https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • Product Guides
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • Product Guides
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Commentary Newsletters


Commentary

Technical work, spectrum planning needed to make peer-to-peer solutions a reality

Technical work, spectrum planning needed to make peer-to-peer solutions a reality

Exactly what public safety's requirements are for peer-to-peer communications is something that hasn't been completely defined to date, and it's a "conversation that needs to happen," said Emil Olbrich, lead project engineer for the Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) program.
  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 27th April 2011

Considerable effort is being made to get public-safety 700 MHz LTE networks deployed in pockets of the country today, in the hope that they can be linked together with similar networks nationwide to give first responders throughout the U.S. access to broadband capabilities.

Currently, the 700 MHz networks are being viewed as data-only networks in the near term, with mission-critical voice still being transmitted over LMR systems operating in traditional public-safety bands. However, many agencies — New York City’s police department being the most outspoken — eventually want to use LTE for mission-critical voice, as well as for data.

Exactly how long it will take for this transition to occur is one of the hottest topics in the sector. Some, like NYPD, believe it can happen in the next three to five years. Others believe it will be at least 10 years, while others expect LMR to remain a mainstay for at least another 20 to 25 years, if only because agencies will not want to discard P25 systems that are being planned today until they have managed to get 15 to 20 years of service from them.

Meanwhile, many public-safety officials note that the LTE community is still trying to get commercial voice right, so it is nowhere near ready for mission-critical voice. But push-to-talk LTE solutions have been demonstrated at trade shows, so the technical capability certainly seems to exist.

Of course, push-to-talk over a network is one thing, but push-to-talk communication that works off the network is a critical feature for first responders, particularly for firefighters. Again, such peer-to-peer transmissions are possible from a technical standpoint — ad-hoc mesh technologies have been commercially available for years, and the military has invested significant resources to ensure that the approach can meet mission-critical reliability requirements.

Exactly what public safety’s requirements are for peer-to-peer communications is something that hasn’t been completely defined to date, and it’s a “conversation that needs to happen,” said Emil Olbrich, lead project engineer for the Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) program, which is a joint initiative of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Many have expressed concern that standards bodies like 3GPP are so focused on standards that impact commercial-carrier networks that public-safety standards would not get appropriate consideration. Olbrich said the first-responder community faces a much more fundamental issue before it can even try to make its case before standards bodies.

“What are [public safety’s peer-to-peer] requirements? Is it just voice? Do you need to text? Do you need some telemetry?” Olbrich said. “We don’t have those requirements. So, for us to go to a 3GPP or anything, they’re going to come back at us and say, ‘What are your requirements? What do you need to do? What’s your end goal?’

“We don’t know what that is. I’m not sure public safety does quite yet. We hear a lot of talk and a lot of marketing spiel, but we really need to peel that back by two or three layers to get to the tasks we really need to accomplish.”

Olbrich said there are several potential solutions, but it is difficult to evaluate which one is best without a full understanding of public safety’s peer-to-peer needs. For instance, if voice is the only peer-to-peer application needed, it could be accomplished over existing LMR narrowband channels with a minimal amount of standard work.

However, if first responders also want the ability to transmit data such as text, telemetry information, pictures or video in peer-to-peer mode, the solutions likely would need to look much different, Olbrich said. And the first issue that needs to be resolved is what spectrum would be utilized for peer-to-peer communications.

“Everyone talks about peer-to-peer mode, like it’s going to come out of thin air,” Olbrich said. “Regardless of the technology that you pick, if you have a network that’s deployed at 700 MHz already, you’re going to need spectrum to run your peer-to-peer network that’s running on separate channels. I think people miss that point often.”

Of course, the 4.9 GHz spectrum band was dedicated to public safety with the idea that it would be used to support on-scene, peer-to-peer communications. However, Olbrich questioned whether this spectrum would work well in tactical environments, because its propagation characteristics would not work well in certain situations, because the signals would not be strong enough to penetrate inside buildings — a must for firefighters.

