Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Public safety rethinks the future

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 10:10:10 -0500

Public safety rethinks the future
March 23, 2004 6:23pm
mrt

Recent moves by some European public-safety agencies to study commercial
wireless technology as an alternative to the TETRA (terrestrial trunked
radio) standard is fueling discussion in the U.S. on whether a future
role for such technologies exists.

Specifically, they wonder whether commercial technologies could be used
to ensure that first responders and other public-safety personnel have
access to interoperable communications networks, as well as other
critical features such as high-speed data services.

Sweden is considering upgrading its public-safety network to CDMA
technology at the 450 MHz band as an alternative to the TETRA standard,
which is used throughout the region for public-safety radio networks.
Norway also is said to be studying a similar path for its public-safety
communications.

Dismayed by a lack of capacity and channels on its current analog
system, Swedish officials are attracted to the CDMA technology's vendor
support, coverage advantages and high-speed data capabilities, said Joe
Nordgaard, managing director of Spectral Advantage, a wireless
consulting firm specializing in CDMA 450 deployments.

“TETRA is very expensive, capacity is limited and it doesn't handle
broadband data,” said Nordgaard. “You're dealing with a technology that
is out of date and expensive to deploy.”

Those criticisms also are being tossed at Project 25 technology in the
U.S., which is backed by the Association of Public-Safety Communications
Officials (APCO), International. This 15-year-old effort to create
interoperable gear for police, fire and other emergency responders has
resulted in expensive technology supported by few vendors with little
innovation, according to critics. Though P25 networks currently
represent the best technology suited for first responders in terms of
reliability, security and encryption, they may never solve giant
problems facing first responders today: interoperability and the need
for critical high-speed data applications.

Public-safety experts agree that a P25 network — or any land mobile
radio (LMR) system — is not sufficient to satisfy all requirements of an
emergency management community, particularly when a plethora of agencies
and individuals respond to a major emergency. Commercial technology may
be what the public-safety sector needs to bridge interoperability gaps,
as it also provides valuable applications such as high-speed data
services and location-tracking capabilities not offered by P25 systems.
Mike Iandolo, vice president of CDMA product management with Lucent
Technologies, said CDMA technology today is not positioned to replace
LMR standards, because it lacks features critical for public safety,
such as robust walkie-talkie capabilities and the ability to communicate
without a base station. Ultimately, Sweden, Norway and other European
countries are likely to decide that CDMA isn't ready to serve as a
public-safety network, he said.

However, Lucent has been marketing CDMA to U.S. government agencies on
the state and federal levels, conducting demonstrations of the
technology's high-speed data capabilities and touting the low costs
associated with off-loading non-critical communications onto a
CDMA-based network. New CDMA-based 1X EV-DO (Evolution Data Only)
technology, already introduced by commercial operators, offers peak data
rates of 2.4 Mb/s in a 1.25 MHz channel — a compelling proposition for
agencies squeezed by spectrum shortages. Future enhancements include
higher encryption standards, priority access and GPS location-tracking
capabilities coupled with real-time two-way radio capabilities,
Nordgaard said.

“CDMA allows you to set up a wireless infrastructure that provides
interoperability, so that different agencies can speak with each other,”
said Iandolo. “The benefits include economies of scale and capacity
advantages. We believe it is a more cost-effective way to provide
high-speed data and voice to a lot of subscribers not available with any
other system.”
The tricky question is: How could public-safety organizations utilize
commercial technology? Crowded spectrum bands are the biggest problem.
Public safety is gaining access to 24 MHz of spectrum for P25 networks,
but it is lobbying for an additional 10 MHz in the same band for
dedicated wide-area broadband applications at the city, county and state
levels.
Public-safety agencies are calling on Congress to allocate the 10 MHz to
public safety and stop the auction of the upper portion of the 700 MHz
band to commercial operators. Their vision centers on flash-OFDM
(orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) or 1X EV-DO deployments
utilizing 1.25 MHz channels to provide services such as video monitoring
and critical data transmission. Recognizing the benefits of
off-the-shelf technology, public-safety organizations already embrace
the use of 802.11 technology in the 4.9 GHz band.

