Migration Towards Broadband PPDR Networks

Wireless communications technologies play an essential role to support the Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) operational needs. The current Private/Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) technologies used for PPDR communications offer a rich set of voice-centric services but have very limited data transmission capabilities, which are unable to handle the increasing PPDR community demand for a wider range of data-centric services. Though some efforts have been devoted to upgrade PMR technologies with better data transfer capabilities, the progression towards an enhanced mobile broadband PMR standardized solution still lags behind the achievements made in the commercial wireless industry, which recently culminated in Long- Term Evolution (LTE) technology. Because of this contrasting progress, the adoption of commercial mainstream LTE technology to satisfy the PPDR community's data communication needs is gaining momentum and offers significant opportunities to create and exploit the synergies between the commercial and PPDR domains, which have remained almost entirely separate to date. In this context, this paper first discusses the suitability of LTE and related technologies for mobile broadband PPDR service provisioning. Next, it presents the argument that the most plausible future scenarios to deliver the increasingly data-intensive applications demanded by the PPDR agencies are expected to rely on the use of both dedicated and commercial LTE-based mobile networks. From this basis, the paper proposes a system architecture solution for PPDR service provisioning that enables PPDR service access through dedicated and commercial networks in a secure and interoperable manner and ensures proper allocation of the networks' capacity to PPDR applications through the dynamic management of prioritization policies. In addition, the spectrumrelated issues that are central to the proposed PPDR service provisioning solution are addressed, and a solution based on the joint e- ploitation of dedicated and shared spectra is proposed.

Chapter 18 - Evolution of TETRA through the integration with a number of communication platforms to support public protection and disaster relief (PPDR)

Transitioning a Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) network to a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network in public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) systems is a path to providing future services requiring high radio interface throughput and allowing broadband PPDR (BB-PPDR) radio communications. Users of TETRA networks are currently considering how to deploy a BB-PPDR network in the coming years. This study offers several radio planning considerations in TETRA to LTE migration for such networks. The conclusions are obtained from a case study in which both measurements and radioelectric coverage simulations were carried out for the real scenario of the Murcia Region, Spain, for both TETRA and LTE systems. The proposed considerations can help PPDR agencies efficiently estimate the cost of converting a TETRA network to an LTE network. Uniquely in this study, the total area is divided into geographical areas of interest that are defined as administrative divisions (region, municipal areas, etc.). The analysis was carried out using a radio planning tool based on a geographic information system and the measurements have been used to tune the propagation models. According to the real scenario considered, the number of sites needed in the LTE network—for a specific quality of service (90% for the whole region and 85% for municipal areas)—is a factor of 2.4 higher than for TETRA network.

Our modern densely populated cities have created an Achilles heel for public safety services where natural or man-made disasters often result in high casualties. The 2005 London bombings have exposed the inadequacy of current First Responder (FR) communication systems for modern response operations. Additionally, FR organisations presently pay a tariff each time Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) communication technologies are used, rendering current PPDR communication expensive as compared to emerging license-exempt IP-based technologies. Decentralised ubiquitous networking proposes an alternative way of providing innovative secure wireless systems for IP-based, infrastructure independent PPDR communications. The ad-hoc setup capabilities of ubiquitous systems will reduce the cost for emergency response whilst allowing more flexible ways of communicating. Key characteristics of such systems are their ease of deployment and the interoperability across FR teams for national as well as cross border operations. In this paper we discuss how decentralised ubiquitous networking can assist emergency communications.

We present a hands-free kinetic control method for flying of micro air vehicles (MAVs) or small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for public protection and disaster relief (PPDR). The system combines a 3D depth-sensing camera with a low-cost drone. The solution is based on Delicode Ltd’s NI mateTM software toolkit. In a study with 10 participants, the kinetic control method was tested and compared with the drone’s normal control mode. The speed to fly a certain path inside a building, and the path accuracy at checkpoints were compared between these two modes. The learning rate with the kinetic control method was found to be better than by normal control. After five attempts, an overall flying speed and path accuracy were still weaker by kinetic control method than by conventional hands-on method. However, hands-free control gives several significant benefits for PPDR applications.

