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Software Defined Radio for Public Safety

Software Defined Radio for Public Safety. Presentation to the National Conference on Emergency Communication 13 December 2005 Fred Frantz Director, Law Enforcement Programs, L-3 GSI Chair, Software Defined Radio Forum Public Safety Special Interest Group. Outline. Background

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Software Defined Radio for Public Safety

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  1. Software Defined Radio for Public Safety Presentation to the National Conference on Emergency Communication 13 December 2005 Fred Frantz Director, Law Enforcement Programs, L-3 GSI Chair, Software Defined Radio Forum Public Safety Special Interest Group

  2. Outline • Background • Potential benefits of software defined radio technology for emergency communication • Critical issues in technology development and deployment • Future steps

  3. Background - 1 • L-3 GSI activities funded by the National Institute of Justice CommTech Program • CommTech program goal is facilitate development and deployment of communications technology to (primarily) state and local public safety personnel/first responders • Voice over IP • Advanced wireless data • Non-terrestrial communications • Software defined radios • Cognitive radios

  4. Background – 2 • What is software defined radio? • Technologies that enable reconfigurable system architectures for wireless networks and user terminals (SDR Forum) • E.g., technology that implements control of radio operating parameters (frequency, modulation type, power, etc.) in software.

  5. Work with SDR Forum • SDR Forum – international consortium of organizations dedicated to advancing SDR technology • Established the Public Safety Special Interest Group • Representation includes public safety organizations, traditional public safety LMR vendors, commercial companies, regulators, military • Over past year the Public Safety SIG has been drafting a report analyzing issues associated with developing SDR technology for public safety

  6. SDR Technology for Public Safety • Today’s public safety radios are SDRs—providing multi-protocol radios • Conventional, legacy, P25 • Beyond multi-protocol • Multi-band • Multi-service • Cognitive applications

  7. Potential Benefits of SDR for Public Safety • Seamless interoperability • Multi-band • Multi-service • Support for highly dynamic networks • Support for “system of system” • Life cycle cost reduction • Reduce cost of upgrading and reprogramming • Simplify technology upgrades • Foundation for cognitive applications that can yield performance enhancements

  8. Technical Challenges—Antennas and Front Ends • Portable multi-band antennas across VHF/UHF/800 • Size/weight/power constraints on processing in portable devices • Support for processing across broad range of frequency bands • Support for processing across diverse services • Linear vs non-linear wave issues may limit types of modes that can be cost-effectively implemented in single device

  9. Technical Challenges—Security • Capabilities such as potential over-the-air reprogramming add significant security challenges • Interoperability could be impacted if security regimes are not coordinated/interoperable

  10. Technical Challenges—Standards • Role of additional standards in public safety SDRs is open question • Traditional approach in public safety such as P25 defines standard interface between devices, between systems, between device and infrastructure • Alternative such as JTRS SCA defines standard interfaces within a device

  11. Technical Challenge—Cognitive Applications • Focus on performance enhancement • For example, adjust waveform parameters to adjust to dynamic RF environment • Spectrum sharing requires significantly more spectrum utilization data • No comprehensive studies of spectrum utilization have been done to look at spectrum utilization across public safety and non-public safety bands during major events and incidents

  12. Where Are We Headed? • SDR Forum Public Safety SIG Report scheduled for completion in January, 2006 • Multi-band capabilities are on the near-term horizon • NIJ currently working multi-band operational pilot to collect operational lessons learned • NIJ currently sponsoring and soliciting R&D in multi-band SDRs • Multi-service capabilities will require some additional refinement of functional requirements within marketplace • Cognitive applications will be overlaid over time

  13. So What Does This Mean for Emergency Communications? • SDR multi-band radios can address multi-band interoperability issues • Does not directly address the issues of legacy proprietary systems • Future capabilities such as multi-service SDRs and cognitive performance enhancing capabilities on the horizon

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