PERSPECTIVE: 3 Ways to Prepare for Communications Convergence
There is significant progress being made in LMR, LTE and mobile deployable technologies to improve communication and, as a result, situational awareness. Planning is highly complex, deployment risk must be managed and maintenance for operational availability must be funded. For decades, mission-critical communications meant LMR voice only. The operational requirements were always there for voice, video and data applications, but the deployment of broadband infrastructure technology limited the distribution of these applications, especially in rural and extremely rural locations. According to the US National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC), “It is important to fully explore the coexistence of, and simultaneous use of, LMR and LTE technologies to determine necessary operational requirements to ensure continued interoperability.” The NPSTC’s Public Safety LMR Interoperability with LTE Mission Critical Push to Talk Final Report published on Jan. 8, 2018, states, “One of the proposed new services is Mission Critical Push to Talk (MCPTT), which is being designed to provide some LMR like services which may eventually allow first responders to carry a single device to access voice, video, and data. However, comparability with existing LMR systems for voice is yet to be determined (e.g., for coverage and direct unit to unit communications).” Governments have invested millions of dollars in civil infrastructure and devices that deliver secure, reliable communications to law enforcement and first responders; however, LMR and LTE integration is slow as we work through technical and programmatic issues. In the meantime, agencies will continue to operate on both LMR and LTE networks and explore ways to use these technologies in their operational environments. Considering the accelerating rate of progress, agencies need to plan for operational demand and convergence with LMR with LTE infrastructure and devices.
The convergence of these technologies is well underway, but with a highly dynamic threat. How do we make the right choices to quickly deploy communication solutions to agents and officers in the field that are both secure and reliable? For those of us who work in homeland security, we understand the threat is dynamic and so must be the solutions. There are a variety of ways to plan, deploy and measure communication solutions depending on the agency. Please click: Read More to read about the three strategies for consideration published in Homeland Security Today.
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