Another problem is that deployment of a network dedicated to augmenting
an existing public-safety network is an expensive proposition during a
time when state and local governments are struggling just to fund
education.

Nevertheless, the District of Columbia last month announced a pilot
high-speed wireless broadband contract for public safety with Motorola
and Flarion Technologies, using Flarion's proprietary Flash-OFDM
technology, which edged out other offerings, including Lucent's CDMA2000
1X EV-DO service. The district's Office of the Chief Technology Officer
(OCTO) is deploying the $2.7 million network with the help of federal
grants. OCTO is making the case for a nationwide flash-OFDM network in
the 700 MHz band to provide critical high-speed data services .

With an uncertain spectrum position, a case also can be made for
leveraging networks owned by commercial operators. All commercial
operators are moving toward more efficient packet data networks such as
CDMA 1X EV-DO and EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution), and many
are beginning to market high-speed data capabilities to public-safety
agencies. The move to packet networks also creates greater capacity
advantages for the off-loading of voice communications.
Nextel Communications has become the poster child for this concept, with
federal, state and local agencies now accounting for more than 20% of
Nextel's new sales. Since winning its first government contract in 1999,
Nextel has helped public-safety agencies achieve interoperability and
has assisted in emergency situations such as the terrorist attacks on
Sept. 11, 2001, the space shuttle Columbia disaster and the sniper
attacks in the Washington D.C., area.

“We feel we can work complementary with APCO systems,” said Leon
Frazier, vice president for Nextel's public sector division. “Many
cities' emergency-management departments are using Nextel as a component
of their emergency-response plan.”

Nextel has developed a number of features designed for public-safety
use, including Direct Connect Priority Access, which provides two-way
radio communications that operate when base stations lose power and
specialized GPS capabilities such as vehicle tracking. Nextel also is
creating directories to allow various agencies to opt in and out of
calling groups, enabling an EMS worker to quickly find the number of a
police officer, for instance.

Public-safety agencies in Charlottesville, Va., recently received a $6
million FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) Interoperable
Equipment Grant to implement an interoperable radio network. One of the
requirements was the use of innovative technology to create new
solutions to achieve interoperability. Nextel fit into that strategy.

“What Nextel offers is essentially an 800 MHz trunked radio system that
can work in parallel with our existing system and enhance our
communications for public safety,” said Charles Werner, the
Charlottesville deputy fire chief responsible for lobbying for the FEMA
grant. “I can expand to virtually any agency I need by handing them a
Nextel phone.”
While voice service is the primary application, Charlottesville's
public-safety workers are quickly taking advantage of the more advanced
services Nextel offers. For example, computer-aided dispatch allows
users to receive text messages describing the type of call and address.

Staffs already are issuing weather notifications via text messaging, and
the city is experimenting with GPS-based automatic vehicle location
capabilities, which would be too expensive for the city to deploy on its
own, Werner said.

Nextel announced it will deploy WiDEN technology, a software upgrade to
its existing iDEN network that could quadruple current packet data
speeds. The carrier also is trialing Flarion's flash-OFDM technology
with select business customers in Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

“We have features we couldn't otherwise afford,” said Werner. “Getting
data on the phones and accessing the Web would otherwise cost millions.
Most localities don't have that money. Grants are falling, and a lot of
the federal money is focused on the Office of Domestic Preparedness.
We're all competing for [fewer] funds.”

Still, a fine line exists between how much commercial technology and
networks can help and how much they could hurt. Critics caution that
public safety should carefully weigh the pros and cons of moving more
communications and capabilities onto commercial networks and
technologies that are not optimized for reliability and security.

The industry is still developing priority access features for many of
the commercial standards, and while commercial networks are generally
more reliable in terms of coverage, they are often overwhelmed during
crises.

