting of experts
in many areas of public safety, held meetings in 2015 and 2016 to discuss
important policy issues related to CCTV use. The purpose was to highlight
policy considerations for agencies establishing or implementing recently
established video systems. These considerations might also be useful for
agencies with old video systems to examine whether established policies
reflect current social and legal environments.
The policy subcommittee made a choice to focus the framework on the
use of video by governmental entities in public spaces because of the
Media Group inherent policy challenges. The committee did not focus on a particular
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76 I Critical Issues for Video Policy Critical Issues for Video Policy I 77
camera or system but instead captured issues that must be addressed in n Who is authorized to view images and processed data;
implementing a CCTV video program for public-safety applications. n How long the video will normally be retained;
A comprehensive framework for policy development should emphasize n What measures will be necessary to block or override automated
alerting decision-makers to areas where policy choices must be made. The deletion;
conclusions of decision-makers will vary. For example, some jurisdictions n Whether the results of analytics are stored directly with the video or
may choose long data retention periods, while others will choose short elsewhere;
periods. However, the critical factor is that policy decisions must be made n Whether additional privileges are required to access the results of video
around the issue of video data retention. analytics;
The policy subcommittee identified five overarching substantive issues that n What procedures will be followed to disclose the videos to others, both
require consideration across virtually all aspects of a video program: clearly inside and outside the organization; and
articulated public-safety goals; understanding and accommodating privacy n What procedures will be followed prior to public disclosure of video data.
concerns; attention to the security of video networks and data; transparency
in the conduct of image collection and data storage and use; and common Security is Critical
issues in the operation of public video programs, including technology As with privacy, security considerations should be addressed in all aspects
considerations, interoperability and continuity of operation. of creating and managing public-safety video systems, as well as any
With regard to the public-safety goals, the subcommittee members systems that interact with the greater public-safety video and data ecosystem.
emphasized that video policies need to be aligned with a clearly defined Security is critical to ensuring the availability of the video system and the
governmental purpose for the video system, as well as to be consistent with integrity of its data. Inadequate security will leave users unable to access
legal requirements and privacy concerns and protections. Determining the critical data or to rely on the accuracy of collected data. Moreover, a lack of
governmental purpose(s) for a CCTV video system is essential. A written proper security impairs the ability of government users to ensure that data is
policy statement outlining public-safety purposes and goals is an important used only for proper governmental purposes, and the privacy of individuals is
step in demonstrating the public-safety purpose(s) that the government seeks protected.
to accomplish. These policy statements need to include assurances of the Addressing transparency concerns in collecting and using video data has
integrity of the systems. Audit programs must be developed and implemented two key components: commitment to system openness in the promulgation
to make certain their use is only for legitimate government purposes. of policy and establishment of mechanisms to ensure compliance with policy
requirements. Transparency requires not only having the policies of the
Writing a Policy organization open to the public but also procedures and practices in place to
The policy subcommittee recommended that a written policy address enforce the policies. The purpose of this detailed articulation of responsibilities
privacy concerns by discussing: across the breadth of the organization is to present a clear path for
n Why video is being collected and retained; assessment of accountability and audit. An IT audit is needed to measure
n Whether cameras will be covert (hidden) or overt; the program’s effectiveness and to evaluate the system’s internal controls to
n Whether there will be notice given to those in the area (i.e., with signs); protect agency information and privacy.
n How the images will be used;
n What analytics (i.e., automated systematic computational analysis), if Technology and Interoperability
any, will be applied to the video data; Important technological considerations include how to select the type of
n Whether attempts to identify individuals in the video data will be made video technology. The “VQiPS User Guide,” interactive web tool and “Digital
systematically or on a case-by-case basis; Video Quality Handbook,” all available on PSCR’s website, are useful for
n What other information will be combined with the video as part of developing specifications for the video system. When selecting the video
processing; system, understanding the people-oriented aspects and processes
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78 I Critical Issues for Video Policy Critical Issues for Video Policy I 79
associated with the technology will be critical for aligning the technology with systems. It should not be considered a best practices or template but rather
the operational use. Objective subject matter experts should assist with the a discussion of potentially important policy considerations.
design, selection, build and quality assurance (QA) process. This expertise Determining the governmental purpose(s) for a CCTV video system is
may be from one individual, a consulting firm or a large engineering firm with essential. A written policy statement outlining public-safety goals is an
integration expertise. There are positive and negative implications with any of important step in demonstrating the public-safety purpose(s) that government
these options, so it is important to understand what will be best in a given seeks to accomplish. The policy subcommittee document should serve as a
instance. Objectivity is most important in identifying the correct technology resource for issues to consider when formulating or updating government
for the mission and in avoiding solutions that may prove limiting in the future. policies and procedures for deploying, using, sharing and maintaining CCTV
Interoperability for video data sharing is also essential to avoiding solutions video information. n
that are limiting or may be limiting in the future. The policy for interoperability
should include considerations for connecting with and leveraging existing Don Zoufal, an independent consultant for Crowznet Consulting, provides
infrastructure, including legacy video systems, as well as emerging strategic and policy advice on safety and security issues and technologies.
technologies. Each given product may have proprietary features and may Zoufal, a retired colonel of the U.S. Army Reserves, has expertise in safety
not necessarily facilitate interoperability across system components. A stable and security operations, law enforcement, legal operations, risk management
platform of proven, open, scalable and reliable products will also facilitate and international affairs.
the ability to develop video-sharing partnerships with other governmental
agencies. Making certain that different components work together is a system Members of the VQiPS subcommittee, including Julie Stroup, city of
engineering problem that must be addressed by the video system owner. Houston; Mark Ryckman, city of Corning, New York; Hinrich Schmidt,
Interoperability also enhances continuity of operations (COOP). Essential Motorola Solutions; Tom Hengeveld, Harris; and Mike Fergus, International
government functions must be resilient in emergency situations. When Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), contributed to the article. Andrew
developing an agency’s COOP plan, determine what functions of the public- Hartigan of CSRA and DHS, and John Contestabile and Steven Babin from
safety video program are mission critical. Examples may include using CCTV the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) also
to monitor and adjust evacuation procedures. helped write the feature. Email feedback to editor@RRMediaGroup.com.
The policy subcommittee found eight additional issues that require
consideration by policymakers as they develop video programs. Those
areas are sighting and location; access and use, including search; source
considerations; notice considerations; monitoring, analysis and analytic
applications; retention of data; dissemination of data; and governance issues.
The subcommittee recommended analyzing these issues according to their
underlying assumptions, strategic objectives, operational measures,
technical measures, stakeholders, impacts and other special considerations.
