From original Alcatel-Lucent TechZine posting
Increased number of security threats, demand for greater efficiency, and requirement for cross-agency coordination all point to the need to modernize public safety communications networks toward IP and broadband. And, backhauling is at the forefront of this evolution.
The rationale for the evolution of public safety backhaul networks is twofold:
By deploying a converged MPLS-based backhaul network now, public safety organizations can address current and future requirements for public safety IP communications while controlling costs. And when properly designed, mission-critical public safety transport networks also feature more efficient and more resilient support of legacy TDM-based applications.
Employ backhauling as a strategic asset
For backhauling mission-critical voice and sensor traffic, traditional public safety communications networks use PDH and/or SDH/SONET-based TDM technologies. But times have changed. Many new applications are media-rich and computing-resource-intensive, so they require larger, fluctuating amounts of bandwidth.
Consequently, public safety agencies are swapping dedicated TDM-based backhaul networks with converged packet based backhaul to deliver broadband-based multimedia applications. These MPLS-based networks can transport first responder traffic coming, for instance, from:
Further, this move to IP enables improved interoperability, superior performance, and economies of scale, as well as better integration with IT applications—much needed steps in the right direction.
Now let’s turn to some key considerations when building packet-based mobile backhaul for an upgraded LMR/PMR network.
Resiliency and fast recovery
Strong resiliency is indispensable for a public safety communications network carrying mission-critical voice, video, and data. High reliability and resiliency for uninterrupted operations is essential and platform protection is crucial.
Gone are the days of the 2-node architecture. State-of-the-art networks use fully redundant platform that supports hitless control/fabric protection—a dramatic improvement. Plus, the high-availability features provide for unparalleled availability and reliability—essential for aggregation sites, as they ensure that a control card failure has no service impact. All of this, combined with fast switching and fast fault detection, enable fault detection time to the very low 10s of milliseconds, and then the ability to reroute connections at SDH/SONET speeds.
The network should also support advanced topologies—multi-ring, necklace and hybrid— to improve robustness. In particular, when fully capitalized by dynamic IP/MPLS, multi-ring’s rich path diversity provides the highest redundancy protection even during a disaster.
Versatility and efficiency
A backhaul network often spans dense urban areas and remote environments. To do so efficiently, public safety organizations should be able to mix and match transmission media—microwave, fiber, copper, and even 3rd-party leased lines—when building a mission-critical network. Backhauling equipment that supports transmission layer integration is vital.
A consolidated and simplified network design and operations for all network sites is possible along with consistent commissioning and operations procedures—regardless of the medium.
The most common transmission medium is packet microwave complemented by optical fiber. For microwave, depending on geography and site constraints, either outdoor or indoor microwave radios can be deployed. And, to maximize bandwidth throughput of available microwave spectrum, the following advanced microwave capabilities are of utmost importance:
When fiber is available, public safety operators should use it. Highly economical, coarse WDM (CWDM) allows up to 8 times 1 Gbps and/or 10 Gbps wavelengths to be carried on the same strand of fiber.
Advanced traffic management and quality of service
To deliver service guarantee and differentiation on a packet-based backhaul, a strong QoS mechanism with advanced traffic management capabilities is a must. The backhaul network should incorporate an extensive set of traffic management tools, such as advanced hierarchical scheduling and prioritization mechanisms.
These techniques optimize uplink utilization while maintaining maximum isolation and fairness among application traffic flows. This allows the network to always meet critical application performance parameters, such as bandwidth, delay, and jitter. In particular fragmentation and interleaving are key techniques to keep jitter under control on lower speed links.
Robust security
To safeguard their critical infrastructure, networks must have extensive integrated security features. These defend against cybersecurity threats, ensure communications and data privacy, and help deliver uninterrupted services. Specifically, robust mechanisms are needed to protect the management, control, and data planes against security threats originating from outside or inside the agency.
For external threats, a host of security measures can be taken, such as access control lists, traffic rate controls, user authentication, authorization and accounting, encryption, or label switch paths.
But threats can also come from within the agency. Detailed event logging, and features such as user profiles that limit an employee’s scope of network access, can also mitigate risk.
Microwave links are inherently secure. However, for locations vulnerable to eavesdropping, layer 1 FIPS-197 compliant encryption can be applied.
Optimize investment
IP/MPLS-based networks are ideal for multiservice backhauling, delivering superior performance and economies of scale. Multiservice backhaul networks can be deployed in various topology and connectivity configurations as required by public safety applications.
