Effective emergency and natural disaster management depend on the efficient mission-critical voice and data communication between first responders and victims. Land mobile radio system (LMRS) is a legacy narrowband technology used for critical voice communications with limited use for data applications. Recently, long term evolution (LTE) emerged as a broadband communication technology that has a potential to transform the capabilities of public safety technologies by providing broadband, ubiquitous, and mission-critical voice and data support. For example, in the United States, FirstNet is building a nationwide coast-to-coast public safety network based on LTE broadband technology. This paper presents a comparative survey of legacy and the LTE-based public safety networks, and discusses the LMRS-LTE convergence as well as mission-critical push-to-talk over LTE. A simulation study of LMRS and LTE band class 14 technologies is provided using the NS-3 open source tool. An experimental study of APCO-25 and LTE band class 14 is also conducted using software-defined radio to enhance the understanding of the public safety systems. Finally, emerging technologies that may have strong potential for use in public safety networks are reviewed.
There have been relatively limited studies in the literature on PSC that present a comprehensive survey on public safety LMRS and LTE systems. In @cite_186 , authors present a discussion on voice over LTE as an important aspect of PSC and then provide a high-level overview of LMRS and LTE technologies for their use in PSC scenario. @cite_211 @cite_271 , authors survey the status of various wireless technologies in public safety network (PSN), current regulatory standards, and the research activities that address the challenges in PSC. The ability of LTE to meet the PSN requirements, and classifying possible future developments to LTE that could enhance its capacity to provide the PSC is discussed in @cite_194 @cite_226 .
@cite_226 @cite_271 @cite_186 @cite_211 @cite_194
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The field of emergency and crisis management continuously strives to enhance collaboration, communication, and coordination among public safety organizations. Successful integration is challenging due to current policies and regulations. Moreover, policymakers must predict future needs. Regardless of the challenges, development and growth of a national public safety communication system is no longer a hopeless cause and is anticipated to mitigate challenges by enhancing security, dependability and fault tolerance, cost effectiveness, interoperability, spectral efficiency, and advanced capabilities. Although this national public safety communication system is in the process of being implemented by various local, state, and federal agencies, such adoption is voluntary and attributes to a disconnect between policies and stakeholders. This study reviews the evolution of public safety communication system and discusses benefits and challenges of a national system, the policies and regulations affecting wireless communication technologies and spectrum sharing, and the influence of evolving technologies. Public safety communications users in the United States are living in times of unprecedented change. From the challenges associated with the FCC's recent LMR narrowbanding mandate, which limited mobile radio channel bandwidths to 12.5 kHz, to the creation of FirstNet, the world's first, all-LTE public safety broadband network, public safety practitioners are changing the way they react and communicate during times of need. Though the network architecture for FirstNet has yet to be defined, an IMS-based VoLTE solution is the likely voice application successor to LMR push-to-talk and group calling. However, it remains to be seen whether or not VoLTE can provide the features and quality of service that public safety professionals have come to expect and rely on. And the problem is not confined to emergency responders in the United States - the worldwide community of P25 and TETRA users are evaluating the value of migrating to an LTE-based emergency communications network as well. This paper offers a high level discussion on the history of LMR, the basics of LTE and VoLTE, and implementation and testing recommendations based on possible FirstNet architectures. Public Safety (PS) organizations bring value to society by creating a stable and secure environment. The services they provide include protection of people, environment and assets and they address a large number of threats both natural and man-made, acts of terrorism, technological, radiological or environmental accidents. The capability to exchange information (e.g., voice and data) is essential to improve the coordination of PS officers during an emergency crisis and improve response efforts. Wireless communications are particularly important in field operations to support the mobility of first responders. Recent disasters have emphasized the need to enhance interoperability, capacity and broadband connectivity of the wireless networks used by PS organizations. This paper surveys the outstanding challenges in this area, the status of wireless communication technologies in this particular domain and the current regulatory, standardization and research activities to address the identified challenges, with a particular focus on USA and Europe. It is increasingly being recognized that effective communications are key to a successful response to emergency and disaster situations. The ability of the first responder emergency services to communicate among themselves and to share multimedia information directly affects the ability to save lives. This is reflected in increasing public investment in broadband public safety communication systems. These systems have some specific requirements, which are outlined in this article. As LTE is expected to become the most widely deployed broadband communication technology, we examine the capability of LTE to meet these requirements, and identify possible future developments to LTE that could further enhance its ability to provide the necessary service.