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FirstNet and Public Safety Broadband Data Implications for Rural EMS Organizations Published

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This Week is National Emergency Medical Services Week. This year’s theme is “EMS STRONG:  Always in Service.” National Emergency Medical Services Week brings together local communities and medical personnel to publicize safety and honor the dedication of those who provide the day-to-day lifesaving services of medicine’s “front line.” The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) was instrumental in establishing EMS Week when President Gerald Ford declared November 3-10, 1974, as the first National Emergency Medical Services Week. This annual observance continued for 4 more years and was then reinstituted by ACEP in 1982. May 21 to 27 is National Emergency Medical Services Week 2017.

FirstNet and Public Safety Broadband Data Implications for Rural EMS Organizations Published. NPSTC‘s EMS Communications Working Group includes representatives of NPSTC and National Association of State EMS Officials (NASEMSO). This white paper highlights unique issues facing rural EMS agencies and examines how public safety broadband communications may be used to support and enhance EMS service delivery.

Rural EMS providers have unique challenges that are vastly different from their urban and suburban sister agencies. These challenges exist in three areas:  time, resources, and incident types. Access to high-speed public safety broadband services will provide solutions to mitigate some of these issues while enhancing EMS operations and patient care. As a result, it is likely that rural EMS providers will enjoy a greater benefit from public safety broadband wireless communications systems. For many, what was once perceived as a futuristic technology, such as in-the-field ultrasound examination of a trauma patient or live video consultation with a pediatrician, is now becoming a reality.

In 2015, NPSTC initiated a questionnaire, asking how EMS and hospitals will use telemedicine, and replies were received from more than 670 agencies. Published in 2016, the EMS Telemedicine Report: Prehospital Use of Video Technologies is a comprehensive report on the use of video technology by EMS agencies, hospitals, and trauma centers. In 2013, the NPSTC Broadband EMS Working Group created the EMS Broadband Application List for FirstNet PSAC. This document highlighted 37 software applications designed to support EMS and was provided to FirstNet to help illustrate the critical role that applications will play. The group is currently working on updates to that report.

FCC Seeks Comment on Accelerating Broadband Health Technologies Availability. The FCC recently released a Public Notice (PN), seeking comment on a wide range of issues involving access to broadband and its impact on healthcare solutions and technologies, especially in rural and other underserved areas of the country. The FCC expects to use this information to identify actions that the Commission can take to promote this important goal. Portions of the PN speak to the need for rural areas to have access to broadband, and other sections seek information on how hospitals are using broadband. Comments are due May 24, and Reply Comments are due on June 8.

Join the Broadband Emerging Technologies Working Group on Wednesday, May 24, at 12:00 p.m. EDT. The group will host guest speaker, Laurie Flaherty, National 9-1-1 Coordinator, who will discuss new NG9-1-1 Legislation, an NG9-1-1 Grant Program Update, a Cost Study Report Update, and Integration with FirstNet and Federal 9-1-1 Centers. Information on the conference line and access codes are available on the NPSTC Public Safety Calendar.

SAFECOM and NCSWIC Encourage Public Safety to Adopt Trustmark Framework. SAFECOM and the National Council of Statewide Interoperability Coordinators (NCSWIC) Executive Committees unanimously approved a position paper encouraging public safety agencies to adopt and leverage the Trustmark Framework. In 2016, SAFECOM and NCSWIC established the Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM) Working Group to help address ICAM-related issues that impact emergency communications and information sharing. The ICAM Working Group quickly recognized that interoperability and scalability between ICAM solutions are critical for the future of secure information sharing within the public safety community. Read more on NPSTC’s blog, and visit the SAFECOM website to learn more about the ICAM Working Group, ICAM, and the Trustmark Framework.

Please join NPSTC for any of these Committee and Working Group meetings that interest you. NPSTC is holding the following meetings this week, which are open to anyone who is interested in public safety communications. The full schedule is available on the NPSTC Public Safety Calendar, including conference lines and access codes.

Tuesday, May 23

2:00 p.m. EDT, Interoperability Committee

Wednesday, May 24

12:00 p.m. EDT, Broadband Emerging Technologies Working Group

Thursday, May 25

3:00 p.m. EDT, Radio Interoperability Best Practices Small Writing Group

March 8, 2017, AT&T VoLTE 911 Outage Report and Recommendations

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On March 8, 2017, nearly all AT&T Mobility (AT&T) Voice over LTE customers across the nation lost 911 service for 5 hours. This was one of the largest 911 outages ever reported in the Network Outage Reporting System (NORS), as measured by the number of unique users affected.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai immediately directed the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau to investigate the causes, effects, and implications of the outage. In response, the Bureau reviewed and analyzed outage reports filed in NORS, as well as sought and reviewed public comments and related documents, and held meetings with relevant stakeholders, including service providers and public safety entities. The Bureau also examined the record to identify ways to prevent future occurrences of such an outage. This report presents the Bureau’s findings.

