1

The evolution of Public Safety Communications in Europe: Communications in Europe:

the results from the FP7 HELP

project

Gianmarco Baldini

Joint Research Centre – European Commission

Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen on behalf of the consortium of the FP7 HELP project

Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the authors and cannot be regarded as stating an official position of the European

Commission.

2

Partners•Coordinator: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Spain) -• British Association of Public-Safety Communications Officers (UK)• Cassidian (formerly EADS Defence & Security) (France)• DataX Sp. z.o.o. (Poland)

Small Coordinate and Support Action (CSA) project:

Started February 2011 - Ended July 2012

FP7 HELP project

• DataX Sp. z.o.o. (Poland)• Joint Research Center (Italy)

plus

an Operator Advisory Board

and

an User Advisory Board

Focus on enhancing Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) communications

3

FP7 HELP project

Major challenges of nowadays PPDR wireless communications systems in emergency and disaster relief scenarios:

• Lack of broadband• Lack of proper technology (high peak bit rate)• Lack of dense network deployment (for a given available power level the cell

range is reduced as the bit rate is increased)• Lack of sufficient spectrum (or more efficient usage of it)• Lack of sufficient spectrum (or more efficient usage of it)

• Lack of capacity• Lack of proper technology (high bit/s/Hz)• Lack of dense network deployment • Lack of sufficient spectrum (or more efficient usage of it)

4

FP7 HELP project

Unfortunately, disasters and emergencies are usually unpredictable in time, space and scale

Unfortunately, budget constraints apply to the design & deployment of PPDR communication networks

In an ideal world, PPDR can have unlimited spectrum and budget

5

ENHANCED CAPABILITIES

THORUGH SPECTRUM SHARING

ENHANCED

1) To define a solution framework –based on

“network sharing” and “spectrum sharing”

principles- for public safety communications able to

FP7 HELP project objectives

In a non-ideal context, FP7 project propones a solution framework which strengthen the role and commitment of commercial wireless infrastructures in the provision of

public safety communications.

ENHANCED CAPABILITIES

THOUGH NETWORK SHARING

CORE PUBLIC SAFETY

NETWORK CAPABILITIES

principles- for public safety communications able to

exploit and properly coordinate available wireless

communications systems in an incident zone.

2) To identify the required operational and

management features and related functionalities of

the established communications framework to

achieve a synergic and holistic operation of the

diverse wireless infrastructures.

6

FP7 HELP main pillars

Adoption of Long Term Evolution (LTE) for Public Safety

Short Term/Medium Term

Network Sharing among various mobile networks

Medium Term/Long Termmobile networks

(commercial and public safety networks)

Spectrum Sharing Long Term

7

FP7 HELP Network Sharing

LTE and legacy 3G LTE and legacy 3G Legacy PMR network

PPDR core infrastructure

(service platforms, control rooms)

PPDR core infrastructure

(service platforms, control rooms)

PPDR domain Commercial domain

LTE and legacy 3G

commercial

network(s)

LTE and legacy 3G

commercial

network(s)

LTE dedicated PS

network(s)

LTE dedicated PS

network(s)

Legacy PMR network

(e.g. TETRA,

TETRAPOL, P25)

Legacy PMR network

(e.g. TETRA,

TETRAPOL, P25)

PMR/LTE

multimode UE

Group

callAccess to

PPDR services

Group

communications

8

FP7 HELP System Architecture

Control Room

Applications

User

Management

Priority

Access

Management

Service

Management

MME

S-GW

Commercial LTE-

based PMN(s)

Core infrastructure

USIM

PPDR terminal

Rx Sp

S6d

S8eNB

Dispatch position(s)

API interfaces

LTE Uu

Legacy PSN

S1-MME

S1-U

Netw

ork

Manag

em

ent

Syste

m(N

MS

)

P-GW

HSS

PCRF

Rx

SPR

Private IP

network

USIM

Application clients

Application Servers

IMS Functions

AF

AF

Rx

Gx

Sp

MME

S-GW

Dedicated LTE-based PSN

eNB

PCEF

Ne

two

rks &

Te

rmin

als

Ma

na

ge

me

nt in

terf

ace

s

S5

S6a

LTE Uu*

Legacy PSN (e.g. TETRA, TETRAPOL networks)

Legacy PSN

radio

interface

GWFunctions

Interfaces to

legacy PSNs

S1-U

S1-MME

BS

9

FP7 HELP Priority Access

Control room

systems

Priority access

policy

•Supported as a

realisation of the

3GPP Multimedia

Priority Service (MPS)

•Based on the control

of the QoS

parameters of

Decision-making logic

for priority access considering:

•User identity and role

•Service type

•Location/Time of

usage

•Type of incident•Network used

QoS settings for

connections

PPDR users’ connections

Citizen’s connectionsTotal capacity

parameters of

connections (i.e. ARP,

QCI, GBR, MBR).