The challenge, though, is that legacy[1]- and TDM-based traffic will continue to be used for the foreseeable future. Consequently, the resilience and performance of a new backhaul network should resemble that of a TDM-based network. This is achieved with pseudowire based circuit switched emulation that can be applied across a wide portfolio of legacy and T1/E1 TDM interfaces.
Support for these interfaces is required to migrate public safety applications gracefully. In addition, IP/MPLS based networks allow for improved interoperability and integration with IT applications.
Even now, a full range of MPLS-based VPN services have been deployed in numerous mission-critical networks and have been proven by commercial carriers in taxing environments.
Prepare for LTE
Future LTE deployments need to be built on a solid foundation—a network that is resilient, versatile, efficient, and that recovers rapidly.
IP/MPLS backhaul networks should scale seamlessly to accommodate different interface speeds and capacity requirements depending on the location in the network. They should also enable installation versatility for small enclosures and full outdoor environments.
At the same time, a single end-to-end network management platform—including the backhauling and the LTE radio and core access network—is needed. This simplifies operations (configuration, provisioning, supervision, fault detection, and management) and optimizes end-to-end network performance.
A service-aware network manager can maximize all these network management synergies while extending coverage to the microwave and optical transport domains, as well as the LTE domain.
The way forward
As cost-constraints take hold and demand and citizen expectations increase, public safety organizations will be drawn to evolutionary solutions that keep OPEX and CAPEX in check while meeting new performance requirements.
The way forward for these organizations is with IP/MPLS-based backhaul networks. This path allows public safety operators to modernize their mission-critical networks and paves the way for LTE.
Related Material
Footnote
[1] Legacy interfaces include: E&M, FSX/FSO, V.24/V.35/X.21 serial
To contact the authors or request additional information, please send an email to techzine.editor@alcatel-lucent.com .
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Why LTE – and why now?
Public safety communications are at a turning point. The most urgent events – planned and unplanned – require more than mission-critical voice to improve first responders’ efficiency. Real-time imagery, video, geo-localization, and high-speed access to private cloud-based information and applications are becoming essential to fulfill first responders’ missions.
Existing private mobile radio (PMR) systems have limited capabilities to deliver this, because they were designed to primarily support narrowband mission-critical voice.
For LTE, it’s a different story. LTE can complement existing PMR networks to dramatically enhance operational effectiveness and coordination within a secure infrastructure shared by cooperating agencies.
LTE operational benefits include:
However, adding LTE mobile broadband capabilities to existing PMR networks in a non-disruptive and cost-effective way can be complex, with many factors to consider. Fortunately, proven roadmaps exist for a smooth migration that leverages existing infrastructure and investments and adapts to local constraints.
5 proven business models to transition to LTE
When evolving to mobile broadband, public safety agencies have a choice among many business models to get broadband PMR services. In all models, public safety organizations are responsible for purchasing the applications and the terminals that will operate over the 4G radio access network.
The models include:
1. Mobile network operator (MNO) – Using existing commercial LTE network for public safety forces
In this model, the public safety agency contracts data subscriptions with an MNO to provide mobile broadband services.
Public safety users and consumers share the same spectrum and network. The public safety entity pays a consistent, predictable periodic fee for network access, usually a function of some known factors, such as the number of end users, devices, or usage.
2. Government mobile virtual network operator (G-MVNO) – Operating or getting service from a G-MVNO
The mobile virtual network operator approach has become prevalent in the commercial sector, where operators resell bulk-purchased wireless services to consumers while providing their own usage plans, billing, and customer support.
In this model, the MVNO approach can be extended to public safety users. A G-MVNO provides added-value services (e.g., security, selection of best access) to the public safety users. These users get access to secure broadband data services when the G-MVNO leverages the 4G access network from the MNO.
G-MVNO services can be operated by the public safety entity itself or by a public or private organization. Furthermore, when dedicated spectrum becomes available for public safety, the core network elements deployed for the G-MVNO can also be used for the core network of the dedicated radio access (see model 5).
3. Public-private partnership (PPP) – Deploying dedicated network services through a PPP project
The public-private partnership business model features a dedicated and standalone LTE network which is deployed, operated, and maintained by an MNO and/or any other independent operator. The network is typically owned by a telecom operator, which provides the service to the public safety agencies while usually assuming the financial, technical, and operational risk of the service offer.