National disasters can threaten national security and require several organizations to integrate the functionalities to correspond to the event. Many countries are constructing a nationwide mobile communication network infrastructure to share information and promptly communicate with corresponding organizations. Public Safety Long-Term Evolution (PS-LTE) is a communication mechanism adopted in many countries to achieve such a purpose. Organizations can increase the efficiency of public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) operations by securely connecting the services run on their legacy networks to the PS-LTE infrastructure. This environment allows the organizations to continue facilitating the information and system functionalities provided by the legacy network. The vulnerabilities in the environment, which differ from commercial LTE, need to be resolved to connect the network securely. In this study, we propose a security model design framework to derive the system architecture and the security requirements targeting the restricted environment applied by certain technologies for a particular purpose. After analyzing the PPDR operation environment’s characteristics under the PS-LTE infrastructure, we applied the framework to derive the security model for organizations using PPDR services operated in their legacy networks through this infrastructure. Although the proposed security model design framework is applied to the specific circumstance in this research, it can be generally adopted for the application environment.

The coexistence of broadband systems with currently deployed Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) communication systems like Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) has gained much deserved attention. In the recent literature, it has been suggested that LTE-like FBMC-OQAM system working on linear devices can coexist in PMR band, while conventional OFDM-based LTE system fails. When we take into account, the RF impairments in radio communication systems; it is inevitable to consider the non-linear nature of High Power Amplifiers (HPAs), as they add severe hindrance in this aspect. In this paper, we address this issue and show that LTE-like FBMC-OQAM system working on non-linear devices can still co-exist with PMR/PPDR systems, when suitable peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) is applied.

One of new domains where the D2D communication can be applied is the Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) and National Security and Public Safety (NSPS) services. The key requirement for employing the PPDR and NSPS services is to provide the access to the communication services even if cellular network is highly overloaded or become fully dysfunctional due to some public disaster or emergency situations. In such case, the most important task is to share emergency information between citizens even when most of them do not have infrastructural connectivity. Since D2D is by default a single-hop communication, it is crucial to find the mechanism how to transmit any data via randomly assembled network even for longer distances. Therefore, this paper focuses on the utilization of MANET routing protocols for D2D communication in case that the connection to the cellular network is down. The selected routing protocols used in MANET are described and their suitability is verified in the simulation environment Network Simulator 3 (NS-3).

Public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) agencies rely on wireless communications to respond in the event of emergencies. Public safety networks (PSNs) provide the wireless network used by emergency services. PSN is used to support push-to-talk services with some data transmission by employing land mobile radios. However, PPDR agencies are increasingly relying on additional information such as videos that require higher bandwidths. Therefore, many countries are transitioning or integrating their public safety networks with advanced broadband wireless communication systems such as fourth-generation (4G) long-term evolution (LTE) and planning to evolve to fifth-generation (5G) new radio (NR) in the future. The paper investigates infrastructure sharing mechanisms and deployment strategies in the transition of PSNs to a 4G LTE network, including a roadmap for cost analysis. Additionally, the paper examines LTE-based PSN deployment scenarios in various countries and engages in a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of different sharing mechanisms and coexistence schemes. Finally, the challenges within the Public Safety Broadband Network (PSBN) are addressed and potential future research directions in this domain are deliberated.