A Valuable Resource
The policy subcommittee document, available online, offers a flexible tool
that can be adapted to the needs of different jurisdictions and disciplines. It
is a living document that can be changed as new policy challenges are
identified and new policy solutions are formulated. The document provides
important issues for government agencies to consider when developing
written policies and procedures for the deployment and use of CCTV video
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80 I Section 3: Applications: PTT, Video and More The Importance of PTT Interoperability I 81
The Importance of AT&T’s new deployment model provides the benefit of bringing FirstNet
service to market quickly; however, features are lost in the exchange.
PTT Interoperability Multicast. AT&T’s commercial LTE network, similar to all commercial
cellular networks, is tuned to provide the best service for all subscribers,
By Josh Lober and Brett Moser from near cell to cell edge. This tuning is in contrast to that required for
multicast, one of the differentiating pillars of MCPTT. It was understood that
In this post-award era of the the band 14 network would be tuned for multicast; otherwise, MCPTT could
First Responder Network Authority never support the user capacity to replace LMR. AT&T will likely overlay
(FirstNet), the objective has band 14 in urban areas to provide the necessary capacity for MCPTT.
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82 I The Importance of PTT Interoperability The Importance of PTT Interoperability I 83
to the first responder community. support for private calling, emergency group calling and passing device IDs
across networks. For P25 trunking systems, ISSI is the internetworking
Interoperability Applied to PoC protocol. Originally created to provide interoperability across multivendor P25
Technologies created to facilitate LMR-to-LMR interoperability have networks, a number of PoC vendors have adopted the ISSI interface. PoC
also been used to provide PoC-to-LMR interoperability. The lineage of solutions that use ISSI include Motorola Solutions’ Kodiak PTT, Harris’ BeOn,
interoperability started with radio over IP (RoIP) and was augmented by ESChat and their licensees. A PoC network connected to P25 via ISSI
the bridging system interface (BSI). Today, the Project 25 (P25) Inter RF simply appears as if it were another P25 network. Device IDs and talkgroups
Subsystem Interface (ISSI) provides the best option for multisystem are assigned from the P25 RF Subsystem (RFSS). The PoC devices are
interoperability. subordinate to the P25 RFSS and adhere to all priority and pre-emption
RoIP. RoIP solutions have been successfully deployed throughout the rules. Additionally, all communications between a PoC device and a Console
world, interconnecting remote and disparate LMR radio networks. PoC Subsystem Interface (CSSI)-connected console is fully transparent to the
vendors have integrated with RoIP systems to bridge their cellular and Wi-Fi dispatcher.
PoC systems to the LMR world. RoIP provides a low-cost and highly reliable Though vendors added ISSI to connect PoC products to P25 networks,
solution that meets the basic needs for PoC-to-LMR interoperability. RoIP ISSI can also be used to interconnect PoC networks. In this model, existing
gateways can be connected to PoC servers that are hosted locally or in the PoC solutions, whether carrier integrated or over the top, are capable of
cloud. Gateway configuration is simple and a primary reason RoIP has found full-featured interoperability using standards-based protocols.
long-term market success. With a handful of RoIP gateways to choose from,
the installed base is dominated by JPS Interoperability Solutions. It’s difficult MCPTT as an Open Standard
to find a public-safety agency that does not have JPS ACU gateways. Other The MCPTT specification was written to provide open and interoperable
manufacturers offer a new twist on RoIP. For example, Mutualink recently interfaces at various levels of functionality. Open interfaces that define the
demonstrated multivendor PoC interoperability using its Interoperable communications between MCPTT clients and MCPTT servers, between
Response and Preparedness (IRAPP) platform. multiple MCPTT servers, and between MCPTT servers and existing LMR
BSI. The BSI includes incremental functionality over RoIP. The specification systems exist in the standard or are actively being worked on. To foster
includes two sets of requirements identified as core and enhanced. The innovation and prevent public safety from being locked into a single vendor,
core requirements provide for common methods of initiation and setup all three of these interface points must remain open and accessible to vendors.
interoperability between legacy and proprietary LMR systems, while the MCPTT Server Functions. The MCPTT server functions identified by the
enhanced requirements bridge the gap between simple RoIP and enhanced specification have well-defined interface boundaries. These boundaries allow
PTT systems integration offered by P25 ISSI. While a lot of effort went into for scalability, redundancy and vendor diversity inside the MCPTT solution
the study of the requirements, the standard was never fully realized. ecosystem. Not all MCPTT server functions must be provided by the same
Fortunately, knowledge gleaned from that work is being incorporated in vendor, nor must they all be controlled by the same entity. The split between
requirements work being undertaken by the National Public Safety these MCPTT server functions allows for existing PoC vendors to implement
Telecommunications Council (NPSTC). Two key goals of the protocol are MCPTT server interfaces to allow interoperability directly between MCPTT
notable: Make use of existing standards and avoid any proprietary extensions and existing PoC solutions. This option provides for interoperability not only
to these standards. between different forms of PoC but also allows agencies to operate on other
ISSI. The simplicity of RoIP and BSI make them ideal for basic PoC and LTE networks in addition to FirstNet.
LMR interoperability. However, they are limited in features as they only MCPTT Interworking Function. As part of the development of the
support group calling and without the capability to pass device IDs across MCPTT specification, 3GPP identified key requirements for interoperability
the networks. Advanced protocols are available for full-featured interoperability. with existing LMR systems. The focus of these requirements is based on the
These protocols also support group calling, as well as provide additional P25 and TETRA standards but are not necessarily limited to those. In
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84 I The Importance of PTT Interoperability Section 3: Applications: PTT, Video and More I 85
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86 I Search-and-Rescue Robots Search-and-Rescue Robots I 87
Wi-Fi — to Greece during the ongoing refugee crisis. The Hellenic Coast allow agencies to develop new operations concepts that encourage data
Guard and Hellenic Red Cross use two EMILYs, which are credited with sharing. Second, LTE offers greater bandwidth across longer distances,
saving many lives. fostering effective communications that would be helpful in situations such as
In Greece, another obstacle was getting information about incoming the Turkey to Greece and Africa to Italy migrations. Although coverage of the
refugee boats from spotters on the cliffs to the lifeguards 6.8 miles away at 200-yard bubble is sufficient for immediate responders, a mass casualty
the port or on the water. In general, the communications range of EMILY and incident can involve additional agencies. For example, the embedded GPS
most unmanned systems is limited by Wi-Fi, not by batteries, navigability or location service tracks robots, smart sensors and people. The low cost of
other physical attributes. As a result, rescuers might not be able to use an LTE chipset, about $30 or less, will encourage robot manufacturers to
EMILY to reach a refugee boat trapped on a rocky shore in high seas. include LTE in everything that moves. The pervasive GPS location services
will allow informatics companies to create new interfaces and algorithms to
Mass Casualty Exercises dynamically allocate response resources. For example, officials would not
In August 2016, TAMU held the first of two Summer Institutes on marine have to guess if additional responders were coming or when. Finally, the
mass casualty incidents, highlighting the need for real-time streaming shared interoperability inherent in LTE resolves roaming problems and enables
across long distances. The 2016 Summer Institute engaged the U.S. Coast groups to communicate without centralized controllers, servers or security.