The outage was caused by an error that likely could have been avoided had AT&T implemented additional checks (e.g., followed certain network reliability best practices) with respect to their critical 911 network assets. Approximately 12,600 unique users attempted to call 911, but were unable to reach emergency services through the traditional 911 network.

Among the lessons learned from the March 8 outage is that when 911 service fails for any reason, Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) play a critical role in advising their jurisdictions of alternative ways to reach help. While AT&T and their subcontractors, Comtech and West, made efforts to notify thousands of PSAPs, the notifications were often unclear or missing important information, and generally took a few hours to occur.

This outage also offers an illuminating case study that illustrates actions that stakeholders can take to promote network reliability and continued access to 911 service. Read the report here: AT&T VoLTE 911 Outage Report and Recommendations.

WinnForum Objects to CBRS Name

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May 15, 2017–The Wireless Innovation Forum has asked the FCC to reconsider its plan in a part 95 order scheduled to be adopted at this week’s May 18 meeting to rename the Citizens Band Radio Service the CB Radio Service and use the CBRS acronym.

“WInnForum reminds the Commission that there is already a designation for ‘CBRS’, which is the [Citizens] Broadband Radio Service as defined fully in 47 CFR Part 96 for the 3.5 GHz Band,” the group said in an ex parte fling in WT docket 10-119 and GN docket 15-319. “We are extremely concerned that another designation for ‘CBRS’ will certainly not avoid confusion and will indeed cause substantial confusion in the ecosystem for the 3.5 GHz CBRS. In addition, we are also concerned that we will now have to distinguish the 3.5 GHz CBRS from the CB Radio Service CBRS in order to avoid confusion in all of our documentation. This will impose a significant burden on the WInnForum and its members. … We ask that the Commission remove the CBRS designation for the Part 95 CB Radio Service.” Continue reading →

Houston Mayor Criticizes Pai’s Super Bowl Comments

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May 15, 2017–In an unusual request, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D.) wants the FCC “to correct inaccurate statements” that he says FCC Chairman Ajit Pai made when the FCC last month adopted a notice of proposed rulemaking and notice of inquiry to explore ways to remove regulatory barriers on the siting of wireless infrastructure (TR Daily, April 20). The mayor said the Chairman’s comments complaining about roadblocks to beefing up capacity before this year’s Super Bowl were “prejudicial” to Houston.

In his statement on the item, Mr. Pai said wireless companies faced difficulty increasing network capacity before this year’s Super Bowl in Houston, saying that “meeting this commitment was much harder than it should’ve been. For instance, one company ended up paying thousands of dollars per utility pole for purposes of meeting historic preservation requirements. Now, it’s hard to imagine that there is much to preserve, historically speaking, in the parking lot of NRG Stadium. After all, initial construction started in the early 2000s. Yet this company was forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in total to complete this review — excessive costs that both delayed construction and were ultimately passed on to consumers.”

In his letter, Mayor Turner said neither Mr. Pai’s statement about a company finding it costly to meet historic preservation requirements nor that it incurred overall expenses of hundreds of thousands of dollars “is true.” He said that the NRG Stadium complex is owned by the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp. and isn’t on city property that would be subject to its rights-of-way review fees. Continue reading →

Andy Seybold’s Public Safety Advocate, May 16, 2017

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 Changes Coming To My Readers Please note that there will be no Public Safety Advocate this week (5/18/2017). I will be traveling to the Dayton HamVention amateur radio conference as I have for countless years. The Public Safety Advocate will resume with a post on Thursday, May 25, 2017. Meanwhile, I want to let you know that the next issue will be coming to you from a new site. I am excited about being a part of this new site that will formally launch soon. It will not only include my Public Safety Advocate, it will be a true resource for what is happening in the world of Public Safety communications. While FirstNet and all things related will be the primary subject of the new site, Land Mobile Radio (LMR) will be featured as well since it is a vital part of the Public Safety communications arsenal. I will be back next week with my next Public Safety Advocate coming to you from the new site. Andrew M. Seybold The News Follows:

FirstNet Update: First month of partnership yields significant progress – Petrilla News via Google Alerts May 10 00:05 The State Plans will include how FirstNet’s Radio Access Network (RAN) is to be built, including planned phases of deployment, network policies, and … Continue reading →

