Interoperability Key as FCC Establishes Rules for National Public Safety Network

The FCC’s National Broadband Plan proposal for a national network remains in doubt, with Congress debating the future of the 700 MHz D-block and whether it should be sold in an auction as proposed in the plan. But even as that debate continues, the FCC is pushing forward on development of rules for the network.

"Interoperability has to be the first in line,” Barnett said. “Everything else has to be subordinated to it or make sure that it supports interoperability, whether that’s governance, funding, structure, architecture.”

The FCC’s decision to base the network on LTE was critical, but other big decisions remain to be made, Barnett said. The FCC must put in place a network that “meets the fundamental requirements” of public safety and is “truly nationwide,” he said. The network must be “technically and commercially viable so that it will not be cost prohibitive to public safety agencies with limited resources,” he said. It must be a network that “leapfrogs public safety to advanced 4G technology and keeps pace with evolving technologies."

"The word interoperability I really don’t think existed prior to the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001,” said Association for Public-Safety Communications Officials President William Carrow. “The lessons learned early dealt with radio interoperability.” Carrow said his state, Delaware, spent millions of dollars on interoperable radios after 9/11. “We no longer have to hand a radio across the hood of a car to accomplish interoperability.” Many issues will take time to work through, he said. “There are so many unknowns but the cornerstone will be laid here today."

Many of the nation’s major public safety groups agreed at a meeting in San Antonio earlier in the week that their “strong preference” is for a single national public safety network rather than a “network of networks,” said Harlin McEwen, chairman of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust. The National Public Safety Telecom Council and the SAFECOM Executive Committee also weighed in against how 700 MHz networks have been funded so far, with a few jurisdictions getting federal grants through the broadband stimulus program, but most getting nothing, McEwen said.

"You can’t have funding going to Chicago and New York and Los Angeles and some get funding and some don’t,” he said. “We feel there has to be a pool of funding that ensures that every piece of this nationwide network is refreshed and kept in synch and balanced. Otherwise it will be the old [land-mobile radio] system where some have, some don’t. … You'll have no interoperability right from the beginning."

Ed Thomas, former chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, said network rules must be developed independent of an eventual decision on the D-block. “It’s got to go both ways because God knows how long that’s going to take to settle,” Thomas said. The network also must be fully funded and should support both federal and local public safety officials.

Thomas also argued that the license holder should have no control on how the spectrum is used, a proposal which he said will likely be controversial. “The license, how it’s going to be used, how it’s going to be segmented, should be at the direction of the NTIA and the FCC,” he said. He said the government, whether the FCC or another agency, should release a request for proposals to select a vendor or multiple vendors to build the network and also establish a “test bed” to assure that the network meets whatever standards are established. Thomas also recommended that the FCC and NTIA jointly establish a panel of experts to monitor how the network is built and to make recommendations for future improvements. “All I'm talking about is what a company would do when it has a big project it wants to outsource,” he said. “It builds a specification, puts out an RFP and then it monitors it."

Bill Price, director of broadband programs with the Florida Division of Telecommunications, said based on his experience the government should not be in the business of trying to build a separate network for public safety. “The division, over time … has tried to build and operate its own networks and found that that’s just way too expensive,” he said. “We found over time, through many procurements and generations of people of people that have worked here, that we achieve all the objectives … by procuring telecommunications services form the industry.”

"The key is that as we are looking to move forward is that we move forward in a way that meets public safety’s needs but takes full advantage of the commercial evolution that is taking place,” said Dennis Roberson, a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

"We in the public sector need to minimize the number of requirements we put on these devices and the networks,” said Bill Schrier, chief technology officer for the City of Seattle. “If we put too many requirements on … all of a sudden the cost of the devices and the cost of the network will go up. The further we stray from the commercial devices that are available the more expensive this network will become.” Spectrum is also critical, Schrier said. “One of the problems with LMR networks, with the voice networks, is we've had balkanized spectrum in many different pieces,” he said.

Architecture, governance and policy are all critical, said Dennis Martinez, chief technology officer at Harris RF Communications Group. Public safety’s current communications are “bifurcated,” split between mission critical voice communications that use a land-mobile radio system and data services provided by carriers. “Those are two very different worlds,” Martinez said. “Where we are headed in the future really is toward this converged network.”

Martinez said the core to the network will be based on the LTE network. “That is where we're going to enable interoperability,” he said. “This is something we must get right from the beginning. We must develop a nationwide network that supports nationwide roaming across all our of our jurisdictions.” One major question is how to measure whether the network is interoperable, Martinez said. “It is the user’s experience that’s going to determine whether we've succeeded,” he said.

Testing of equipment, both in the lab and in the field, will be critical for the broadband network to be truly interoperable, said Kenneth Budka, a senior director at Bell Labs. Just adopting a standard isn’t enough, he said. “The reason it’s interoperable is not the words on a page of a specification,” he said. “It’s the fact that vendors get together, test equipment.” Unless the right testing rules are established for equipment on these LTE networks “we will end up with the same mess we have today with our land-mobile radio systems,” he said. On some levels the public safety network will be unique, he added. “Devices are going to be in different bands, different form factors, may also have different interfaces to get access to network features.”