WhitePaper MESA 0110

8/12/2019 WhitePaper MESA 0110

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Mobile Broadband for Emergency and Safety Applications

(MESA)

www.projectmesa.org

Project MESA1 represents a revolutionary step beyond the scope of the currently available and

ongoing cellular telephony evolution.

The Project is the response to the growing demand for new a suite of standardized wireless

technologies - covering bit rates well beyond 2 Mb/s - within public services such as public safety, law

enforcement, emergency and medical services and the Civil Defense segments.

Currently applied systems and implementations vary from country to country, within countries andbetween the various types of public services. Project MESA from the very beginning aims at producing

market relevant technical specifications that reach out to a world market for a standardized wireless

mobile broadband platform, for all kinds of such services.

Within Project MESA, market relevance is achieved by inviting users and their organizations to play a

focal role in the specifi cation and harmonization of requirements before the technical specification

efforts are introduced. MESA represents the first such international initiative within the ICT Sector to

put the user in the driver seat.

Since public fixed and wireless network infrastructures and satellite technologies evolve and converge,

convergence with public service systems and applications may also be part of the scenarios to address.

I. BACKGROUND OF PROJEC T MESA

The fact that there exists a still widening capability gap between telecommunications technologies in

the service of public protection agencies and in the hands of instigators of organized crime and

terrorism is one of the drivers for the joint elaboration of a new advanced mobile broadband

communication technology. Other drivers are the growing demand for standardized mobile broadband

services within telemedicine, fire-fighting, mobile robotics and Civil Defense.

Suppression of organized crime and terrorism, emergency operations on international waters, etc., not

only needs cooperation between the different public services within a country but also between

countries. This underlines the need for national, regional and global solutions, while maintaining

service and national integrity and information security.

Project MESA was created to address these needs, in the form of an international partnership aiming at

a set of globally accepted standards for globally applicable implementations. It is the first international

partnership where industry cooperates with users and user organizations to define the requirements for

wireless broadband technologies and systems that meet these needs.

An aspect of the scope of the Project is here presented via a few examples of service scenarios.

1MESA is a standardization Partnership Project within the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) area establishedbetween the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) of the United States of America and the European

Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) of Europe with the purpose of elaborating a joint specification of MobileBroadband Technology to be deployed in the service of the Police, International Crime and Terror combating, Intelligence,Emergency and Medical Services, Fire fighting and Civil Defense. MESA stands for Mobility for Emergency and Safety

Applications. Please refer to the www.projectmesa.orgfor further information.


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designed with special attention to jamming and interception and a very high reliability is required. All

these aspects will be duly dealt with in the Project work.

IV. THE MESA FIREFIGHTER

A whole new class of advanced

services and applications has been

identified during the initial stages

of the Project.

These services and applications

will reduce the personal risk for

firefighters setting their lives at

stake to rescue persons caught

within a tall building on fire (One

of the most challenging anddangerous scenario facing the

modern firefighter is a fire in a tall

building, a high-rise blaze).

Most of the new services will be

based on the application of

wireless technology capable of

supporting very high data rates.

The MESA firefighter dresses up

with a whole range of detectors, capturing relevant parameters online to allow the site manager to have

the full picture of the situation for all firefighters on the scene.

Vital parameters such as respiratory and heart rate, blood pressure and body surface temperature, along

with the high resolution video-streaming signals from both the visible light and IR sensitive cameras,

help managers take decisions on site.

Part of this is also an accurate three-dimensional positioning for determining the exact indoor location

of the firefighter (This alone represents a major technological challenge).

In the reverse mode, the firefighter will

be provided with video and audio

information guiding him in his work in

smoke filled rooms and other hardly

navigable environments.

V. ELEVATED BACK-HAUL

GATEWAYS

Special requirements for applications

involving surveillance aircraft are

needed. This represents yet another

challenge for the technical solutions of

the Project MESA radio technology.

Conferencing facilities may be crucial,

when several kinds of community

services are involved in the operations.

The MESA FirefighterThe MESA Firefighter

Full on-site Command Control and CommunicationFull on-site Command Control and Communication


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The progress of technologies, which package and embed audio and video within Secure IP, will be

exploited to offer voice communications as a natural part of the menu of services.

It is evident that the bandwidth required to support all these services is substantial. Coding strength and

built-in Quality-of-Service mechanisms must ensure a very reliable link, something that further adds to

the bandwidth requirement.

One of the other key challenges for the technical work is to specify spectrum efficient bearer

technologies.

Interoperation with future

broadband satellite systems and

High Altitude Platform Systems

(HAPS) is a definite requirement in

order to overcome the limited cell

size of a broadband radio systemoperating in the GHz frequency

range.

This mode of operation is therefore

an integral part of the study in the

work of allocating the optimum

radio spectrum for the Project

MESA specifications.