Guard, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies in a LTE would eliminate the problem seen in Greece where 3G cell coverage
concept experiment using EMILY, a small UAV and a Long Term Evolution bounced between towers in Greece and Turkey. Responders could work
(LTE) 700 MHz band 14 network to handle a simulated maritime disaster. seamlessly throughout the Mediterranean.
The experiment found that the responders worked in a 656-foot “bubble,” a As the First Responder Network Authority’s (FirstNet’s) long-awaited
fairly short range, around the incident. However, it also found that on-shore nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN) begins deployment,
agencies — local hospitals and public health organizations from 2.5 to 6.2 it’s time to focus more attention on the devices and applications that will
miles away — could benefit by seeing the magnitude of the incident in real reside on the network. Devices and applications are, after all, what adds
time from a UAV. During the event, on-shore public-health agencies estimated value to the network. Most of the attention now is focused on the handheld
the condition of casualties and looked for signs of secondary problems, such and vehicular-mounted devices that first responders will use. In the category
as oil spills or hazardous chemicals, in the water, while law enforcement of the internet of things (IoT), one of the most overlooked devices on the
determined whether an event showed signs of terrorism. band 14 NPSBN is the search-and-rescue robot.
With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), CRASAR
participated in a marine mass casualty exercise in September 2016 with the Search-and-Rescue Robots
Italian Coast Guard, which was handling the newest wave of immigrants These robots have existed for several years and are being successfully
crossing from North Africa to the Italian island of Lampedusa. The Italian used in countless disaster situations. Most have a wireless component, and
Coast Guard experimented with an EMILY and a tethered Fotokite UAV. The the majority operates on the globally accepted unlicensed industrial, scientific
officials emphasized the need for reliable communications with the EMILY and medical (ISM) bands. There are 12 licensed ISM bands ranging from
because Wi-Fi range is variable. Although the rescuers’ ability to see the 6 MHz to 244 GHz, but most of the actual usage falls in the 2.4 and 5.8 GHz
UAV camera output and the EMILY was deemed important, the Italian Coast bands because of propagation characteristics, according to the International
Guard agreed with the U.S. Coast Guard’s assessment that real-time viewing Telecommunication Union (ITU). Most of the upper bands are too expensive
from on shore was also essential. to build and are limited to line of sight, making their use impractical.
Wi-Fi, which uses the ISM band and is at the heart of search-and-rescue
LTE’s Advantages robots, is globally available, doesn’t require a license and is inexpensive to
LTE could be a game changer for disaster response in a number of ways. deploy. The disadvantage of Wi-Fi for critical applications is its overuse
First, it can provide reliable communications that enhance the response and because of its advantages. It is hard to buy a device that doesn’t support a
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88 I Search-and-Rescue Robots Search-and-Rescue Robots I 89
wireless interface. These devices include light switches, television remotes, support the use of advanced applications.
electronic thermostats, surveillance cameras, doorbells and infant monitors. Offshore network access, such as that experienced in Italy, could be
Much of the usage is in the 2.4 GHz band, placing the heaviest load on a supported through a two-layer access network. The first layer would be
limited amount of spectrum. high-elevation, high-power land-based LTE cell base stations with directional
The issue is further complicated because Wi-Fi uses a congestion antennae pointed out to sea and connected to LTE vehicular repeaters. The
management protocol called carrier sensed, multiple access-collision repeaters would be installed in medium- to large-size Italian Coast Guard
avoidance (CSMA-CA), which was developed in the 1970s. CSMA-CA vessels and naval ships. The Coast Guard vessels would support access for
provides everyone with equal access to the network. If you have something handheld devices and search-and-rescue robots within 2 or 3 miles of the
to transmit, you ask the network for a time slice, and if no one else asks for rescue vessel.
it, you get it. If someone else does ask for the same time slice, there will be The search-and-rescue robot industry must begin evaluating and
a collision of network traffic at which time both requestors will back down a embracing the FirstNet network. The increased coverage, reliability and se-
random number of additional time slices. This may resolve the issue after the curity of LTE over Wi-Fi will greatly increase the effectiveness of these de-
first back-off period, but if not, the process is repeated. This architecture is vices. One of the challenges of deploying these devices on band 14 is the
prone to full meltdown if the number of users and amount of traffic becomes lack of networks to test them. The investments made by the public-safety
too large. During a crisis, a first responder needing the support of a industry in the TAMU Internet2 Technology Evaluation Center (ITEC)
search-and-rescue robot could be competing with 10 citizens who are eliminate this issue. A network that can assist any public-safety agency that
streaming video of what is happening. All of this happens without prioritization. wants to test a band 14 network is up and running. n
Wi-Fi is the RF link of choice because there is no better choice. Once the
FirstNet LTE network is in place, it should provide a significant improvement. Robin R. Murphy, Ph.D., is the Raytheon professor of computer science and
Wi-Fi’s only prioritization is at the network layer, or layer 2, in the Open engineering at Texas A&M University (TAMU) and directs the TEES Center
Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. Layer 1 Wi-Fi is still the “wild west,” for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue. She has more than 150 publications
meaning that over saturation can occur. on artificial intelligence, human-robot interaction and robotics, including
LTE, on the other hand, is designed to allocate resources on a device-by- Introduction to AI Robotics and the award-winning Disaster Robotics. An
device and application-by-application basis. The Third Generation Partnership IEEE fellow, a TED speaker and a founder of Roboticists Without Borders,
Project (3GPP) standards body defined nine quality of service (QoS) class she has deployed ground, air and marine robots to more than 24 disasters
identifiers, four of them guaranteed and five of them best effort. This means in five countries. She has extensive government service, including the
that prioritization is possible, at which time traffic prioritization becomes a Defense Science Board and U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board.
policy decision. Manufacturers of search-and-rescue robots are looking at
LTE, but few are actually developing products for LTE networks. They are Walt Magnussen Jr., Ph.D., runs the Internet2 Technology Evaluation Center
waiting until the network is in place. (ITEC), an emergency communications lab at Texas A&M University (TAMU),
During a September 2016 visit to Italy, CRASAR team members talked and has an appointment with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ),
to the Italian Coast Guard about network support. Capabilities included National Institute of Justice (NIJ) as a senior policy analyst. He had an
push-to-talk (PTT) radios and satellite communications. The only broadband appointment with Internet2 for a Broadband Technologies Opportunities
data communications were satellite based, which are bandwidth limited Program (BTOP) grant to build national infrastructure for public safety as the
and expensive. Land-based LTE could be used in some cases, but tests Public Safety Advocate. He also served on the FCC’s Emergency Response
showed a 3.92 Megabits per second (Mbps) downlink and a 2.78 Mbps Interoperability Center (ERIC) technical advisory committee and serves on
uplink from a vessel anchored just off shore at the village of Portofino. the FCC Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council
A subsequent test conducted while moving showed 0.07 Mbps downlink, (CSRIC). He sits on the MissionCritical Communications editorial advisory
and the uplink test failed completely. The infrastructure obviously would not board. Contact him at w-magnussen@tamu.edu.
