Public Safety

Introduction

 

 Communication systems and services for public safety

Mission-critical communications to rely on at all times

Facilitating emergency communications for authorities, public safety users and citizens

The need for emergency telecommunications includes many scenarios ranging from a minor incident (e.g. traffic accident) to a major incident such as a passenger train crash, a terrorist incident, a chemical spillage or a natural disaster (e.g. an earthquake or tsunami).

ETSI and 3GPP (a collaborative project between standards organizations worldwide, including ETSI, that develops specifications for advanced mobile communication technologies) work on a comprehensive set of standards and interoperability tools to enable communications in the case of emergency situations.

The activities of ETSI and 3GPP cover the scenarios to be considered for communication from authorities to citizens (and reciprocally), between authorities and amongst citizens. Emergency communications cover all communication systems and services including all media possibilities such as voice and non-voice, data, location etc.

The standardization work is based on use cases that are defined by Public Safety users (including fire and rescue services, ambulances, police and Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP)), industry and regulators from all over the world.

Groups

 The ETSI Public Safety cluster encompasses the activities of several ETSI Technical Committees and Working Groups:

  • ATTM (Access, Terminals, Transmission and Multiplexing) AT3 (Integrated broadband cable and television networks)
  • BRAN (Broadband Radio Access Networks)
  • EMTEL (Emergency Communications)
  • ERM (EMC and Radio spectrum Matters) Task Group DMR (Digital Mobile Radio)
  • ERM (EMC and Radio spectrum Matters) Task Group 26 (Maritime and radio amateur activities)
  • MSG (Mobile Standards Group)
  • RRS (Reconfigurable Radio Systems) Working Group 4 (Public safety)
  • SES (Satellite Earth Stations & Systems)
  • SatEC Working Group (Satellite Emergency Communications)
  • TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio)
  • TISPAN (Telecoms & Internet converged Services & Protocols for Advanced Network)

TC EMTEL is an ETSI Technical Committee responsible for identifying the operational and technical requirements of those involved in the provision of emergency
communications, for conveying these requirements to other ETSI committees and for liaison with other groups and organizations, including R&D projects, involved in this field.

In addition, the cluster includes the work of various 3GPP groups and also incorporates the results of the former Public Safety Partnership Project, Project MESA, of which ETSI was a founding partner.

The Public Safety cluster also co-operates with various fora, consortia and organizations including the European Emergency Number Association (EENA), the USA's National Emergency Number Association (NENA), ECMA International, the PSC Europe Forum, IETF-ECRIT, ITU-T, COCOM EGEA (European Commission Expert Group on Emergency), ATIS (US Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions), the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards
(OASIS), the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), the Wireless Innovation Forum, the TETRA Association, the GSM Association, and the DMR Association.

Activities

eCall, requested by the European Commission, establishes an automated call, to operate in dual mode GSM/UMTS, from a road vehicle in an accident towards an emergency service centre. The voice call is preceded by the automated transmission of a Minimum Set of Data (MSD) such as the exact location of the crash site, the model of the car, etc. CEN has defined the MSD, 3GPP the way to transmit the data and to establish the voice call while TC MSG has been involved in defining the test cases. The service is foreseen to start in 2015.

The Public Warning System (PWS) is a generic term for the globalization of the earlier Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS). Its scope is to broadcast information to alert the public in case of a major disaster. To develop this system 3GPP has taken into account regional requirements from Japan (ETWS) and the USA (Commercial Mobile Alert Service, CMAS), whilst TC EMTEL has collected the European specific requirements.

3GPP also defines a set of mechanisms to enable a priority useof GSM and 3G networks, such as Multimedia Priority Services (MPS). It also specifies access by closed user groups to the network with, for example, Voice Group Call Services (VGCS) that could be employed by Public Safety users.

The mobile broadband system of systems is mainly dealt with by Working Group 4 (WG4) of ETSI TC RRS and previously by Project MESA. RRS WG4 is investigating the possibility of using Software Defined Radio (SDR) and Cognitive Radio (CR) concepts in the Public Safety domain. Public Safety communications are characterized by patchworks of separate, often incompatible systems with widely varying capabilities. The application of SDR and CR, together with dynamic spectrum management, can provide solutions for the required interoperability of such systems and maximize the use of the very limited radio spectrum usually assigned to these services. Project MESA has produced global technical specifications for an integrated digital mobile broadband ‘System of Systems' for the public protection and disaster response sectors TErrestrial Trunked RAdio (TETRA) is a digital trunked mobile radio standard developed to meet the needs of traditional Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) user organizations. It is necessary to continue the maintenance of TETRA 1 (narrowband) and TETRA 2 (wideband) standards in order to improve them and include new functionality. Broadband TETRA services are about to be developed to meet new user requirements.

In addition, the TETRA community is considering how the LTE technology developed within 3GPP could be adapted to provide PMR-like functionality meeting the requirements of emergency users.

Digital Mobile Radio (DMR), a European standard produced by the DMR Task Group of ETSI's ERM Technical Committee, defines a direct digital replacement for analogue PMR. The PMR/DMR markets can be divided into three broad categories and DMR has the capability to serve them all: consumer and short-range industrial; professional / business-critical applications; and Public Safety / mission-critical applications.

Another task group of ERM, TG 26, is involved in the Maritime world. The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) has been put in place between the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the ITU. It applies in Europe through the Marine Equipment Directive, for big ships covered by the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS)
convention, and the R&TTE Directive for smaller ships.
 
The Satellite Emergency Communication Working Group (SES SatEC) of ETSI's Satellite Earth Stations & Systems Technical Committee (TC SES) performs standardization in the area of satellite emergency communication, in particular involving broadband services. The group is working with scenarios dealing with the set-up of a temporary emergency communication cell based on Wifi, VHF/UHF, WIMAX, GSM or TETRA which is then linked/backhauled to the permanent infrastructure by means of a bi-directional satellite link.

When contacting emergency services non-voice communication has became a very important parameter. Initially 112 was based on voice only but data, text, audio, video became essential parameters as well. Also it can help people with a disabilit, for example the hard of hearing. 3GPP has developed NOVES (NOn-Voice for Emergency Communications) while EMTEL is working on "Total Conversation" (real time text+audio+video).

ETSI is also answering to an EC Mandate (M/493) to support European requirements on emergency caller location determination and transport, in particular for the case where VoIP service provider and network operators are independent enterprises.