Colorado Urges FCC to Set Deadline for Release of FirstNet Policies

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May 11, 2017–The FCC should set a deadline, “preferably at least 90 days before delivery of the state plan created by FirstNet,” for the First Responder Network Authority to release its network policies, according to a memorandum prepared on behalf of the Colorado Office of Information Technology and the FirstNet Colorado Governing Body. “Just as the states cannot design a compliant network without having access to the network policies, the Commission cannot evaluate a state plan for interoperability without having access to the network policies,” said the memo, which was written by Ken Fellman, an attorney for the Colorado government entities, and filed in PS dockets 16-269, 12-94, 06-229, and 06-150. “It is the Commission’s role alone to decide whether state alternative plans comply with FirstNet’s network policies. Because it is the Commission’s role in the Spectrum Act to evaluate alternative state plans against the network policies, the Commission necessarily has the power to demand that FirstNet divulge those same network policies in a manner that will provide the Commission the time necessary to carry out its statutorily required obligations. Continue reading →

Parties Urge FCC to Delay Action on Ligado NPRM

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May 11, 2017–Industry and academic representatives concerned about the impact of a Ligado Networks LLC proposal on the hydrometeorological, transportation, and emergency management communities say the FCC should not move forward with a notice of proposed rulemaking until research has been completed. An ex part filing in IB dockets 12-340 and 11-109 reporting on a meeting with representatives of the Office of Engineering and Technology and Wireless Telecommunications Bureau echoed concerns that have been raised in the proceeding regarding a petition for rulemaking filed by Ligado asking the FCC to allocate and auction the 1675-1680 megahertz band for shared commercial use with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“Sharing the 1675-1680 MHz radio spectrum poses significant risks to the nation’s forecast, communication, and warning capabilities for extreme events. The potential degradation in this capability would create risks to public health and safety, private sector initiatives, and scientific advancement,” the filing said. “The participants in the briefing stated clearly that 1675-1680 MHz should not be shared in the short term and such sharing should not be considered further until additional research is completed, including the user research to be conducted by NOAA, requested under the Spectrum Pipeline Act of 2015, over the next two years. This means that any consideration of moving forward with a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) should be halted until this research is complete and briefed to all relevant stakeholders.” Continue reading →

Senators Introduce Bill Requiring FCC to Collect “Consistent” Coverage Data

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May 11, 2017–A group of senators today introduced a bipartisan bill that would require the FCC “to collect broadband coverage data that is valid, consistent, and robust,” a news release noted. “This standardized data is necessary to ensure that policies to expand broadband deployment accurately target the unserved and underserved communities and account for the mobile coverage experience of those living in the most remote parts of the country,” the news release added.

The bill would give the FCC 180 days to adopt “regulations to establish a methodology that shall apply to the collection of coverage data by the Commission for” the universal service program and any similar programs.The bill says that the methodology would have to “(1) contain standard definitions for different speed tiers, such as the 2G, 3G, 4G, and 4G LTE tiers; (2) ensure that coverage data is collected in a consistent and robust way; (3) improve the validity and reliability of coverage data; and (4) increase the efficiency of coverage data collection.”

The Rural Wireless Access Act of 2017 was introduced by Sens. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.), Roger Wicker (R., Miss.), Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii), Deb Fischer (R., Neb.), and Jerry Moran (R., Kan.). Other original cosponsors include Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) and Gary Peters (D., Mich.). Continue reading →

Groups Submit Revised Alarm Proposal

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May 9, 2017–The Monitoring Association (TMA) and the Land Mobile Communications Council (LMCC) have submitted proposed rule revisions to the FCC concerning greater part 90 use of central station alarm frequencies.  The revisions submitted yesterday in WP docket 16-261 follow up on a consensus proposal that was detailed by the TMA and LMCC last December in reply comments in a proceeding in which the FCC is considering expanding access to private land mobile radio (PLMR) frequencies (TR Daily, Aug. 18, 2016).

Courtesy TRDaily

Andy Seybold’s Public Safety Advocate, May 11, 2017

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Translating for LMR and LTE Worlds A number of vastly different languages are spoken within the wireless industry. I don’t mean different languages such as English and French, I mean different groups within the same profession having their own way of describing their particular specialty. This is particularly true with the LMR Public Safety and LTE/broadband worlds. As broadband comes to Public Safety there is often confusion about the meaning of a term. It is, perhaps, helpful to remember that Land Mobile Radio (LMR) was developed as two-way radio and put into use by Public Safety in the 1930s.