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LMR. LLtte.
90 I Section 3: Applications: PTT, Video and More
Coverage Issues
In cases where coverage is the key consideration, LMR remains the most
reliable, cost-effective solution for the foreseeable future. Despite the existing
broad coverage of LMR, there are still underserved areas where LTE
coverage will likely never be commercially viable. To provide seasonal or
incident-based LMR and LTE coverage in these areas, users can deploy
on-demand coverage with ruggedized transportable radio equipment.
Transportable equipment provides wide LMR coverage and localized LTE
service to field units wherever they are needed.
BE HEARR D
Potential reasons to deploy service outside of existing coverage areas
CODANRADIO.COM
92 I LMR and LTE for Transportable Coverage LMR and LTE for Transportable Coverage I 93
include a short-term planned event such as a festival, an emergency incident private services but not connected to a commercial network. Users would
such as a fire, a natural disaster such as an earthquake, or a service outage be issued a new phone number and IP address for use inside the private
with the existing fixed LTE or LMR network. Transportable base stations can network. The difficulties in using private SIMs are that the organization must
also offer increased or dedicated capacity, if existing networks are saturated procure and provision the SIMs, the devices must not be carrier locked to
or unusable because of damage. accept the private SIM, and users must receive and install the SIM. Activity
With MCV service well supported by LMR, LTE can support situational is underway to support non-SIM-based authentication for LTE, which would
awareness platforms, taking advantage of the broadband data services allow for use of a carrier SIM-based device in a private LTE network without
available with an LTE network. Services available for delivering data from the swapping SIMs.
field to the network include body cameras, surveillance cameras, GPS on Despite the coordination issues, there are many benefits to interconnecting
personnel and equipment, triggers and sensors, personal safety devices and a transportable LTE network to a commercial cellular carrier. Users can take
internet of things (IoT) applications. Services available to deliver data from inbound calls with their existing phone numbers and access additional
the network to the field include map server, team locations, situational services that the carrier offers on its network, similar to how a cellular
information, video calling, maintenance and control, and local cloud-based roaming network works for consumers.
services. Stand-alone LTE networks provide a private network with all of the
Using a deployable LTE network can be simple or robust. Any existing data bandwidth and any of the capabilities of commercial LTE networks with no
applications can be supported over the network using low-cost readily monthly carrier charges. In addition, organizations control data flow and
available hardware and software. services available in the private network. To expand coverage in a deployed
LTE network, multiple transportable bases stations can be interconnected,
Spectrum and Interconnection allowing for a complete private LTE cellular network.
LMR systems operate within the spectrum licensed to each agency. LTE LMR will remain the primary choice for MCV for expansive rural/suburban
is widely deployed within commercial bands but can also operate within areas in the foreseeable future. LTE offers the best choice to add a
unlicensed spectrum. Commercial bands offer potential for interconnection cost-effective broadband network layer to LMR MCV networks. Deployable
with existing carriers as a coverage extension or, with permission, a base stations with LMR, LTE or both offer a way to augment existing
stand-alone LTE “bubble.” Unlicensed Wi-Fi and Citizens Broadband Radio deployments with new services and additional coverage. n
Service (CBRS) bands allow for deployment without coordination with a
licensee. Because of the frequency, the LTE cell coverage area will be Richard Wong is the head of radio network solutions at Codan Radio
significantly smaller than a VHF LMR site. Planning considerations must be Communications. He has more then 20 years of international experience
made to understand the actual coverage. in the telecommunications industry. Wong’s areas of expertise include
Commercial LTE devices are authenticated for access with a subscriber wireless networks, data applications and services. Contact him at
identity module (SIM). Users who bring their own devices and SIM can richard.wong@codanradio.com.
authenticate only back to their home network operator. If the deployed LTE
network is interconnected to the home carrier, this can be a seamless
operation. The biggest advantage is that the user has to do nothing because
the LTE device is automatically registered when it enters the deployed
coverage area, similar to when a cellular user enters a roaming area.
At times, it will be impractical or undesirable to coordinate with one or
more carriers to offer seamless operation. Organizations can deploy
transportable LTE networks with their own SIMs to create a self-contained
private network. This can be a fully featured LTE network with access to
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94 I Section 3: Applications: PTT, Video and More
Users who can benefit from broadband PTT integration include a high number of broadband PTT users whose traffic could potentially
mission-critical users needing backup to LMR for indoor or extended-range swamp an LMR system. Thus, while under dispatcher control, interoperability
coverage; non-mission-critical users such as utilities, transportation will only occur if and when it is needed.
agencies, public works departments and schools; agency supervisors and Zetron AcomNOVUS consoles can provide special provisions when
administrators; and undercover agents. patching between the AT&T EPTT solution and a P25 system. The patched
audio is maintained in its native digital format rather than transcoded,
Carrier-Integrated Services preserving rather than degrading the original audio quality. The originator’s
AT&T EPTT service is fully integrated into the AT&T network and is not talker ID, rather than the ID of the console system, is sent to the destination
dependent on an internet data connection. The service can be given higher user or group, regardless of whether the direction of the call is LMR to
quality of service (QoS) to help ensure instant communications when and broadband or broadband to LMR.
where needed with AT&T’s dynamic traffic management. This also improves The consoles support network-integrated, broadband PTT interoperability
latency, which in most cases is not unlike the latency of digital LMR systems. with additional carriers, as well as interoperability with over-the-top (OTT)
The interface between Zetron’s dispatch consoles, P25 radio systems and PTT solutions such as ESChat. A new map-based dispatching capability will
AT&T EPTT service takes place via the open-standard CSSI protocol, which soon be able to use location information of FirstNet PTT users.
has been widely adopted throughout the LMR industry. The integration In addition to supporting a variety of voice call types, including emergency,
requires a software license that is an add-on to the CSSI license. Once the the consoles can serve as an LMR-to-LTE and LTE-to-LTE interoperability
integration has been completed, dispatchers can communicate with AT&T gateway, enabling cross-carrier PTT operation, with preservation of traffic
EPTT users just as they would any other LMR system. priority, regardless of solutions used on those carriers. This enables FirstNet
This integration supports group calls supporting up to 100 talkgroups and PTT users to communicate with commercial PTT users on other carriers.
individual calls supporting up to thousands of unit IDs and up to 250 users
per talkgroup. Dispatchers can control patching of broadband PTT talk- Benefits of Adding Broadband PTT
groups to any other LMR network, talkgroup or user on the console system. Many organizations that use LMR systems can reap great benefits from
While AT&T also supports direct LMR interfaces, such as radio over IP adding broadband PTT capabilities.