Olbrich noted that peer-to-peer communications could run on 700 MHz spectrum via technologies such as code-domain solutions, but there are drawbacks to that approach.

“There are some ways to do that, but that takes a lot of engineering, and it will likely take significant standards work,” he said. “We just need to figure out how we go about that, because once the choice is made and you go down that road, you’re committed.”

Olbrich said the PSCR meets weekly with representatives from the FCC’s Emergency Response Interoperability Center (ERIC) in an effort to promote reliability and interoperability. In addition, Olbrich said he is encouraged by the work being done by the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) to tackle the requirements issues, but he notes that there is still a lot of work to be done.

Hopefully, this significant work can be done quickly and well, so investments by early public-safety broadband adopters are not stranded in the future.

What do you think? Tell us in the comment box below.

Tags: Public Safety Spectrum/Frequency Coordination Commentary Newsletters Long Term Evolution (LTE) Networks & Systems Commentary NIST/PSCR Regional Coordination Commentary

Most Recent


  • NATE: Todd Schlekeway highlights organization's safety, legislative initiatives
    Todd Schlekeway, executive director of NATE: The Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association, discusses many of NATE’s planned activities for 2023, including a legislative visit to Capitol Hill in May, safety/training initiatives, and a broader release of the Vertical Freedom documentary that focuses on the lives of tower climbers in the communication arena.  
  • AT&T boasts of core 'white box' success in 5G, fiber push
    AT&T said it has now migrated more than 52% of all of its production traffic onto next-generation “white box” core routers running on products from the likes of Broadcom and DriveNets. The company said its move to such “open” systems has helped its aggressive 5G and fiber expansions. “We announced the next-gen open disaggregated core routing […]
  • AT&T wireless growth keyed by FirstNet—now provides 24,000 agencies with 4.4 million connections
    AT&T this week reported that FirstNet ended 2022 supporting more than 24,000 public-safety agencies with “about” 4.4 million connections, including 377,000 connections that were added during the last three months of 2022—a total that represents more than half of the carrier’s post-paid wireless growth for the quarter. AT&T officials released these figures in conjunction with […]
  • AT&T FirstNet unleashes robotic dogs for emergency services
    AT&T is releasing robotic hounds from Ghost Robotics as part of the service provider’s FirstNet emergency responder service. In a blog, AT&T VP Lance Spencer explained that the robotic dogs will be connected to AT&T’s network and deployed for public safety, defense, federal and state agencies, local police and fire departments, and commercial customers. “Network-connected robotic dogs can deliver a […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • New Orleans-area 911 center inks multiyear APEX deal with Carbyne to replace call-handling system
  • Private wireless networks in the US start going public
  • Microsoft patches 6 zero-day vulnerabilities under active attack
  • IoT connectivity spending climbs as COVID-19 cases decline

Commentary


How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient

26th January 2023

3GPP moves Release 18 freeze date to March 2024

18th January 2023

Do smart cities make safer cities?

  • 1
6th January 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

NATE: Todd Schlekeway highlights organization’s safety, legislative initiatives dlvr.it/ShljHj

1st February 2023
UrgentComm

Cybercrime ecosystem spawns lucrative underground Gig Economy dlvr.it/ShkKbf

31st January 2023
UrgentComm

FAA approves beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) flights in North Dakota dlvr.it/ShgxHW

30th January 2023
UrgentComm

AT&T boasts of core ‘white box’ success in 5G, fiber push dlvr.it/Shgb4w

30th January 2023
UrgentComm

Spending American Rescue Plan Act funds: A primer for municipalities dlvr.it/ShgZ52

30th January 2023
UrgentComm

AT&T wireless growth keyed by FirstNet—now provides 24,000 agencies with 4.4 million connections dlvr.it/ShY5qH

27th January 2023
UrgentComm

Report: Remote work causing offices to empty, but walkable cities still in high demand dlvr.it/ShXM7Z

27th January 2023
UrgentComm

AT&T FirstNet unleashes robotic dogs for emergency services dlvr.it/ShW7p8

27th January 2023

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.