The post-TETRA Era: Next-Gen Mobile Networks for Emergency Services
TETRA it is no longer fit for purpose. In today's world, public safety professionals need a modern communications system capable of being used everywhere – including in remote areas, tube stations, and underground car parks. Brinkschulte has the answer..
While the TETRA standard has served emergency services communications well for the past decade, it is no longer fit for purpose. Effectively a glorified walkie-talkie service with limited messaging capabilities, as well as being clunky and ridiculously expensive, TETRA handsets are not providing appropriate tools to emergency services in the era of Smartphones, Instant Messaging and Google Maps. Plans to replace the antiquated and expensive TETRA networks are already under way as governments look for cheaper, better and smarter communications solutions for critical communications.
In a world punctuated by natural disasters, accidents, crime and terrorist atrocities, our police, paramedics and firefighters need access to a modern communications system that marries a high-speed, reliable and secure broadband voice and data service with customized off-the-shelf mobile handsets, enabling them to use modern apps for group and video communications, mapping and fleet management.
Great Britain is making headway in this area with its much touted £1.2bn Emergency Services Network contract. This should see a new, private LTE-based mission-critical communications system for public-safety agencies and other government organizations being rolled out from mid-2017.
While this is certainly a significant improvement on the 1980s technologies that our public safety professionals rely on today, I believe the concept can be complemented with an intelligent and literally mobile network at the edge - in particular, to cover rural areas and to restore reliable, decentralized communications should the centralized network fail.
The UK government’s approach is to copy and paste the existing, centralised mobile network architecture, with all its strengths and flaws. Given that even 3G networks still do not cover the entirety of the UK, it sounds unlikely that a new 4G network will be fully available across Britain’s land mass (the UK government’s aim) by 2020 when the TETRA network is due to be switched off. In fact, EE’s Chief Executive went on record recently to say that 4G is currently available to 93 per cent of the UK population and that, along with other mobile operators, EE has pledged to provide coverage across 90 per cent of the UK landmass by 2017.
And this is the nub of the issue. Not just for the UK but for all the other 300-odd TETRA deployments around the world, too. Coverage in remote areas, in our cities’ underground transportation systems, and for air-to-ground communications with emergency service helicopters are all vital components in a workable nationwide plan, not simply a ‘nice to have’. Special Forces need to be able to communicate in remote areas, in the woods and out in the fields, too – not just in the cities. Imagine a scenario where a skier crashes in the Alps and a first responder is unable to summon an air ambulance, or a London 2005-like terrorist strike on an underground network where vital moments are lost because of 4G ‘not spots’.
However, blanketing large countries like the UK, France or Germany with a dedicated, private LTE network for emergency services will be very expensive to build as it will require thousands of radio towers just to cover the remote areas. An even higher number of cell towers will be required in cities: coverage needs to be consistent and available inside buildings and underground locations like subways and car parks.
Furthermore, natural disasters like an earthquake or a hurricane often knock out the mobile network, which is clearly an issue if the emergency services in that region rely on it for their communications. There is also the growing threat from hackers intent on causing mayhem for large corporations and infrastructure providers, which makes the traditional centralised star topology of mobile networks look less than ideal for a mission-critical emergency services network. A successful assault on the data centre housing the operator’s core network could bring down the entire network, throwing emergency services communications into chaos.
So what’s the solution?
Adopting a decentralised mobile network infrastructure that is based on industry standards is one idea that is starting to gain traction. Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) might at first sound revolutionary, but in fact it’s more of an evolution because this approach uses the same mobile standards that are used by commercial mobile networks - and offers all of the ensuing benefits. But instead of using a centralised star topology, MEC advocates a decentralised core mobile network. Basically, MEC aims to apply the Internet topology - a decentralized mesh network combined with a star-of-stars topology - to the architecture of a mobile network.
This decentralised approach also capitalises on the benefits of NFV/SDN (Network Function Virtualisation/Software Defined Networks), enabling core mobile networks, which used to require large racks of dedicated hardware, to run on simple, inexpensive commodity hardware. The benefits of taking the core mobile network to the edge of the network, in a distributed form, include: strong resilience, lower latency and reduced backhaul traffic of up to 50% compared with a traditional star architecture, and all at a significantly reduced cost due to NFV/SDN.