(RoIP) via LMR donor radios and the P25 Inter RF Subsystem Interface Agency administrators using broadband PTT can stay in touch with
(ISSI) to LMR radio fixed-network equipment, Zetron’s console-based dispatchers and other LMR users, even while traveling outside of their LMR
integration offers several advantages over direct LMR-to-broadband system coverage areas. Noncritical users, such as schools and public works,
interfaces. Console operators see broadband PTT traffic just like they see can be issued inexpensive cellular smartphones with low monthly fees
LMR traffic. Using the same standard operating procedure (SOP) as LMR instead of expensive LMR handsets and can still maintain interoperability
ensures that important broadband traffic is heard. When a console is used with dispatchers and LMR users when needed. These same devices can
as the interoperability gateway from broadband PTT to LMR, there is no also host workforce applications.
need to add or license new LMR interfaces to the radio network(s). Undercover police can carry unobtrusive consumer devices rather than
Interoperability is provided through existing LMR interfaces that are already conspicuous LMR radios and still interoperate with dispatchers and LMR
connected to the console system. users. Critical users such as first responders who rely primarily on LMR
Using a console as the gateway allows console operators to decide when radios can use their smart devices running the PTT app as a backup in
and with whom to patch broadband PTT groups and users to LMR groups areas where the LMR coverage is poor such as inside buildings or beyond
and users, whereas with direct interface methods, interoperability is LMR coverage areas. n
controlled by field users selecting common talkgroups. This prevents field
users from accidentally selecting the wrong talkgroup and causing traffic on Randy Richmond has been with Zetron since 1983. He was the architect of
one system to load the other system. This is particularly important if there is Zetron’s first-generation radio dispatch and 9-1-1 call-taking products and
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98 I Dispatch and LTE PTT Integration
served as product manager for both lines. Randy is now Zetron’s standards
THANK YOU
and regulatory specialist and participates in numerous industry standards
and association groups. Email feedback to editor@RRMediaGroup.com.
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Section 4: Planning for the Future I 101
Why LTE?
There is a broad consensus across the critical communications industry
that a standardized broadband data solution is urgently needed to meet the
Sponsored by demands of users. During the past few years, standards have been drafted
by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the international
standards organization responsible for 3G, 4G (LTE) and upcoming 5G
telecoms standards, resulting in a set of enhancements with new capabilities
such as group calling, push to talk (PTT), and user priority and pre-emption,
part of the new LTE Advanced Pro specifications. There are many reasons
why LTE was proposed as the platform — spectrum efficiency, data rates
and alignment with international standards. LTE should also allow users to
leverage proven and mature standards with no tie to proprietary solutions
and a greater choice of vendors.
With LTE as the chosen platform, many countries are moving forward to
deploy networks for their critical communications users. The success of
these early adopters will be crucial in the ongoing development of standards,
investment in products and ultimately, whether public-safety LTE delivers for
critical communications users. However, the approach taken by each country
varies significantly.
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102 I Challenges for Public-Safety LTE Challenges for Public-Safety LTE I 103
Different Approaches the core public-safety LTE services. Many features will be completed in
The U.K., U.S. and South Korean governments are leading the adoption stages during the coming years.
of LTE for public-safety users, but the motivations and approaches are n Users not only need the latest hardware, they need commitment from
significantly different. suppliers that products will support future public-safety LTE releases and
Emergency Services Network (ESN) in the U.K. With high costs and the supplier commitments to a road map to deliver those features.
contract for its existing TETRA solution expiring in coming years, the U.K. n The proposal for off-network operation — direct mode — was based on
government sought a more cost-effective solution that met the demand of LTE proximity services (ProSe). Real-life testing has shown that ProSe is
public-safety users for broadband data, as well as voice. ESN is planned as unlikely to deliver the coverage needed for public-safety users.
a nationwide LTE network for both voice and data, replacing the existing
Airwave network by 2020. Based on a commercial network with coverage The U.K. government has indicated that to meet the device-to-device
extensions to meet coverage requirements, voice services will initially be communications needs of its users, it is considering the use of a second
based on a proprietary solution from Motorola Solutions, with expected communications bearer carrier. Standards do not exist to deliver this, risking
migration to a standards-based solution “when ready.” proprietary solutions.
First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) in the U.S. The driving In addition, the biggest influence on the success of any new technology is
force for FirstNet is to provide a nationwide public-safety broadband network how well it meets user needs. Standards provide the foundation where open
(NPSBN) to enable interoperability and enhance the ability to respond to and interoperable solutions are made, but standards only define how
man-made or natural disasters that often cross U.S. state boundaries. The elements of a solution talk to each other. They define the signalling between
initial aim is to deliver data services, in parallel with driving standards to a device and the network, how calls are set up and transferred, and how
ensure voice over public-safety LTE is ready to deploy by 2020. data is routed. They do not define how a product looks, its user interface or
SafeNet in South Korea. The inquiry into the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014 even the functionality it delivers. Get this wrong for the control room, the
highlighted the lack of coverage and interoperability of communications as officer on the street, the incident commander or many others and no matter
key weaknesses in the response to the incident. SafeNet is expected to how good the standard, it will fail in the marketplace.
provide nationwide communications, leveraging already high commercial So, who defines this? The manufacturer, obviously, but it is influenced by
carrier coverage of greater than 97 percent and capability. A government the market. The problem for public-safety LTE is do we really know the
agency manages the network. The original goal was to have nationwide market, and is it big enough to drive the investment needed to make the
operation by the end of 2017, however that deadline was pushed back. transition from PMR to LTE?
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104 I Challenges for Public-Safety LTE Challenges for Public-Safety LTE I 105
over the top of the network, delivering “public safety as a service” in effect. only just on the market, and further changes may be needed. Small suppliers
Over time, new players may emerge to offer tailored solutions for public-safety face many hurdles selling into a market that expects long-term support,
users, leveraging the broadband data capability. long-term road map commitments and service networks. The economic
In control rooms and dispatch centers, access to broadband data will bring realities of the public-safety market make it difficult and unattractive for
new applications and solutions, and the transition to LTE-based voice services entrepreneurs working in commercial markets.
will require new equipment and functionality, much of which should be easily As an example, consider the solutions available for vehicles. Many LTE
within the capabilities of existing vendors. modems suitable for vehicle use provide broadband data, but they do not
The major change will come from end-user devices, and in this area, address the need for voice. The U.K. ESN network is already facing the
public-safety organizations need to urgently grasp the changes public-safety challenge of finding a vehicle solution, with the procurement process for
LTE will bring and engage with manufacturers to ensure user needs are vehicle devices running well behind that of handheld devices. At trade
adequately met. One size, one device does not fit all. events, vehicle solutions are conspicuous with their absence. Even for
In drafting new standards, user feedback is gathered to ensure that FirstNet, which will focus on data initially, it would not be cost effective to
functionality is created to meet these requirements. Which functionality is deploy a data-only solution, only to replace it in two to three years for voice.
