Public Safety Ready to Go Global on Broadband

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Currently, in almost all countries in Europe and in North America, as well as several in the Asia-Pacific region, there is agreement that public safety agencies should use LTE and 5G. The focus now is on how to migrate first responders from narrowband Land Mobile Radio networks to broadband networks, according to Sanne Stijve, Ericsson Global Business Development Director, Mission Critical Networks. Many countries are looking to bring their mission-critical broadband network online by 2025, he added.

At the recent global Critical Communications World event for the mission-critical communications community in Austria, vendors showcased the newest releases of the dual Tetra/LTE devices they are bringing on the market. 

“Existing narrowband LMR networks and broadband will co-exist for a period of time and system interworking is therefore important,” Stijve said in an Ericsson Blog. “But whether there is a market for [dual Tetra/LTE devices] remains to be seen. Interconnecting solutions on the network side were also sought after by event visitors.”

Public safety agencies are leaning toward developing their own dedicated cores for their broadband networks, with MNOs providing coverage by connecting their radio base stations to the public safety core networks via RAN sharing, according to Stijve. But public safety agencies have a heightened need to control their infrastructure and to ensure that it is hardened against service disruptions.

“Deploying their own cells or base stations is being considered by [public safety agencies] in some countries, mainly to complement mobile network operator coverage, or to have a hardened coverage layer to ensure the availability of the most essential service, namely group voice communication,” Stijve said. “Hardening, which encompasses power back-up, is an essential part of what makes a network mission-critical, and how to secure it for access networks is being evaluated.”

FirstNet is planning to transition from 4G to 5G non-standalone and then to 5G standalone. Several 5G concepts such as network slicing and virtualization also apply to 4G. LTE base stations can be connected to 5G cores, and 4G networks are software-upgradable to 5G. Mission Critical group communications, also called push-to-X services or MCX, is planned to be integrated in 5G in Release 18.

“Many of the 3GPP mission-critical network enablers are already standardized for 5G, and more will come in Release 17, which is due later this year,” Stijve said. “For the time being, the LTE part of a non-standalone 5G network can be used to support the mission-critical services. This means that there are neither drawbacks nor risks starting with 4G, especially since the use of 4G devices is already proven in the field.”

By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Tower Technology Editor

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