With this model, all the functionality of a core LTE network - the EPC (Evolved Packet Core) – is implemented in software running on standard Linux hardware located at, or integrated into, small cells and base stations. Running the EPC at the cell and connecting this cell to many others using a mesh topology creates a swarm of autonomous, fully functioning mobile networks. If one of the cells goes down, the rest of the network stays up: there is built-in resilience.
A distributed architecture also makes it more cost-effective and much easier to cover the entire land mass of a country by making some of the mobile network itself mobile. Instead of blanketing remote areas of the country with a large number of LTE radio towers, small and inexpensive mesh-based LTE cells can be installed in police cars and fire trucks – ensuring communication for first responders on-demand in remote areas. A literally mobile network can also extend coverage to areas not covered by fixed infrastructure in cities, such as subways, car parks or inside buildings.
At Core Network Dynamics, we have invested over the past two years in implementing a distributed, mesh-based LTE network that can run efficiently on small and cost-effective hardware, yet provides the complete functionality of a core LTE network. Our OpenEPC core network software, for example, can run on a standard Laptop or even on a Raspberry Pi, making it possible to put it in a vehicle, attach a small antenna and have a secure, resilient ‘mobile network in a vehicle’ – a network that is mobile in itself and travels with first responders.
The beauty of this approach, as with other LTE-based architectures, is that standard smart phones and tablets can be deployed, at a fraction of the cost of the current 1980s-style TETRA walkie talkies, and can be loaded up with specialised and highly effective apps. A policeman could instantly send a video of a crime scene from his smartphone to colleagues back at base, for example. These standard devices can also more easily and cost effectively be adapted and ruggedised for particular use cases.
And this is not pie in the sky, if you’ll excuse the pun. Core Network Dynamics is currently working on a secure, private LTE mesh network along these lines in Europe. This project aims to put a radio cell running our OpenEPC software – our implementation of the standard 3GPP EPC - into vehicles and attach an antenna to the roof, meaning that every vehicle will effectively become a mini mobile operator. The passengers in each vehicle will be ‘subscribers’ to that network and can use standard mobile phones. If one cell goes down, the others will continue to work, so personnel can simply switch to a functioning cell as they roam, using a horizontal handover. Even more mobile, it can be installed in a rucksack and carried into the subway or to a remote location where mobile communication is not available or where the central network has failed.
Going back to the UK Emergency Services example, tens of thousands of 4G base stations will need to be erected to cover the bulk of the land mass. With our alternative distributed approach, we could potentially halve the permanent base stations required, complemented by ‘mobile network in a vehicle’ or ‘mobile network in a rucksack’ networks assigned to regional police, paramedic and fire service teams. Our estimates suggest that this approach would radically reduce the deployment cost – by as much as 40 per cent, if not more. And that is without factoring in the improved security and resilience, reduced latency, and lower maintenance charges.
In conclusion, moving mobile networks to the edge and using a mesh network to connect resilient, autonomous, self-organizing public safety networks is certainly disruptive. Like many successfully disruptive approaches of the past, it is based on existing standards-based technologies, offers many more benefits, and also has the potential to radically reduce deployment and maintenance costs.
Public safety is big business as underlined just recently by Motorola’s $1.2bn acquisition of UK’s TETRA operator Airwave. In a world increasingly characterised by public sector budget constraints, and an upsurge in threats and attacks, our public safety organisations are under more pressure than ever. Perhaps this disruptive approach is exactly what’s needed to help them help us?
About Carsten Brinkschulte
Carsten Brinkschulte serves as Chief Executive Officer at Core Network Dynamics (CND), responsible for the company’s overall strategy and operations. Before becoming CEO of CND, Carsten was CEO at Movirtu providing a virtual SIM platform, which he sold to BlackBerry in 2014. Prior to that, he was CEO at Synchronica plc, a leading messaging infrastructure provider with 90+ operator contracts. Prior to this, he was CEO of Weblicon AG, providing Webmail and mobile synchronization, and held technical roles at Apple and SAP AG
