S T R A T E G I C
W H I T E
P A P E R
Interoperable Mission Critical Broadband/Narrowband Solution
for Public Safety Communications
In creating the Shared Wireless Broadband Network in August 2007, the FCC recognized that the
communication needs of public safety had grown to include interoperable broadband as well as
narrowband services. Further work in 2009 by the FCC, the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST), the
National Public Safety Telecommunications Committee (NPSTC), DHS/SAFECOM accelerated the goal
of creating a nationwide interoperable public safety broadband network utilizing 3GPP’s Long Term
Evolution (LTE) technology. This paper will discuss how Alcatel-Lucent and EADS have joined together
to develop a comprehensive end-to-end broadband and narrowband solution utilizing Long Term
Evolution and Project 25 (P25) technologies for the public safety 700 MHz spectrum, providing local,
state and federal agencies with a harmonized standards-based communications solution.
The Opportunity
For over 80 years, public safety Land Mobile Radio (LMR) networks have provided the ubiquitous,
highly reliable voice communications necessary to ensure the protection of life and property. Multiple
factors, including congested spectrum, spectrum efficiency initiatives, nationwide interoperability, and
the requirement for broadband data communications to access vast new data resources, have recently
come together to prompt both the FCC and the public safety community to identify and implement
significant enhancements to their communications infrastructure.
Congested Spectrum and Spectrum Efficiency Initiatives
The ever increasing demand for mission critical wireless voice, data, and video communications has
generated more requests for radio spectrum which, in turn, has driven the need to find more efficient
ways to use that finite resource. Public safety narrowband VHF and UHF spectrum is currently
undergoing FCC mandated initiatives to increase the number of voice paths from 1 per 25 kHz to 1 per
12.5 kHz and, ultimately, 1 per 6.26 kHz. These narrowbanding initiatives also insure a minimum air link
data rate of 4.8 kb/s per 6.25 kHz of spectrum.
Nationwide Interoperability
Recent events, such as the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as the blizzards
of 2010, have highlighted the need for mission critical public safety communications to be interoperable
across all agencies, jurisdictions, and borders. This understanding has resulted in an effort by the public
safety user community, as well as Federal and State/Local agencies, to define and drive the network
interface standards necessary to provide interoperability, connectivity, and roaming between public
safety LMR networks.
Broadband Data Communications
The need for anytime, anywhere access to information has extended from the general public to the
public safety community. The growing requirement for secure access to data intensive resources, such
as geo-location, criminal records, hazardous materials, building schematics, and video, is driving the
demand for a nationwide public safety broadband network. The ability to supplement mission critical
voice services with high speed wireless data communications will facilitate the sharing of incidentspecific information, improving the situational awareness for dispatchers and commanders, both in the
field and in the command center, as well as first responders.
Interoperable Mission Critical Broadband/Narrowband Solution for Public Safety Communications | Strategic White Paper 1
The Solution – Harmonized 700 MHz LTE/P25 Networks
Public safety, having previously selected the Project 25 standard for interoperable narrowband
communications, has recently selected 3GPP’s LTE technology for interoperable broadband
communications. To address the need for interoperable broadband and narrowband service, the FCC, in
2007, authorized a new spectrum-channelization plan that redistributed the 700 MHz band (698 MHz to
806 MHz), establishing three spectrum blocks for communications among public safety agencies:
•A 10 MHz wide commercial block (upper D) that is also expected to provide additional
resources to public safety in times of emergency
•A 12 MHz wide public safety broadband block
•A 12 MHz wide public safety narrowband block (awarded to the Public Safety Spectrum Trust)
The plan also expressed the FCC’s intent that future nationwide licensees of both the D-block and Public
Safety Broadband Block (PSBB) enter into network-sharing agreements to enable roaming between
the public safety networks and com¬mercial networks and to provide coverage in areas where public
safety’s own network facilities are not yet available.
The FCC plan makes it possible to overlay a 700 MHz LTE data network on a 700 MHz P25 digital LMR
network, combining the strengths of both technologies to deliver a unified broadband/narrowband
communications infrastructure that can be shared across cooperating public safety agencies.
P25
Project 25 (P25) refers to a suite of standards for digital radio communications for use by federal,
state/province and local public safety agencies in North America, and was created by a coalition that
included APCO, National Association of State Telecommunications Directors (NASTD), National
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the National Communications System
(NCS), National Security Agency (NSA) and the US Department of Defense (DoD).
Project 25 addresses the need for greater spectrum efficiency by defining the standards for digital
codecs that reduce channel size from 25 KHz today, to 12.5 KHz in P25 Phase 1, and finally to 6.25 KHz
in P25 Phase 2.
The P25 digital trunked system can be optimized for low latency mission critical wide area group calls
using standard multicast and simulcast configurations. P25 also makes it possible for public safety
agencies to communicate with other agencies as well as mutual aid response teams in emergencies. The
Inter RF Sub System Interface (ISSI) provides network-level interoperability between RF sub-systems,
enabling dynamic communications and subscriber mobility between P25-compliant systems regardless
of frequency or manufacturer.
Finally, P25 makes it possible for public safety radio networks to deliver voice access in less than 1.3
seconds from button press; provide reliable, simultaneous voice communications to 100’s of responders
Interoperable Mission Critical Broadband/Narrowband Solution for Public Safety Communications | Strategic White Paper 2
in each talkgroup; and, support direct mode communication when the local infrastructure is down or
users are out of network coverage.
LTE
Global wireless service providers have adopted LTE as the evolution path for their current commercial
systems. In addition to its adoption for commercial wireless service, the Association of Public Safety
Communications Officials (APCO), National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC), the
Major City Chiefs (MCC), the 911 Emergency Number Association (NENA) and the PSST have endorsed
LTE for the public safety 700 MHz band.