Mission-critical services (MCX) comprise a standardized suite of capabilities including Mission-Critical Push-to-Talk (MCPTT), MCVideo, and MCData, designed to meet stringent requirements for availability, reliability, latency, security, and Quality of Service (QoS). These services are essential for public safety, emergency response, and other critical infrastructure domains, where communication performance directly affects operational effectiveness. Integration into 4G and 5G mobile networks, supported by targeted standardization efforts, has extended broadband capabilities to mission-critical environments. 5G networks provide the technical foundations for MCX through ultra-low latency (below 1 ms), high availability (99.999%), broadband throughput over 100 Mbps per user, deterministic QoS via network slicing, massive device connectivity (over one million devices per square kilometer), and seamless Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) integration. Technical enablers such as Proximity Services (ProSe), network slicing, and Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) are fundamental to delivering these capabilities. This paper reviews MCX architectures, service frameworks, and protocols, relating MCPTT, MCData, and MCVideo to the key performance requirements defined in ITU-T M.2377-2. It also examines the frozen features of 3GPP Release 19, including enhancements to MC services, NTN integration, Reduced Capability device support, sub-meter positioning, extended network slicing for Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR), and strengthened security mechanisms. Finally, the study addresses challenges such as standard maturity, interoperability, and deterministic QoS, identifying research priorities toward 6G readiness. By consolidating advances from standards bodies, research initiatives, and deployments, this work serves as a technical reference for scalable, secure, and standards-compliant MCX solutions in current and future networks.

HSR has been developed rapidly all over the world, which puts forward requirements for a reliable and efficient wireless communication system between the moving train and the ground. According to International Union of Railways (UIC) E-Train Project, the train-ground wireless communication services for HSR system mainly include the train control services, the train monitoring services, and the passenger services from/to Internet. The train control and monitoring services are special services for train needs and provided by train operators mainly using Global System for Mobile Communications-Railway (GSM-R), which is an international wireless communications standard for railway communication and applications. With the rapid growth of HSR services, GSM-R has been unable to support the broadband communication systems. Therefore, from GSM-R to long-term evolution for railway (LTE-R) is the essential trend to guarantee a reliable communication systems. By introducing and comparing the network architecture and key technologies of GSM-R and LTE-R system, this chapter discusses the development of the next-generation HSR broadband communication systems.

Underwater acoustic channels usually suffer from the extended multipath propagation which causes inter symbol interference (ISI). At the receiving end, serious ISI would result in the decrease of the reliability of underwater acoustic communication systems. In this paper, Turbo equalization is applied to increase the reliability of communication systems. The realization of the channel equalizer in Turbo equalization is the linear minimum mean-square error (MMSE) estimate. To avoid performance loss, Turbo equalization and factor graph are combined together which provides a full-window method. Moreover, a modified extrinsic information feedback mechanism of turbo equalization is proposed. The reliability of communication systems is further enhanced by using this mechanism. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm performs well with low complexity. This demonstrates the potential of the suggested algorithm in practice.

In this research paper, an automated design technique is used to optimize the variables of a microstrip patch antenna (MSPA), for reliable broadband communication systems. The method is based on a computerized procedure to produce a special defect in the ground plane, alongside with dimensions optimizing using genetic algorithm. Conventionally, either cut and try, or dimension optimization is used separately for this purpose. The novelty of the method presented here resides in the fact that the cut and the optimization techniques are automated to produce an wideband antenna. The resulting antenna gave a return loss of less than -10dB between 3GHz and 8GHz i.e. a bandwidth of 5GHz. Compared to other literature techniques, the achieved bandwidth is considered to be the best. The dimensions and the bandwidth of the designed antenna are attractive for next generation communication systems.

Reliability consideration of a mobile communication system with network congestion

This article presents a full-wave propagation model for arbitrary profile of building blockage in mobile satellite communications, by solving the electric field integral equation for induced surface currents using the method of moments. Asymptotic expressions are used to simplify the integrals. Scattered fields are then found by the radiation equations derived from Maxwell equations. The total received fields around different profiles of buildings are calculated as a function of space, elevation angle and frequency. The results agree well with measurements and other published data. Various useful parameters for designing robust and reliable communication systems like frequency response, average fade duration and coherence bandwidth are found. Performance of mobile satellite system is evaluated in terms of bit error rate of mobile satellite system in frequency non-selective, slowly fading channel.