used and how it is used generally are not factors in this process but are The cost and operational impact of taking a fleet of vehicles off the road can
crucial factors in how a product is designed to meet a specific user group’s easily dwarf the equipment costs.
operational needs. If the U.K., U.S. and South Korea are to meet their published timelines,
If we take a high-level, simplistic view of the different operational industry is behind the curve in delivering the solutions to enable users to
requirements of public-safety users, it is easy to see the variation in test, evaluate and modify.
requirements across the services. Police rely more on voice, while fire and There is no doubt that public-safety LTE will bring huge benefits to the
particularly ambulance make extensive use of mobile data for dispatch and public-safety and critical communications user community. The progress of
task management. ESN, FirstNet and SafeNet during the next few years will define how practical
While fire uses wide-area communications systems for dispatch, once and successful this transition will be. While the groundwork has been done
on-scene, there is a critical need for reliable, localized voice, with lower in the standards bodies, there is a lot of work needed to ensure workable
priority for data services. In this scenario, there is limited alignment with solutions exist for end users. Governments and end users need to find
public-safety LTE services. For police, devices need to fit multiple scenarios, ways to encourage new entrants to the markets to bring innovative and
from different types of vehicles to different roles of users (e.g., patrolling a cost-effective solutions. End users must engage with their governments and
street to responding to a riot). the manufacturers to influence the products and solutions brought to market
Based on current market trends and early announcements from vendors, to ensure they meet their needs. n
the first-generation devices will be data-centric smartphone-based units with
large touchscreens and basic additions of PMR-style functionality such as Iain Ivory is the founder and principal consultant at Hermitage Comms,
PTT control, improved speaker audio and enhanced battery life. This providing consultancy to government and public-safety agencies, specializing
addresses the largest part of the public-safety market but falls short for many in planning and adoption of new technologies. Ivory has almost 30 years’
user groups. Manufacturers will focus investment where the biggest markets experience in the communications industry, including more than 15 years
are, and that is the handheld device for frontline officers. With most with Motorola Solutions where he was responsible for the TETRA devices
technologies, the low-volume, specialist products appear only when the business. Email feedback to editor@RRMediaGroup.com.
market is more mature.
One of the hopes for public-safety LTE was to be able to select from a
wide range of suppliers, leveraging off-the-shelf technology. The reality is that
public-safety LTE is not off the shelf. Chipsets supporting new standards are
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106 I Section 4: Planning for the Future Public-Safety LTE ProSe Market Faces Obstacles I 107
Public-Safety LTE TETRA DMO is typically used for both local-area communications and
extension of network coverage. Users can switch between TMO and DMO
ProSe Market Faces Obstacles in particular situations, such as using DMO in areas where network signals
may not be available or where it is desired operationally for a particular group
By Tony Gray of users working in close proximity to one another to communicate off network.
For critical LTE, the comparative capability is known as LTE proximity
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108 I Public-Safety LTE ProSe Market Faces Obstacles Public-Safety LTE ProSe Market Faces Obstacles I 109
voice services are based on circuit-switching technology. All DMO services to communicate with each other without network support. ProSe for critical
have point-to-point and point-to-multipoint addressing capabilities, allowing users is intended to provide highly power-efficient, privacy-sensitive,
resource-efficient channel allocations. spectrally efficient and scalable device-to-device communications.
In DMO, emergency calls — pre-emptive priority group calling — are The ProSe discovery feature identifies ProSe-enabled devices in proximity
supported, and DMO provides, as an option, call confidentiality against of one another using the LTE radio interface with or without using the network
eavesdropping via air interface encryption. Air interface encryption implicitly infrastructure, known as ProSe direct discovery, or via the evolved packet
provides authentication as another security feature. Additionally, end-to-end core (EPC), known as ProSe EPC-level discovery. ProSe discovery is a
encryption is supported in DMO. stand-alone feature; its use is not necessarily tied to direct communications.
DMO channels are often located in a sub-band at one end of the available The communications path can be established through the LTE radio
TETRA frequency allocations, and internationally agreed-upon common interface either directly between the ProSe-enabled devices or routed via
channels have been adopted in Europe. For national use, each country is local LTE infrastructure, if available. The communications path may also be
free to allocate DMO channels within the base station transmit and receive established over wireless LAN (WLAN). A ProSe device-to-network relay
bands or in different frequency bands as available. function is defined in LTE Release 13 and allows a device to act as a relay
Depending on national allocations, TETRA networks operate in parts of between the LTE network and devices not served by the network.
the 350 – 370, 380 – 400, 406 – 430, 450 – 470 and/or 870 – 921 MHz Network-independent direct communications does not require any network
frequency bands. assistance to authorize the device-to-device communications, but a
In situations where the number of DMO terminals in close proximity is preauthorization of devices for such off-network operation is required. The
high, the possibility of interference rises. Tactical measures need to be taken communications only uses information and functionality available in the
to coordinate frequency usage under such circumstances. Alternatively, devices. For public-safety-specific usage, ProSe-enabled public-safety
DMO gateways transmitting a presence signal may be used to organize devices can establish the communications path directly between two or
channel usage. The presence signal indicates the gateway’s presence on a more ProSe-enabled public-safety devices, regardless of whether the
channel and contains the gateway address, as well as the individual and ProSe-enabled public-safety device is served by an LTE network.
group addresses for which gateway service is offered. A DMO terminal within It is anticipated that future public-safety ProSe-enabled devices will be
the DMO gateway’s coverage will direct a group call setup to the gateway. able to automatically use ProSe when LTE network coverage is not available,
The gateway will grant the DMO call as soon as the TETRA network has or a user could manually set the device to use direct discovery and direct
allocated a time slot. communications even when LTE network coverage is available.