An effective standardized wireless

broadband back-haul technology

from remote areas was identified

during the recent 2001 TampereConvention on Disaster Relief.

Interconnection to a future

broadband mobile -satellite service

will ensure a stable communication

path from remote areas, where terrestrial infrastructures may be destroyed during natural disasters,

earthquakes, flooding, etc. Vehicle based or portable base stations must be easily deployable in such

situations.

For operations in remote areas, a police car

may carry an integrated broadband satellite

transponder to create an island or hot

spot of wireless broadband coveragearound the scene of incidence. In this way,

police officers may even in very remote

areas utilize their terminals, featuring IP-

based telephony, with two-way video and

iris scanner for fast and reliable suspect

identification.

The combination of broadband capabilities

with full mobility in a wider area

environment is a key element of the

proposed Project MESA specifications.

A Back-haul gateway in spaceA Back-haul gateway in space

GLOBAL INTERNET

RESIDENTIAL

ACCESS POINT

WIDE-AREA

MOBILE TERMINAL

CORPORATE

INTRANET

BATTLEFIELD

MOBILE

TERMINAL

LOCAL-AREA

MOBILE

TERMINAL

AD-HOC

NETWORK

IN-HOME

MOBILE

TERMINAL

Figure 6 Wireless infrastructure and ad-hoc networking

Wireless infrastructure and Ad-hoc networking

GLOBAL INTERNET

RESIDENTIAL

ACCESS POINT

WIDE-AREA

MOBILE TERMINAL

CORPORATE

INTRANET

BATTLEFIELD

MOBILE

TERMINAL

LOCAL-AREA

MOBILE

TERMINAL

AD-HOC

NETWORK

IN-HOME

MOBILE

TERMINAL

Figure 6 Wireless infrastructure and ad-hoc networking

Wireless infrastructure and Ad-hoc networking


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VI. AD-HOC NETWORKING

The principle of ad-hoc networking for the fast deployable terrestrial infrastructure is a key requirementfrom both the public safety and the military sectors.

The ad-hoc networking principle deals with the ability of network components to automatically

establish a functioning network.

It is foreseen to be implemented around a number of wireless nodes which automatically recognize

each other and the support terminals active within range.

A wireless terminal may automatically start to work as a small base node in the absence of a

reachable node. In this way a local system in the battlefield or at the scene if incidence may configure

itself and be self-healing in case one or more nodes are lost.

VII. A VARIETY OF OTHER APPLICATIONS

Various other public safety services require wireless mobile broadband communications. Just a few

examples:

* Airport security: Suspect portrait identification and fast broadcast to staff

* Law enforcement and peacekeeping operations: Remote store evidence gathering

* General air surveillance: High speed air-ground-air video/voice and control linking

* Surveillance and protection of property: Call-a-camera from wireless mobile terminals

Civil: Electronic news gathering applications with embedded voice

VIII. BANDWIDTH POSITIONING

The Project MESA specifications will,

in terms of bandwidth positioning, bea complement to both existing and

planned broadband wireless standards,

on a segmentation scale in terms of

narrowband, wideband and

broadband.

The combination of mobility and bit

rates above 2 Mb/s is a key

characteristic of these specifications.

IX. TO PUT THE USER IN THE

DRIVER SEAT

Project MESA (Mobility for

Emergency and Safety Applications)

was established by ETSI (the

European Telecommunications

Standards Institute) and TIA (the

Telecommunications Industry

Association (USA)). The

establishment of the Project was only

possible due to an excellent transatlantic cooperation between standards institutes, industry, federal-

and governmental agencies and professional public safety organizations.

It is the first international standardization partnership project to focus on user involvement in the initialphase of specifying requirements.

Figure 7 Relative positioning of MESA

Bandwidth positioning of MESA

Figure 7 Relative positioning of MESA

Bandwidth positioning of MESA


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Technical specifications will follow the specification of user requirements, but it is obvious that there is

need for many research activities in parallel with this specification work.

Early inputs to the Project emanate from specification activities within APCO (Association of Police

Communications Officials) and its Project P34 Steering Committee as well as the ETSI project DAWS

(Digital Advanced Wireless Services). The Projects frequency allocation scope is in preparation for

the World Radio Conference, to be held in 2003.

X. RESEARCH

An important driver for the establishment of Project MESA in the form of a partnership project is the

large amount of research required to fulfill its scope. It was from the very beginning assessed, that

more than one of the worlds regions should be involved in lifting this burden of basic research.

Examples of where research is needed are to find solutions to the situation when the duration of onesymbol on a radio carrier reaches the same order of magnitude as the dobbler shift introduced by the

relative velocity between transmitter and receiver (leading to difficulty in sustaining synchronization of

the link) and switching of antennas in both of the wireless ad-hoc infrastructures and the mobile

devices.

XI. MORE INFORMATION

Information on Project MESA is available on www.projectmesa.org

Documents

WhitePaper MESA 0110