# Presentation: 937972

## Policy Implications for Better Communications and Interoperability for Public Safety 

**March 4, 2004**
- Dr. Paul Kolodzy, Director
- Nancy Jesuale, Public Safety Program Manager

## Outline:

**Outline:**

**Part One:  Emerging National Trends (Paul)**
**Part Two:  Local and Regional Policy Issues (Nancy)**
**Part Three:  Policy Response (Paul)**

## Part One:  Emerging National Trends

## SAFECOM:Key Challenges for Public Safety Interoperability

**SAFECOM:****Key Challenges for Public Safety Interoperability**

- 1.  Incompatible and Aging Equipment
- 2.  Limited and fragmented budget cycles and FUNDING
- 3.  Limited and fragmented planning and coordination
- 4.  Limited and fragmented radio spectrum
- 5.  Limited equipment standards

## Technology trends:mobility and connectivity

**Technology trends:****mobility and connectivity**

- Cellular Service moving toward broadband services
- Wi-Fi and Wireless Broadband Deploying more places
- Meshed Networking
- Spectrally Adaptive, Aware Radios/End-User Devices

## Industry Trends:

- Competition vs. Mergers and Acquisition
- We may start with vigorous entrepreneurial involvement, but consolidation eventually rules!
- Momentum is behind the IP standard
- Coverage and Availability (the winners have to have network access available everywhere)
- Quality of Service -- It’s an afterthought still!  Price, not quality rules the marketplace
- Security is still an afterthought

## The Market Trends:

- From wired to unwired services
- Mobility is Key to consumers
- Demand moving from narrowband to broadband uses
- Investment is continuing in new infrastructure, new access devices, technologies and services

## Part Two:  Local and Regional Policy Issues

## Communications is the primary weapon for public safety

- Most urban police vehicles and fire apparatus contain over $10,000 of communications equipment (MDT, modem, multiple radios). It’s all narrowband.
- Future requirements are for broadband voice, data, video and image: video on board, wearable computers, cyber-crime, nano technology, geo-spatial data, database access, etc.
- The bottom line is, public safety needs better, or at least equivalent access to technology as the “perps”
- Public safety is about 10 years behind the military --how are we going to catch up?

## Communications is the primary weapon for public safety

- For firefighters, the high-rise environment of steel and concrete is a no-transmit zone
- Underground environment -- light rail, tunnels, parking lots
- Chemical hazards
- Density issues (suburban wildfires)
- Immediate and future need for wearable computers, geo-spatial data for hazmat, directions,  and on-the-fly interoperability (meshed networks)

## Public Safety Spectrum Policy State and Local Level-  unchain infrastructure and access

**Public Safety Spectrum Policy ****State and Local Level-  *****unchain infrastructure and access***

- Local approaches are widely divergent on “shared” infrastructure, resources and control.
- Fire-fighting is largely a volunteer effort in this country.
- Decisions on spectrum policy made at the “platoon” level.
- American system of government requires a great deal of _local autonomy_--local approaches can NOT be easily dictated from a central “top down” approach.
- There is no cookie-cutter for local public safety spectrum

## The Status Quo is not adequate We need to promote the regional utility model for public safety communications infrastructure

**The Status Quo is not adequate**** ****We need to promote the regional utility model for public safety communications infrastructure**

- Locals have long recognized the need to “regionalize” utilities (water, sewer, transportation)
- Local, regional and State government simply have no funding mechanism for planning, building or maintaining communications infrastructure (We need the equiv. of the Federal Dept of Transportation to funnel funds on a regular and predictable schedule)
- Currently rely on bond measures
- Local tax base won’t support the dedicated infrastructures
- Locals don’t have engineering and technical resources necessary for planning, engineering, operations and maintenance
- The dominance of a single vendor has hurt public safety

## What will shape future spectrum policy? Can the 10-year paradigm change to put local public safety in a top seat?

- Places to look:
- Assuming adaptive (“cognitive”) radios--why can’t we devise a policy scheme that provides advantage to public safety?
- How could interruptible spectrum advantage public safety?
- Who are the secondary and who are the primary users going forward?
- How much spectrum is there?  Is it limited?  Or unlimited for priority public benefit?
- Whose paradigm changes?  Just public safety’s?  What about cellular’s spectrum paradigm?  What about the broadcasters?

## Part Three: Policy Response

## The Communications Policy Paradigm is Changing

**The Communications Policy Paradigm is Changing**

- At the FCC:
- From Command and Control to Commons Spectral Rights
- From Frequency and Space Dimensions to Time Dimension
- Development of secondary spectrum markets
- Eventual movement toward “put and call” spectrum access
- At Congress:
- Privacy Issues
- Spam
- Identity Theft
- Digital Divide
- Homeland Security

## Spectrum Policy Task Forces (FCC and NTIA)--Reexamining Paradigms

- Separation between commercial, public safety and military spectrum authority
- Delegation of licensed and unlicensed spectrum
- Interference Issues and the concept of Interference Metrics/Temperature
- Rights of Spectrum Holders

## Old Policy + New Technology = Collision!

- VOIP:  Telephone, or NOT?
- Cable modems:  Cable service or NOT?
- Broadband Network Access:  Utility or NOT?
- Taxation:  universal service (who pays?) franchise fees (why me?), carrier access billing (not fair?)
- Regulation or NOT?  (unbundled network elements, mandated wholesale access, government provided networks)
- Privacy, Identity Theft, Foreign Ownership, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity....
- Spectrum Scarcity vs. Spectrum Access

## So, in light of emerging technology, policy and industry trends; How Does Public Safety Win? 

## Technology Pieces

**Technology Pieces**

- Adaptive radio is nearly a reality
- Commercial infrastructure (cellular, Wi-fi and fiber) build-out creates more access opportunities for public safety (Physical and Network-Level)
- Security, reliability and authentication on commercial networks still an issue today
- Public safety _future uses_ very different from today’s narrowband uses. (real-time video, image, GIS, wearable computers, augmented reality--we will need broadband data, not just voice)

*Exploit emerging technology*

## Big gains for Public Safety if we exploit emerging technology

**Big gains for**** Public Safety if we *****exploit emerging technology***

- “Lights and sirens” access -- The investment made in commercial infrastructure can be leveraged to provide public safety access
- Accordion spectrum --  Adaptive radios can be leveraged to provide flexible spectrum usage
- Adaptive radios -- agility can be leveraged to create seamless interoperability between dissimilar frequency bands.
- Put and call authentication --  Roaming, permissioning and carrier access billing systems can be leveraged to create secure mechanisms for public safety access to commercial networks
- More COTS -- Encourage development of adaptive receiver technologies that are affordable, ubiquitous and standardized

## How should we proceed?Some specific research issues

**How should we proceed?****Some specific research issues**

- We should measure the impact pubic safety access would have on commercial network capacity (measure and then model the demand dynamics)
- We should develop the models and subsequent standards for put and call (interruptible) access (authentication, permission, release)
- We should define the reliability and security augmentation necessary to make commercial infrastructure and networks meet public safety grade-of-service requirements (99.999% reliability)
- Find the proper trade-offs between wireless and wireline technology
- Examine asset re-use at the RF level, network level, system level and software level

## Public Safety Policy Strategy--

- Build the policy case with facts and research results,
- Look long over a long horizon
- Develop R&D capability dedicated to public safety requirements
- Commercial and military infrastructure are an untapped national assets for public safety interoperability

**Pkolodzy@stevens-tech.edu**
**njesuale@winsec.us**
**Thank You**