All TETRA portable terminals support power class 4 (1 watt), and some ProSe, in general, is band specific and designed to operate in the defined
support power class 3L (1.8 watt). Because of the limited battery capacity of LTE frequency bands. Even if a public-safety ProSe-enabled device can be
portable terminals, power classes with higher transmit powers are not operated in both public-safety and commercial spectrum, only public-safety
supported. Vehicle-mounted terminals support power class 3 (3 watt). spectrum will be used for public-safety ProSe. For example, band 14 (788 –
The maximum distance between transmitting and receiving TETRA DMO 798 MHz) has been allocated in the United States and Canada, and band 28
terminals does not just depend on the maximum transmit power and the (703 – 748 MHz) has been allocated in South Korea. Thus, public-safety LTE
frequencies being used. Because of the nature of radio propagation, the services can be expected to operate in frequency bands of almost double
distance is also affected by the properties of the area where the terminals those generally used by TETRA at 400 MHz.
are being used and the required link reliability. Industry experts are analyzing ProSe interference concerns. Questions of
interest include adjacent-band LTE interference, especially from device
LTE ProSe transmission in LTE band 13 to device-to-device communications in band
To meet critical user requirements where LTE network coverage is not 14 and conventional PMR networks in neighboring bands. The maximum
available, critical communications ProSe-enabled devices need to be able allowed transmit power of devices using ProSe is band specific. In general,
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110 I Public-Safety LTE ProSe Market Faces Obstacles Public-Safety LTE ProSe Market Faces Obstacles I 111
for the ProSe bands described above power class 3, a maximum transmit consulting services provider. He has worked in the mobile communications
power of 200 milliwatts is specified. In LTE Release 11, a high-power device industry for about 40 years. Before becoming chief executive, Gray served as
with 1-watt (31 dBm) maximum transmit power was defined for band 14 a board member and director of TCCA. He also was founding chairman of
(U.S.) only. the TCCA’s Critical Communications Broadband Group (CCBG) and is a
In LTE direct discovery trials conducted by Deutsche Telekom, Huawei and member of the RadioResource International editorial advisory board. Email
Qualcomm using a time division duplex (TDD) LTE network deployed at 2.6 feedback to editor@RRMediaGroup.com.
GHz with 5-megahertz bandwidth in 2014 in Bonn, Germany, researchers
observed discovery ranges of 550 meters in a rural area, 350 meters in an
urban area with line of sight, and 170 meters in an urban area with non-line
of sight. Because of the higher required input signal for direct communications
compared with discovery, the maximum range for ProSe communications at
similar frequencies is expected to be lower than the ranges observed for
discovery during the trial.
Work is ongoing to fully define and implement LTE ProSe, so live equipment
is not yet on the market for evaluation. It is unlikely, however, that LTE
handsets of the future using ProSe to communicate off network with one
another will provide the equivalent functionality of TETRA radios working in THANK YOU
direct mode.
TETRA and LTE off-network services will likely be fundamentally different to All of Our Sponsors for
in terms of the range over which they operate and the ways in which they
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Office, which is rolling out the Emergency Services Network (ESN), last year
announced an open engagement for device-to-device (D2D) communications Sponsored by
for the network. The exercise aimed to further the Home Office understanding
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The shorter range of LTE ProSe compared with TETRA DMO will raise
the request for additional solutions for off-network communications or
managing lack of coverage. These might include, for example, drones with
relay functions, autonomous networks, and the reuse of diverse radio or
wired accesses.
LTE is a promising option for future public-safety mobile radio networks.
However, public-safety forces must have communications capabilities in the
off-network scenario, so LTE off-network communications capabilities
including ProSe, together with other critical user requirements, must be fully
developed and implemented before LTE can be considered a mission-critical
standard. n
Tony Gray is the chief executive for TCCA. Gray formerly was a regional
business director for P3 Group, a global communications engineering and Media Group
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112 I Section 4: Planning for the Future The Importance of LTE Interoperability I 113
The Importance of being delivered to CAD systems and then to the first responders. Military
network data must come across trusted gateways that don’t currently exist.
LTE Interoperability Images from local government sources, such as traffic data, will originate
from local networks. All data interconnections need to be defined,
By Dr. Walt Magnussen Jr. established and tested.
The key to interoperability lies in three steps: determine the needs,
2017 was a great one for the develop the interface standards or build gateways, and test. This can’t all be
First Responder Network Authority done at one time within any one group. It will take a large amount of
(FirstNet), with the award of its cooperation — much of it between competing firms or standards bodies —
but in the end, it will be beneficial to all concerned, especially first responders.
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114 I The Importance of LTE Interoperability The Importance of LTE Interoperability I 115
United States. CAUSE IV went further, testing voice and video session The standardization process is the best way to ensure interoperability, but
persistence across the two networks. CAUSE V, held last November, tested the process is expensive in terms of man-hour expenditures and takes a
congestion management. Each experiment provided several other lessons significant amount of time to complete. Because everything cannot be
learned, such as the drone video-sharing issues discovered in CAUSE V. standardized, gateways are used to fill the gaps. Data gateways allow
This information is gathered at after-action report meetings, known as the information from one system to be reformatted to that of a competitor’s
“hot wash,” with first responders. system, or a gateway can connect one type of network to another type of
ITEC hosts another series of experiments through the Winter Institute. network. An example is the legacy network gateway (LNG) that connects an
This year’s experiment will have a different format, focusing more on E9-1-1 system to an NG 9-1-1 system. The challenge with gateways is that
applications than the network. The goal of the Winter Institute is to generate they require continuous support to ensure proper operation because the
first responder awareness of the power of FirstNet and to allow application networks or systems that they interconnect evolve.
developers to better understand the needs of first responders. The
planning begins with a “call for innovation,” a blanket industry request for Test, Test, Test
public-safety-specific applications. Whether interoperability is accomplished through interface standardization
Once responses are evaluated and applications approved, the experiment or gateways, the third requirement to ensure interoperability is testing.
scenario is constructed. The application requirements are revealed, and the Testing is required even when interface standardization is available because
application is then integrated into the Winter Institute network during the next all standards leave some room for interpretation. Clarification of these gray
several months. First responders are recruited and trained on the applications areas is where testing comes in.
the week of the experiment. During the past four years, ITEC has recruited Interoperability testing is done by all of the large service providers in their
first responders from Texas Task Force 1, a Federal Emergency Management labs, but testing is typically limited to systems that lie within their own domain.
Agency (FEMA) emergency response team; Texas Department of Public These labs are expensive to run, and the results of their tests are usually
Safety (TxDPS); local law enforcement; and several other organizations. shared with others outside of their own companies. Other interoperability
Once fieldwork is complete, the first responders are a part of a hot wash, testing includes plugfests where industry stakeholders get together for a
where they share strengths and weaknesses of the applications with week at a host site, connect to each other and test the interoperability. One
developers. Because this information is more application specific, not as example of this is the NENA Industry Collaboration Event (ICE). Each event
much data is disseminated to the public. has a focus, with the results being fed back into NENA standards committees
The 2018 Winter Institute will be held Oct. 22 – 26 in College Station, for further refinement of standards. While these events have resolved several
Texas, and will share general findings. FirstNet will be an active participant in interoperability issues, the drawback of the ICE format is that the individual
this year’s experiment. test results are not made available to the public. This was done by design
because organizers could not gain industry support if they made the faults
Develop Interface Standards public.
The second step toward interoperability is to standardize interfaces where A more recent example of a testing event is the mission-critical push-to-talk
possible and to build gateways where it is not. Standardizing interfaces is not (MCPTT) Plugtests event that will be held at Texas A&M Universities’
new. As an example, the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) Disaster City in June. This activity is the second such event sponsored by
documents NG 9-1-1 interfaces in the NENA i3 specification. The documents the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), a standards
do not dictate what a vendor has to do within an application or server; they organization. The first MCPTT Plugtest was held last year in France.
simply define what the data needs to look like when it is conveyed to an While this process may seem like a lot of work, the level of interoperability
upstream or downstream application or server. The Simple Mail Transfer necessary for mission-critical communications cannot be attained without it.