Supports pre-emption.

•Mix of automated

system (i.e. pre-

defined policies) but

enabling human

intervention (i.e. crisis

specific policies)

10

The FP7 project HELP investigated the following spectrum sharing approaches:

1. Dynamic transfer of exclusive rights of use, where spectrum access is restricted to the user

that holds the spectrum rights of use but these rights can be exchanged among different

users for a limited time or a limited space. This option embraces also the concept of Licensed

Shared access (LSA) where users are granted rights to utilise parts of a given spectrum

band in spatial or time domain that are unused by an incumbent user, upon agreed terms

and conditions defined with the incumbent.

FP7 HELP Spectrum Sharing

2. Secondary access sharing models, where a primary user holds exclusive rights of use for a

given spectrum band (i.e. licensee) but secondary users can access the spectrum in an

opportunistic whenever the primary user is not disturbed.

3. Collective use of spectrum (CUS), where a number of independent users and/or devices are

authorised to use the same range of frequencies at the same time and in a particular geographic

area under a well-defined set of conditions. This could useful for tactical networks in the field.

11

FP7 HELPLicensed Spectrum Access (LSA)

12

FP7 HELPTechno-economic analysis

Some items considered in the economic benefits/analysis:

• Leveraging economies of scale associated with commercial technologies

• Cost considerations for the deployment of dedicated public safety networks

Commercial RRH

Commercial Base Band

Unit

Fiber optic and power cable

Coax cables

Cross Pole Antennas

Diplexer

Public Safety RRH

(& TMA)

Fiber optic cable

Public Safety Base Band

Unit

networks

• Cost savings by infrastructure sharing

• Cost saving by network capacity sharing

• Economic impact of priority access in Mobile Networks

• General considerations on spectrum costs

13

FP7 HELPTechno-economic analysis: Benefits

The results of the techno-economic analysis show that the proposed solutions:

• improve the communications and operational capabilities of public safety users in the field: greater capacity, coverage, resilience.

• produce significant savings for government and taxpayers.

• provide more support for more sophisticated applications (as in the commercial domain)

• increase customer base for commercial telecom operators.

• increase of market size for public safety domain: handheld, communication equipment.

14

Security Research Programme of the European Commission

Many projects have been financed by the European Commission in the security domain:

• The EULER project applied Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology to mitigate the lack of

interoperability in joint military and public safety operational scenarios.

• The FP7 DITSEF will provide a self-organising, robust ad-hoc communications networks with

location information, which can be used in critical infrastructures and indoor environments.

• The FP7 INFRA project has the objective to research and develop novel technologies for personal

digital support systems, as part of an integral and secure emergency management system to support

First Responders (FR) in crises occurring in Critical Infrastructures (CI) under all circumstances.

Beyond the single FP7 projects, the European Commission DG ENTERPRISE has strongly supported

an integrated policy for the security industry at European level.

The Commission considers that the development of 'hybrid standards', i.e. standards that apply both

to civil security and defence technologies, should be actively pursued in areas where technologies are

the same and application areas are very similar.

One example is the recent mandate on the Standardization of Reconfigurable Radio Systems in the

commercial, civil security and military domains.

15

Conclusions

1. Allowing the interoperability with legacy technologies (e.g. TETRA), Project HELP solution

framework lets the PPDR community start a smooth process of migration, based on coexistence of

both technologies.

2. Sharing of the infrastructure lets PPDR community optimise or reconsider the need and time line of

investment processes, adequately to the scale of the budget, balancing between OPEX and

CAPEX.

3. Spectrum sharing techniques will allow for more efficient distribution of spectral resources between

PPDR and other users.

4. Using equipment developed for the mass market instead of niche products (e.g. TETRA based

solutions) PPDR users will profit from the economy of scale and high competition between vendors.

5. The proposed solutions can rely at a great extent on current standards and on-going standardisation

efforts, though further standardisation progress is desirable in the context of network management

capabilities (e.g. SON) and protocols for dynamic spectrum management.

6. Implementation of selected Project HELP results require regulatory actions especially in the area of

Spectrum sharing.

7. Telecom Operators can gain new markets and classes of users in comparison to the existing

context.