The infrastructure can be complemented by rapidly deployable LTE systems to enable the extra capacity or coverage required to cope with major planned or unplanned events and major disaster when fixed infrastructure has been destroyed.
4. Private – Building a dedicated network
In this model, the public safety agency finances, procures, builds, and manages its own network, setting technical requirements for capacity, security, reliability, redundancy, and robustness. The agency is responsible for all network elements and software, and employs in-house personnel to build, manage, operate, and maintain the network.
The extent of upfront costs depends on the scale of deployment (local, regional, or national), whether the network is shared among several entities and/or whether the deployment is scheduled gradually over years or within a shorter time period.
5. Hybrid – Combining a G-MVNO with a private network
Where spectrum is scarce, some agencies may opt for custom communications network dedicated to mission-critical services, while conducting less critical back-office operations through commercial operators using the G-MVNO model.
This approach can be easy to implement, since LTE is both a technology for commercial carriers and the new-generation platform for PMR.
LTE network deployment considerations
To choose amongst these different possibilities, public safety agencies embarking on an LTE deployment project must consider the following requirements and criteria:
Based on these main criteria, Figure 1 below summarizes the merits of each model using a simplified color code (green = very good, yellow = good, orange = fair, red = poor).
Figure 1: Merits of the 5 business models
Accelerating the adoption of broadband public safety communications
Given the very specific constraints of public safety communications in term of services, high availability during crisis, security, and coverage, each public safety network operator should aim to deploy its own dedicated LTE network.
Nevertheless, budgetary, in-house expertise, or spectrum availability constraints also make alternative models such as G-MVNO sensible intermediary steps to speed the adoption of broadband services for public safety forces.
Last but not least, regardless of the model chosen, the public safety agencies should also have a plan for doctrine change management, since broadband public safety services will offer new ways of conducting operations.
Related Material
To contact the authors or request additional information, please send an email to techzine.editor@alcatel-lucent.com.
]]>Conventional wisdom seems to be that rural America moves a little slower than other parts of the country. That isn’t necessarily always true, however – especially not in the case of rural areas served by Alcatel-Lucent’s ultra-broadband gigabit technology.
In fact, such areas are among the country’s elite when it comes to ultra-fast connectivity, as highlighted in a recent Alcatel-Lucent paper, Municipality Rural Ultra-Broadband .
Chattanooga, Tenn., for example, already has gigabit services in place, serving more than 100,000 home and businesses via its municipal electric utility. Alcatel-Lucent built this network, which was the first gigabit network in the U.S., for Chattanooga in 2008.
Opelika, Ala., has an Alcatel-Lucent-powered gigabit FTTH network in place that generates millions in triple play revenue, which means the town should be able to earn back its investment in this infrastructure – which serves 5,000 customers – in less than five years. And Northeast Oklahoma Electric Cooperative’s Bolt Fiber Optic Services is just getting ready to flip the switch on a new gigabit ultra-broadband network that will power end-to-end triple play solutions for 30,000 subscribers.
“Much of our original motivation to do this had to do with economic development and competition for services so that the citizens can have good, affordable options,” says David Horton, director of Opelika Power Services.
These efforts, of course, are just a few examples of what is possible with Alcatel-Lucent’s Gigabit Express solution, which provides an average connection speed that’s 100 times faster than the average speed available today in the United States. As indicated above, that means rural businesses and residential customers can leverage these connections not only to get ultra-fast broadband access to the Internet, but also to enjoy top-quality IPTV and voice experiences. Gigabit Express is also an ideal solution to support education, public safety, smart grid, and telemedicine applications.
The availability of ultra-broadband connectivity and the kinds of services and applications mentioned above, among others, can bridge the digital divide and enable rural communities to prosper. That encourages residents to bloom where they’re planted, and it can spur new growth by attracting business to these areas.
“Broadband access is the great equalizer, promising to affect rural communities in the 21st century as much as roads and highways did in the 20th, without compromising their small-town qualities,” notes Alcatel-Lucent.
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This is the third in a series of blogs that have taken a look at natural disaster communications and how public safety organizations around the world a leveraging next generation communications to better prepare and respond to emergencies.
In this final installment, the focus is on the Canadian city of Calgary which had catastrophic flooding in June. But it also got lucky.
That’s because just as the worst flooding in the history of the city was overflowing the riverbanks and flooding downtown, taking down infrastructure as it went, Calgary was testing its new, next-generation IP/MPLS-based network infrastructure.