Protocol (SMTP), which defines email transfer requirements, is an example This will certainly not happen in just one location by one organization; it will
of how a service can become global when standardized. need to be a community effort. Some work will occur in the AT&T and FirstNet
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116 I The Importance of LTE Interoperability Section 4: Planning for the Future I 117
Information Filtering
Several conditions can overload network capacity. Bandwidth-intensive
situations such as high-definition video for remote triage, ordnance disposal
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118 I Cognitive Communications for Public Safety Cognitive Communications for Public Safety I 119
or dealing with an active shooter; a large number of users in a compact the scene, with reduced information sufficient for the other responders.
response area; competing priorities; and extensive requests all vie for data These decisions need to be made in real time, and only the most relevant
use. These circumstances can be compounded by undisciplined use or information should be forwarded to the field to conserve communications
sending multiple copies of the same or similar information that do not resources and avoid overloading responders.
add value. In time, advanced techniques, such as automated photo and video
Avoiding or minimizing service degradation requires an expansion in the analytics, coupled with artificial intelligence, could ease the burden of the
capability to filter information, manage the information flow in the field INFO-M. This leads us to look forward to cognitive network communications;
network, and keep the quality of service and response acceptable while however, the current state of the art requires at least the supervision, if not
prioritizing those needs across multiple users, disciplines, functions and the active decision-making, of a knowledgeable human in the loop.
networks. Discipline of use and integration of resources such as concepts of
operation (CONOPS) need to evolve to make maximum use of available Cognitive Networks
resources and meet the task at hand. This is an extension of standard As first responders focus more on life-saving tasks and less on details
operating procedures (SOP) and memoranda of understanding (MOU) in the of communications and as the intelligence and capabilities of networks
LMR world to enforce radio discipline. improve, the network itself could assist first responders and communications
The complexity of a first responder’s mission will likely continue to increase managers by either suggesting or taking care of some details of network
as the amount of potential information available explodes with the use of setup, configuration and future resource planning as a mission evolves. This
broadband, sensors, alarms and applications. The introduction of automated assistance could be the basis of cognitive networks.
next-generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1) also adds to the flood of information. While communications is a primary component of a firefighter’s or police
First responders still need to execute traditional tasks — fight fires, officer’s work, a frustration often heard from first responders is that
apprehend suspects and rescue the stranded — without being overloaded “communications should just work.” Communications are an ancillary tool,
by data. Hence, the information presented to the first responder must be albeit an important one, but not the primary mission of first responders. An
managed and offered in a form that is easily comprehended and usable in analogy would be to the modern automobile, which is expected to just start
the field in the face of changing demands. and work when needed and to provide transportation under all conditions.
In addition to information filtering, strong and appropriate human-machine A vehicle’s enormous complexity and myriad microprocessors are unknown
interfaces (HMI) are needed in the field. A new tool for information to most users, who have to deal only with its well-known operating controls.
management, the INFO-M, added to the incident response team at the Therefore, whatever can be done in context-aware cognitive
dispatch or emergency operations center will cull data, take care of the communications to intelligently automate the deployment configuration and
broadband information management function, and prevent the data from reconfiguration of equipment would be valuable. Whether the information
overloading both field communications infrastructure and first responders. comes in via satellite, commercial cellular/Long Term Evolution (LTE)
The INFO-M focuses on the content delivered, not channel-structure systems, a 700 MHz band 14 LTE system, a future spectrum-sharing system
details. A simple example involves the case of three TV news helicopters at 3.5 GHz or unlicensed LTE, the primary concern should be that it reach
sending videos of a fire to a dispatch center. Unless there is different those for whom it is intended. These media are pipes for information
information in the three views, sending all three to the field is a waste of transportation and should not drive the first responders’ functions.
communications resources and places an extra burden on incident command.
It may be sufficient to send only one video and snapshots or descriptions of Context in Cognitive Systems
additional information. Similarly, only one video may show a potential For a cognitive system to work properly and serve a first responder, it has
shooter’s weapon; however, a high-resolution snapshot from a cellphone to assess the context in which the events are occurring along with the
showing the weapon might be more useful than a bandwidth-intensive video. available resources. In more advanced systems, context helps choose the
Some of this information might be appropriate for the incident commander at setup and configuration of communications, as well as filter the information
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120 I Cognitive Communications for Public Safety Section 4: Planning for the Future I 121
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122 I Section 4: Planning for the Future Section 4: Planning for the Future I 123
suggests that LMR and LTE systems operating at these frequency bands applications engineer during his 20 years in the test and measurement
can coexist with proper engineering design practices and careful frequency industry. Email feedback to editor@RRMediaGroup.com.
management. Interference issues may still be of concern as the guard band
between the LTE and LMR spectrum is only 1 megahertz wide.
LTE is a highly complex technology with its variable channel bandwidths
and use of both multiple input multiple output (MIMO) and orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing access (OFDMA) to support high data rates.
Both LTE and LMR systems have to contend with problems such as multipath
and fading that degrade signal quality. Handheld test equipment that can
deal with both the complexity of testing LTE networks and mapping bit error
rate (BER) and modulation fidelity of LMR networks is critical. This equipment
will provide technicians and engineers who install and maintain public-safety
communications systems with confidence that these networks will work as
expected. However, such measurements often require a number of different
tools, all of which must be carried into the field.
Finding a solution that can perform both broadband LTE and narrowband
LMR is ideal. This goal can be accomplished by combining many of the tools
needed to install, maintain and certify LTE and LMR systems into a single
instrument with a single user interface. An example of this is the Anritsu LMR
Master S412E, a two-port vector network analyzer, spectrum analyzer, LMR
signal generator and internal power meter.
Users can also add optional features such as an interference analyzer,
indoor and outdoor coverage mapping, and an internal GPS receiver.
Measurement capabilities can be used for frequency division duplex (FDD)
LTE testing on the downlink. An LTE signal analyzer makes a range of RF
measurements including channel spectrum, reference signal power and
spectral emission mask. Understanding how the LTE resources are being
used over time is critical; modulation displays can be used to confirm signal
level, use and other critical parameters. Over-the-air (OTA) scanner
measurements for measuring LTE downlink coverage quality are also
important.
Next-generation public-safety communications will more than likely pair
narrowband LMR networks for voice with broadband LTE networks for
high-speed data. Ensuring these networks are properly installed and
maintained is critical to ensuring mission-critical public-safety communications
and keeping the public safe.
Wayne Wong is the product manager for the LMR Master product at Anritsu.
He has held various roles from senior hardware design engineer to field
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