LTE is still the new kid on the block having been designed as the fourth generation of cellular primarily for data and video. Voice services were added much later and are, in essence, using the LTE data technology since voice is converted to digital packets, transmitted, and then put back into understandable voice at the other end. Although there are some statewide systems up and running, LMR systems are local in nature. They are usually designed to cover a local jurisdiction very well and they have been added to and enhanced over time.

In many places today LMR systems have an advantage over commercial LTE networks covering the same geography in counties and cities, but LTE has better coverage over much wider areas including Interstates and major state highways. Currently, the greatest difference is that many LMR systems have evolved over time to provide coverage where it is needed by Public Safety including inbuilding coverage, while commercial LTE covers a much broader area. In many places inbuilding communications is handled via Wi-Fi off-loading rather than inbuilding LTE extensions although there are a number of LTE extensions or Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) in major venues.

The premise of FirstNet is that Public Safety will be supported where needed. It is to Public Safety’s benefit that AT&T is making its entire existing network available as it builds out the FirstNet spectrum. This will enable users to experience the coverage that now exists and perhaps be able to assist in helping FirstNet and AT&T provide coverage where it is needed but not available today. While all this is happening, it is important that the LMR and LTE communities be able to communicate effectively. It is also important that the LMR community becomes more conversant with the LTE/broadband world and that the LTE/broadband world understands the fundamentals of Land Mobile Radio.

LMR is not going away anytime soon. Those claiming it will are giving Public Safety personnel serious problems as they submit their budgets for LMR systems to elected officials who see FirstNet/AT&T as a way to save money for their jurisdictions and don’t understand the differences between FirstNet and LMR. The elected officials are not steeped in wireless technology, most them only know wireless as in smartphones and tablets. It is, therefore, important that the LMR and broadband communities speak with a common voice, understand each other, and are able to convey to those who hold the purse strings that these networks are complementary and will remain so for many years. This in turn means that both groups understand what the other brings to the party and they understand each other rather than speak over each other.

Some examples of terms meaning different things to different people come to mind right off the top. My least favorite concerns the term “Mission Critical Push-To-Talk over LTE.” Mission-critical implies that those within the Public Safety community can trust their lives to PTT voice over LTE. This is simply not true and won’t be true until AT&T can harden portions of its network and the FirstNet network, which will take time. Even PTT over LMR is not always on a mission-critical network, but the network is more mission-critical than today’s commercial LTE networks. Further, LMR networks offer fall-over or fallback modes. The number of modes differs depending on the type of LMR network but the final fallback mode is “simplex” or “talk-around.” Most LTE-speak people’s eyes will glaze over when they hear the term “simplex” or “talk-around.” I have found that saying “peer-to-peer” and “one-to-many peer-to-peer” helps them better understand. However, they still have an issue when the LMR community talks about off-network and in-coverage of the network simplex communications.

If, in LTE-speak, you are in range of a network your phone works. However, if you are not in range of the network it won’t work. If you are in range of the network, why in the world would you need to talk unit-to-unit without the network? It takes a while to explain why organizations such as FDNY use simplex on a daily basis even when they are in range of their LMR system. First, it moves traffic off the network and second, if the incident is deep inside a building or sub-basement, simplex may be the only way to talk from the street to those inside. In that case you would have one handheld within network coverage and one out of coverage but still be able to communicate. Simplex or talk-around is one of the most difficult things for those in the broadband world to comprehend.

The standards body for LTE is working on a technology called ProSe that is supposed to be the answer for off-network communications using LTE devices but so far it does not appear as though even the standards body truly understands unit-to-unit requirements. If for no other reason, the use of simplex or talk-around should be enough to justify keeping an LMR system in place at least for the foreseeable future. What will happen in years to come no one knows, but in the meantime I see numerous vendors working on combination LTE and LMR devices to try to solve the two-device-per-person issue. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over time.

Other terms that are confusing to both groups include LMR base stations, repeaters, simulcast system, trunked systems, P-25 digital systems, talk-groups, time-out-timers, and many more. On the LTE side of things are the Radio Access Network(RAN), the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), IP, Asynchronous Balanced Mode (ABM), Access Class (AC), Quality of Services (QoS), and priority, pre-emption, and ruthless pre-emption, which seem to be used interchangeably even though each carries a different set of implications. For antennas, the term MIMO is confusing to LMR folks. Multiple Input, Multiple Output antenna technology has an impact on the number of antennas needed on a tower, on a vehicle, and in a handheld device. Today there is 2X2 MIMO and 3X3 MIMO, each offering more throughput and capacity, and work continues on adding even more antennas to an antenna array. Continue reading →