Public Safety Broadband and Mobile Operators: what if (when) the networks fail?

Public safety operations always concentrate on ‘what-if’ – scenarios. The most important one, when talking about mobile broadband, is the scenario of network failure. What happens if the used networks are be down? Too often this question leads to postponing the investments to wait for the perfect solution: “We want guaranteed 100% availability and we don’t do anything before that can be offered.” This leads unfortunately to development paralysis that keeps public safety applications and services tightly in the inefficient working habits of the past. Instead of searching a solution that’s never going to realize, the decision makers should invest into smart modern solutions that enhance the operational capabilities today. You can always, as you should, improve the used solutions to meet the strictest standards also later when you know more about the applications’ demands.

The typical approach for public safety mobile communication has been to build dedicated networks for public safety use. Tetra, Tetrapol and P25 have been the answer to communication in the past and are currently also serving well. You still hear once in a while comments like: “Tetra is the only technology you can rely your life on.” Or like: “Narrow band is the only way to guarantee critical connectivity needs.” For everyone’s information, these networks, like anything we humans do, are never 100% sure either. But what we are certain of, is that PMR solutions don’t provide for the broadband capacity required by modern public safety applications.

Single operator broadband availability in vehicle vs. multichannel router availability

The modern way to enhance the capabilities and to introduce modern working methods and services is to ensure the highest possible broadband availability by using several networks. These networks can be either commercial or a mixture of commercial and dedicated (government owned) networks. This approach gives huge monetary benefits, but also increases the resilience of the solution to a level unseen before in mobile access. The new approach is a paradigm change in our industry. Instead of spending billions in new networks, one can use smartly existing infrastructure and invest only into areas where commercial targets do not support investments.

Juhani Lehtonen
juhani.lehtonen(at)goodmillsystems.com

Hybrid Mobile Network Use in Public Safety Vehicles

The recent hot potato in the public safety discussion has been mobile broadband data. The question of how to bring the broadband to public safety vehicles has multiple opposing viewpoints and conflicts of opinion.

The first answer to implementing broadband into vehicles is to build dedicated networks for authorities. The second solution is to use a commercial provider with special deals to offer the data capacity required. The third option includes several hybrid solutions, either combining dedicated and commercial networks or using multiple commercial ones.

Tests conducted in various locations across the US and Europe prove that hybrid commercial network use is a viable solution that can be later improved by adaptation of dedicated networks. This observation has already led to implementation of a fully commercial network based solutions in Scandinavia. The fully commercial solution does not limit the usage of dedicated networks like FirstNet, but due to lack of frequencies this has been the only way in many countries so far.

The key element of this solution is a managed multichannel router system. This system enables easier, secure sharing of confidential information. It is now possible to call up a suspect’s criminal record, any outstanding/previous fines or even vehicle information. With this approach, all the needed office tasks can be performed on the spot, while required documents can be created and printed immediately.

Users claim that co-operation has been elevated to an entirely new level. Information is more transparent thanks to task handling, shared blogs and the collection of statistics. The reliability of data transmission and sharing of critical information has and continues to improve significantly. Misunderstandings are reduced because different patrols can now locate each other from a shared map resource. This has led to gains in the command and control chain, with field management proving more efficient thanks to better allocation of resources.

Authorities have been extremely satisfied with presented system. Routers have changed and continue to change field operations and management due to provided capabilities for new applications. Also the addition of a dedicated LTE network to the solution is possible whenever a new networks is implemented giving also a future proof solution. It has been already shown that this technology saves time, resources, money and lives.

Juhani Lehtonen

VP Sales and Marketing

Goodmill Systems Ltd.

Police Office on the Wheels

The efficiency demands for public services are continuously increasing. Public safety operators and specifically police are heavily impacted with this. One of the most interesting improvements is to move all possible office activities in the vehicles. The benefits of this are clear.

• No work duplication
• Improved officer safety
• More time on the field
• Better customer service
• Better work satisfaction

Target is to improve the time spent on the field and show more presence to the community.  Driving is minimized due to less needed visits to the precincts and savings come through petrol and other vehicle costs, too.

The simple solution often thought of is just to have a computer in the vehicle with a broadband connection. The computers can be either fixed in the car, portables or even tablets. The connectivity is mostly a commercial broadband network or in some cases a dedicated public safety broadband network. In most of the implementations the enthusiasm after the pilots has been killed due to problems in used applications and connectivity. The problem lies in the set-up. We need to understand that if we demand office work in the vehicle, the implemented concept has to provide office quality operability.


Demands of data connectivity in the office and the mobile network functionality

The user satisfaction of mobile connectivity is a combination of many things that are illustrated below.

If we take granted that the used police office applications are at the level that gives enough user satisfaction, only what effects are the changes needed for taking the same work in the car. This all culminates to availability, resilience and capacity of the wireless connectivity.

The challenge the mobile networks create for vehicle connectivity is the amount and length of breaks in data streams. This is almost always misunderstood, since the overall network availability is based on customer experience on availability of voice service. However, mobile broadband data access to a moving vehicle is a totally different ball game. Here a well representing summary of more than 400 days of testing in Europe.

