Voice, Video Likely Won’t Be Major Early Uses for Public Safety Network
Video for first responders won’t be available anytime soon, though it’s long been seen as a key expected use of a national public safety network, Bill Schrier, chair of the FCC’s Public Safety Advisory Committee working group on applications, told Tuesday’s PSAP meeting. The working group ranked an application allowing first responders to broadcast a message they're in trouble and need help as the top priority among all that will be developed for the network.
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PSAP met for four hours Tuesday, approving as many reports, and including one presented by Schrier, Seattle’s chief technology officer who chairs the Applications and User Requirements Working Group.
The report ranks video as the No. 9 requirement among applications that will ride on the network. “Video … is a high priority for this network and a reason we're doing this network, however it’s also not very near term, in terms of the way it can be put on the network because of things like quality of service,” Schrier said. Voice was ranked lower, he noted. “We had a debate as to whether this ought to be No. 1 or it ought to be No. 12,” he said. “In the end we determined that the main reason that we're building these LTE networks is for data communications at this time.” The working group noted that public safety agencies already have networks in place “that work” and that voice will be a “technological challenge” for LTE, he said. “That’s why it’s on the bottom of the list."
Testing and certification of applications will be difficult, Schrier said. Many local jurisdictions may end up buying systems from niche vendors, he said. “Who is going to say that mobile application from a niche vendor is well behaved, that it’s conservative of network bandwidth, that when it goes onto the network it won’t bring the device and the network down,” Schrier asked. “Somebody has got to do that."
Among other conclusions in the report is that some applications are likely to be local, some national, that the network should be ubiquitous, so users could use another regional public safety network without roaming, and that certification and testing of applications should be similar to processes in the commercial world. The network must be built in a way that it can evolve, Schrier said. “LTE is not static,” he said. “Applications won’t be static and these will continually evolve over time.” Much of the discussion of the working group’s report among PSAP members focused on whether the network should have a central core and other “architecture” issues.
The idea that the network can be made up of a bunch of pieces and everything will work makes Harlin McEwen, representing the International Association of Chiefs of Police, nervous, he said. “I have lived through the land-mobile lack of interoperability for many, many years, with pieces here and pieces there.” The network should be built on “a different model than public safety has ever had,” he said.
A second report, by the Security and Authentication Working Group, stressed the unique challenges faced by the public safety network. “This network is very, very different from traditional public safety networks, which are operating in a closed environment,” said Dennis Martinez, chairman of the working group who represents the International Municipal Signal Association. “This network will be open to many users. There will be many applications that run on the Internet.”
The network will be a frequent target of cyberattack, Martinez said. “That is a fundamental assumption.” The report recommends use of risk-based methodology to minimize cyberthreats. “I will say that the risk of breach, the risk of not having accessibility to the network is quite high,” he said. “The public safety mission is about life and property and not having access to communications we know is a huge and grave threat."
PSAP also approved reports by the Network Evolution and Interoperability working groups. Next up, PSAP will meet again in the late summer or early fall to discuss governance of the proposed national public safety network. Kenneth Boley with the Washington, D.C., government, representing National Association of State Chief Information Officers, said those building out networks in 700 MHz spectrum need guidance now on governance issues as their projects get underway. “That sort of begs the question about what we do with regard to governance prior to the governance entity,” he said. “There are people building now. There will be more.”
"It’s a good question,” said McEwen, also chairman of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust. “The PSST exists today and holds a license. There is a question about what its authority is because of the anticipated change in the rules,” he said. “There is no answer to your question other than it is what it is.”