“Commercial technology use for some non-mission critical communications
can have some value, but there are significant limitations to what
degree it can meet public-safety needs,” said Bob Gurss, APCO's director
of legal and government affairs. Coverage, security and reliability
remain major drawbacks to wider use of commercial technology, he said.

In its quest to secure additional spectrum for public safety, APCO
continually battles the notion Capitol Hill policymakers hold that
public-safety needs can be met by using mobile phones, Gurss said.

“You can get interoperability if someone carries a cell phone,” said
Gurss. “But that doesn't provide the functionality that public safety
needs for critical communications.”

But APCO recognizes public safety can benefit from certain applications
only available through commercial technology and networks. “APCO doesn't
advocate nor discourage use of commercial systems,” Gurss said. “Those
decisions should be made individually on the local level.”

At any rate, with federal funding for interoperability dwindling and
commercial vendors and operators looking for more places to sell their
services, commercial technology likely will play a larger role in
emergency response and the nation's defense. No one technology can offer
both interoperability and broadband data capabilities, public-safety
experts say.
“Unless I find the end of the rainbow, commercial networks will continue
to augment an important part of what we do,” Werner said.

Public Safety's Triple Play

Overview Current 700 MHz Plan Current 4.9 GHz Plan Spectrum Coalition
(Upper 700 Mhz Block C)

Technology P25 & SAM 802.11 a/j/g Flash-OFDM or 1xEVDO

Channel Bandwith 150 kHz 20 MHz 1.25 MHz

Total Public Safety Bandwith 24 MHz 50 MHz 10 MHz

Uses P25: voice and narrowband (text-based) data SAM: text, web and
images Hot spot local incident broadband (video, GIS, high-resolution
imagery) City/county/state wide-area broadband (video, GIS,
high-resolution imagery)

Source: Spectrum Coalition for Public Safety

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From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 07:20:45 -0500

-------- Original Message --------
From: "eric995us" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Public safety rethinks the future

I work for a cellular carrier in Phoenix.  One of my jobs is to go 
out and hunt down interference to "my" CDMA systems.

I know the basic message I'm replying to was about public safety use 
of commercial CDMA systems.  This is an area that I think everyone 
has an opinion about and I'm not going to bother "going there".

What I'm talking about in this message is a private entity going to a 
CDMA system.  

I haven't had my 2 quart (it really is that big) cup of coffee yet, 
so I may ramble a bit...but here goes.

I would be careful of a private system using CDMA.

Normally a spread spectrum signal is quite resistant to interference, 
but this resistance has been traded away in favor of increased 
loading.  The commercial CDMA system's interference resistance is 
actually quite low.  

I would imagine that the FCC would not want to spend 1.25MHz of 
spectrum on one entity without the spectrum capacity being completely 
used.  Nor would I expect the budget people to want to spend the 
money to install a CDMA system without it being completely filled 
up.  Because of these two things, I would expect a private/public 
safety CDMA system to be as fully loaded as a cellular system.

Not only is CDMA fairly sensitive to interference, but it is a fat 
target as well.

Most of the interference that I end up hunting is a drifting carrier 
in the base station receive range that is in the -105 to -110dBm 
strength range.  Typically the carrier drifts around at a 50 to 
200KHz per second rate and then settles down as the "spewing" 
transmitter's  PA reaches thermal equiblibrium.

I do sometimes end up finding an IM product.  These don't drift 
around and it is easy to tell the difference between IM products 
and "transmitters gone wild".

In a system of multiple narrowband channels, the quarter second of 
interference, caused as the interference drifts through the channel, 
might not even be noticed.  If the carrier does stop drifting or 
doesn't drift at all (as in the case of an IM product), then only one 
channel is likely to be hurt.

In a CDMA system, the same interferer is capable of taking out all of 
the channels being handled by the CDMA carrier and since the CDMA 
signal is such a large target, the drifting interferer is likely to 
stay in that 1.25MHz chunk of spectrum for a long time.

It is something to think about.

Eric

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