LTE can be organized using a cellular configuration to optimize capacity for point-to-point data traffic
flows and access to centralized data bases. One of the major reasons that LTE has been endorsed by
major public safety organizations is that it is based on Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access
(OFDMA) technologies which provide higher spectrum efficiency and load-independent coverage.
OFDMA also offers the possibility to limit the band request to what is needed in order to avoid
bandwidth wasting.
Because LTE technology also uses standardized protocols and interfaces, users beyond the range of
their home public safety network will also have the ability to maintain a connection using a local public
safety 700 MHz network or a commercial wireless network.
The wireless broadband connectivity delivered by LTE will enable applications that cannot be supported
over narrowband wireless technologies such as P25. Public Safety applications that could be supported
by LTE include:
• Streaming video (surveillance, remote monitoring)
• Digital imaging
• Automatic vehicle location
• Computer-aided dispatching
• Web access
• e-mail
• Remote database access
• Report management system access
• Telemetry/remote diagnostics
• Mapping/GIS
• Text messaging
• Voice over IP (including interoperability with legacy and new LMR infrastructure through the
use of appropriate gateways)
The bottom line is that LTE will provide first responders with the high speed Internet and data base
access necessary to improve safety, security, and efficiency in the field.
Interoperable Mission Critical Broadband/Narrowband Solution for Public Safety Communications | Strategic White Paper 3
Alcatel-Lucent & EADS – Joint Solution for
Interoperable Broadband/Narrowband Mission Critical Communications
The joint solution from Alcatel-Lucent and EADS will provide a standards-based holistic communications
infrastructure, along with the devices and applications necessary to deliver interoperable broadband
and narrowband mission critical communications. Capitalizing on their respective leadership and
technical expertise, Alcatel-Lucent and EADS have joined together to define, develop, and qualify a
comprehensive end-to-end LTE/P25 network for the 700 MHz spectrum.
•Alcatel-Lucent will adapt its LTE-based radio access network and enhanced packet core to the
frequency band dedicated to broadband public safety services in the U.S.
•EADS will provide its P25 LMR infrastructure and systems, as well as develop LTE terminals and
applications designed specifically for the North American public safety market.
The combination of LTE from Alcatel-Lucent and P25 LMR from EADS will provide the optimum in
spectral efficiency, as well as the benefit of streamlines operations and reduced costs associated with
maintaining multiple non-interoperable networks.
•Optimize the re-use of P25 LMR sites by operating in the same 700 MHz band
•Utilize an uplink-oriented system design for transmissions from field users to control rooms, as
well as high power vehicular-mounted modem/routers to improve the link budget compared to
commercial devices.
•Provide excellent coverage while limiting frequency requirements by working with only 2 x 1.4
MHz channels and a frequency re-use of 3 in the current allocated public safety spectrum.
•Offer operators a single set of tools for service management, provisioning, and reporting
through the integration of LMR and LTE network operations.
For public safety agencies, the result of this collaborative effort will be the best of both worlds: P25
LMR for mission critical two-way voice services with the same performance, coverage, reliability and call
features required today, and LTE for mobile, high-speed data services including access to the Internet,
home agency applications via VPNs, field-based server applications, and Incident Command Systems.
•High bandwidth wireless connectivity to allow for enhanced deployment of mobile command
posts wherever and whenever an incident occurs.
•Applications that improve the effectiveness of first responders by enabling access to high
bandwidth information such as real-time video, high-resolution photographs, hazardous
materials data, and building schematics.
•Roaming between public safety and commercial networks using subscriber devices that
emulate LMR Push-to-Talk (PTT) capability over LTE.
•Interoperate with P25 communications through a Voice Gateway connected via P25 ISSI.
Interoperable Mission Critical Broadband/Narrowband Solution for Public Safety Communications | Strategic White Paper 4
Figure 1: Alcatel-Lucent & EADS Mission Critical Infrastructure for Public Safety
Summary
With the introduction of LTE networks, public safety communications systems will have the opportunity
to supplement their critical voice and narrowband data services with enhanced multimedia applications.
By developing strong and meaningful interactions between P25 narrowband public safety and LTE
broadband networks, as well as collaborations between two-way radios and data devices, Alcatel-Lucent
and EADS are providing public safety organizations with the assurance of mission critical voice in times
of crisis along with all the advantages of leading edge multimedia services.
The combination of Alcatel-Lucent and EADS also provides a level of market leadership and breadth of
portfolio unmatched by any other vendor.
•Alcatel-Lucent is a recognized market leader in LTE with more than 40 LTE trials around the
globe and has executed commercial contracts with two of the largest operators in the world.
•EADS is a global leader in mission critical LMR and has digital trunked radio systems deployed
in over 200 public safety networks in 68 countries.
•EADS, and its subsidiary PlantCML, offer the most comprehensive portfolio of mission critical
communication solutions available in North America; together they have deployed call center
solutions in 14 of 20 most populous US cities Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP’s) and
provided notification alerts to people in over 100 countries.
The resulting joint LTE/P25 solution from Alcatel-Lucent and EADS will provide public safety agencies
with interoperable voice, video and data communications, delivering the access to information
necessary to integrate awareness among agencies, facilitate interagency response, and implement a
unified incident management strategy. Or, put simply, public safety agencies will be able to improve
operational effectiveness and, ultimately, the safety of field personnel and the public they serve.
Interoperable Mission Critical Broadband/Narrowband Solution for Public Safety Communications | Strategic White Paper 5
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