Maria E. Palamara

Public safety mission critical voice services over LTE

In view of broadband technology trends and the availability of broadband spectrum, public safety agencies have expressed an interest in complementing their current narrowband wireless networks with broadband systems. To support the set of public safety data applications, Long Term Evolution (LTE) has been selected by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for deployment in the broadband portion of the U.S. Public Safety 700 MHz band. This event, together with the mandated migration of narrowband systems to narrower channel widths, are the catalysts for current requests to carry mission critical voice services over the future LTE-based public safety broadband wireless network. Since such services have stringent requirements, this paper covers challenges with an emphasis on interoperability with legacy narrowband systems.

Public safety network security considerations

Public safety networks are wireless communication networks used for public protection and disaster relief. Mobile broadband access to cloud-based computing power improves the flexibility of these networks. Modern public safety networks must support endpoints such as wireless laptops, handheld computers, and mobile video cameras, as well as facilitate communication, collaboration, and operation with central command posts, coworkers, and other agencies in order to provide situational awareness and optimized operations. Unattended video surveillance and sensor systems also use public service networks to transport control information and data. This combination of interconnectivity and interoperability of endpoints, communications, coworkers, agencies, video surveillance, and sensor systems results in a complex automated information system and introduces new security risks into public safety networks. First responders and public safety personnel are familiar with controls such as encryption, redundancy, and physical security used to protect traditional public safety networks; however, they may be unfamiliar with the controls needed to secure next-generation networks. This letter identifies some of the security factors that make public safety network design challenging.