In this table are included 12 vehicles with multichannel routers. Each router monitors and examines the availability of 3 different commercial broadband network providers availability. Each color corresponds with a different provider. The availability vary a great deal between operators, but most importantly the availability of different operators in different locations varies a great deal. Additionally, the daily changes in operator availability even in the same location vary. After international tests and pilots as well as full scale implementation, it looks like the operators' availability figures are very similar all over the world.

One important additional outcome of the tests has been that the connectivity is lost from tens to hundred times over a single 12 hour shift. When the average break length over single network is from about 10 seconds to 10’s of minutes, it is clear that over a single network the required standard of office connectivity is not met. When trying to do the office tasks in the car, the users get frustrated and eventually will abandon the tasks. The inadequate user satisfaction of the system creates frustration and will eventually not be used.


Securing the user friendliness

There are four solutions considered to overcome the challenge of availability. The first one is to implement application that can tolerate the breaks. The second is to use roaming SIM-cards that switch between networks. The third one is to use dual SIM modems and the fourth is to use multichannel routers with multiple active network connections.

The first alternative, using applications that tolerate connectivity breaks, does not solve the problem when in contact with the needed databases. Despite that the sessions are not interrupted; there is no data transfer to enable the needed actions. One roaming SIM-card is also problematic. Roaming between networks needs quite a lot of time, from 15 seconds to even minutes. Two SIMs in the same modem creates similar problems than the roaming SIM. Only after the first network alternative is lost, starts the equipment to search for alternative connections. This takes same amount of time as one SIM roaming and with this the user frustration is guaranteed.

The only viable solution is to select two to even four networks for a multichannel routing solution. In this approach all the networks are monitored and their availability and performance is known to the system at all times. When the connectivity is degraded or lost, the system automatically switches to use the best network available. When network switch over times are just 1-3 seconds and the sessions persist, the outcome is availability comparable to office. The bundled availability over the 12 routers in our case was proven to be excellent.

In these tests the result of 99,70% to 99.99% have proven to provide for user friendly availability. This leads to users recognizing the help of the system for their day to day work.


The future of broadband in vehicles

The multiband approach has proven to be useful and effective in moving police work in the cars. The savings through efficiency can be calculated to have payback periods of less than 8 weeks when only working time savings are calculated. This approach also enables all the other needed public safety vehicle functionality including online Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), online streaming video and advanced operation control applications. We see that the similar approach will also be used in ambulances with less daily office applications, but improved emergency connectivity and support to the vehicles instead. Not far in the future are various utility organizations that will demand more office tasks executed in the vehicles. A common theme is to bring the office on the road.

What is very important to remember is that there are now "low end" and "high end" office on the wheels concepts. The office work quality demands determine the standard and it is the high availability that's always needed. Otherwise it will never fly!


Juhani Lehtonen
Goodmill Systems Ltd.

Mobile Healthcare: Mallu Case Study by Eksote in Finland

The Mallu vehicle is a new type of mobile healthcare service that is used in remote regions where these services don’t exist. The objective is to introduce more advanced services to locations that don’t have a dedicated healthcare center.

The targets for the Mallu system are:

• To answer the healthcare needs of people living far away from stationary service locations 
• To secure and develop the basic services of people in remote locations 
• To enhance wellbeing and health as well as to prevent illness 
• To support the health and wellbeing of the elderly and to support independent living 
• To produce new and reliable mobile services 

The customers include all community members, but the largest customer group is elderly people that have problems of travelling to the locations of stationary services. The first pilot tests in 2011 showed that as many as 65% of the customers were aged 65 or older.

The services

The Mallu vehicle provides primary nurse and pharmacy services. Special health related theme days are also organized using the vehicle. 

The vehicle has a fixed route and the target is to visit each dedicated site every fortnight. The time the vehicle is in one location varies from one hour upwards, depending on the need. The nurses provide services like ear rinsing, stitch removal, prescription renewals, vaccinations and other injections. Blood pressure monitoring, blood sugar level sampling and related advice are also included, while some quick sampling like INR is also performed in the van.

The broadband connection in the vehicle enables the usage of Eksote's regional health district patient register, so that all patient specific health issues can be monitored and reported online. Some dental services can be included depending on the equipment installed in the vehicle. 

The route of the vehicle in Southern Carelia, Finland 

The connectivity solution

One of the main requirements for the services is an always online data connection that is guaranteed to function in more remote locations. The Goodmill managed router system meets the challenge. The Mallu vehicle is equipped with a router that includes up to four different commercial mobile broadband connections. In current operations along the predefined routes, Eksote uses two SIM-cards from the two main operators in Finland.

The system overview of the Mallu healthcare vehicle 

The solution brings all the health district’s databases to the vehicle over secured VPN tunneling. The van then operates like any other connection inside the hospital or healthcare center with similar rights and capabilities. This also enables more modern services like live video streaming from the van, enabling doctors consultation on demand.

The costs

The total cost for the vehicle including salaries, vehicle rental and IT infrastructure are €115,000 per year. With a single customer’s cost between €52 - €104 per visit, the all costs of the service can be covered. This is obviously a very interesting value proposition for Eksote.

The summary

As the costs of health care are rising in general, a mobile service unit is a way to deliver services to more remote locations. A modern IT infrastructure is needed to support the service, which requires secure access to databases for medical records, electronic prescription databases and so on. The Goodmill managed router solution is a perfect building block and enabler for this. With always online broadband, imagination is only the limit to expand and upgrade the services in the future.