As its infrastructure was endangered by the flooding, the city’s IT team was able to move over to this new system and start the migration of 50 remote locations in a matter of hours, preserving its essential communications needed to deal with the flooding and preserve business continuity.
“The new network was in the testing phase,” noted a recent Alcatel-Lucent LifeTalk blog posting by the team that worked with Calgary. “The transition for getting everyone on it was supposed to take a year and a half. But in this case, the effort started happening immediately.”
The new network, while untested until the crisis, helped the city stay operational when it probably would not have otherwise, according to post.
“It validated that what we had planned, what we had received, what we had put in place – the redundancy and the resiliency,” noted the authors. .
Natural disasters are inherently chaotic an unpredictable. To enable natural disaster communications that can withstand such unpredictability takes a resilient network that’s secure, fluid and flexible – characteristics that are strongly supported by IP/MPLS.
Source: Alcatel-Lucent LifeTalk
“IP/MPLS immediately gives you the capabilities to integrate data, video and voice,” noted Steven Jennings, executive director of public safety for Alcatel-Lucent, in another recent LifeTalk posting on the subject. “It lets you load-balance all of your resources because it’s agnostic to the underlying transport technologies.”
He added: “It doesn’t really care about your network topology, whether you’re star or point-to-point, you can provision services rapidly no matter what is thrown at you, and it gives you common operational management and administration tools that work across the whole network.”
Emergency response personnel need to focus on the disaster at hand, not their equipment. And that requires a network that is robust enough.
The City of Calgary was lucky enough to have such a network in place when the flooding struck, aiding its natural disaster communications and ensuring that while it may have been the worst flooding in the city’s history, it didn’t need to be the most damaging.
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It might be an understatement to say that Harris County in Texas takes its public safety first-responder communications seriously.
The county, which encompasses the fourth largest city in the United States, Houston, also is home to the country’s petrochemical industry. The county also is no stranger to natural disasters. Hurricanes are common for the area, and big one named Hurricane Ike ripped through the region in 2008. In fact, Hurricane Ike was the third most costly storm in U.S. history, and $60 million has gone toward the recovery effort with another $100 million committed for the future.
As a result, natural disaster communications for enabling not just fast response during a crisis but also for preparations and dealing with the aftermath has been recognized as a top priority. The county believes that to best protect its citizens and give first-responders the capabilities they need to work in a high-performance manners is to have a communications network that is second to none. A next generation public safety communications network is the one thing they know they cannot do without when a natural disaster strikes.
Source: Alcatel-Lucent LifeTalk e-Zine
“Communications is the single most important factor – the most critical element during emergencies and disaster situations,” Mark Sloan, Harris County’s emergency management coordinator, said in another recent LifeTalk article, Harris County: Investing in Communications to Protect Millions of Texans. “It’s something that we focus on and realize is critical to our partners. Timely, accurate information and warnings to allow people to take the appropriate actions, and then manage recovery, help us fulfill our responsibilities to protect property and saves lives.”
But having a good first responder communications network is not easy for the county. It is a big challenge. In fact, its natural disaster warning and response communications system includes communicating with more than 4 million residents, 34 jurisdictions, 54 fire departments and 125 law enforcement agencies.
The county relies upon a digital microwave radio network that has a fully redundant core topology based on Internet Protocol and Multi-Protocol Label Switching (IP/MPLS), according to the blog post profiling the network. If an outage happens anywhere in the network, traffic is automatically rerouted over an alternate network path, providing those numerous governmental departments and partners with resiliency, flexibility and expandability.
The county works hard to stay up on the latest technology, knowing that the pace of innovation gives it an opportunity to always up its game.
“We continually look at where the county stands in terms of technologies that are being utilized, the enhancements that have been created in the marketplace during that budget cycle,” Sloan said. “We then determine where we’re going in our three- to five-year strategic planning processes. We want to make sure that we’re getting the value that we need, and that we’re dealing with our trusted partners who have developed technologies for many years and work with us on a regular basis.”
For instance, Houston and the Greater Harris County 911 network at one point asked if they could be a part of the county’s microwave tower system. They worked to understand the needs, and then increased bandwidth in order to partner with the rest of the region as the system was building out. It ultimately made the county’s first responders communications network more efficient. Each agency saved significant amounts of money while expanding their coverage.
“Technology is essential in everything that we do today,” Sloan said. “We can’t do our job without it, so we need to work with our vendors to identify solutions, both now and in the future, that make sense for emergency response and disaster recovery. We need to lean forward together to identify those future challenges.”