Theoretically, first responders should have an entire range of communications methods at their disposal – wired, cellular, satellite and Wi-Fi – able to transmit multiple streams of voice, data and video without a second thought. In reality, numerous factors, from budgets to bandwidth, often limit what they can obtain and practically use. In the 24/7 world of emergency response, those kinds of shortfalls can create big problems.
Whether they’re running the tag number of a criminal suspect, sharing dash-cam video from a pursuit or getting key situational updates from dispatch, police need reliable connectivity in their vehicles. Hitting a dead zone or otherwise dropping contact at the wrong moment can imperil both officers and the citizens they serve.
Through its Cradlepoint line of wireless WAN solutions for public safety and others, Ericsson offers a broad spectrum of connectivity options that encompass a range of wireless platforms and innovative ways to ensure seamless, failsafe communications for personnel in the field. (The company previously known as Cradlepoint is now part of Ericsson but will retain the name for its product line.)
“First responder vehicles are being equipped with more and more sophisticated technology, and one of the problems we see is that technology needs reliable, persistent connectivity,” said Camille Campbell, who oversees WAN and security product marketing for the company. “That’s really our wheelhouse, providing reliable Wi-Fi connectivity for anything within the car that needs to communicate and reliable cellular connectivity for anything that needs a connection back to the corporate network or internet.”
Depending on an agency’s budget, needs and priorities, the paths to fuller connectivity in police vehicles can include routers with both single and dual modems, and beyond that multiple SIM cards, to maximize connection options, prevent untimely drops and control which traffic goes where.
DUAL-SIM VS. DUAL-MODEM
A dual-SIM router, as the name implies, supports multiple SIM cards, from the same or different carriers, although only one can be active at a time. A router with dual modems, conversely, can provide two active connections at once. Both can provide communication backup in case a primary signal is lost.
“We can add a second SIM to the modem for redundancy, but for concurrent connections, we’d need a second modem,” explained Jason Johnston, a consulting solutions engineer with Ericsson. “That allows us to start to aggregate, create failover opportunity and really enhance services based on multiple connections.”
A dual-modem approach comes with some key advantages. These include faster failover, smart selection of the best available carrier, load balancing, traffic steering by application, and intelligent bonding – the combination of multiple WAN connections for greater bandwidth and resiliency. That’s governed by what’s known as software-defined WAN (SD-WAN), which can direct certain traffic to certain links and applications automatically, depending on policy and circumstances. This allows both complementary and redundant backup uses.
A recent Police1 webinar looked at a pair of dual-modem use cases and how they improved operations for public safety users.
The Los Angeles Police Department has outfitted its nearly 2,000 vehicles with Ericsson Cradlepoint routers, each with dual modems with single SIMs, and MDTs. Leaders’ primary connectivity concerns involved CAD data – getting quick and accurate dispatch information – and uploading officers’ in-car video. The simplest approach would have been to dedicate a modem to each purpose – except even Los Angeles still has carrier dead zones. In other words, however convenient such an approach might be for most of LAPD, stations in those dead zones would always have deficits.
Instead LAPD uses its modems to dynamically switch between cellular providers based on the performance of the network. One connects to the primary carrier, and if that’s interrupted, it fails over to an alternative on the other. The Ericsson Cradlepoint routers also allow automatic wireless 5G/LTE upload of in-car video from anywhere, replacing a tedious process of returning to stations to upload via the Wi-Fi network.
In Nevada, the Henderson Fire Department, outside Las Vegas, previously outfitted its fleet with MDTs and single SIMs for cell service. However, those required GPS and antenna boosters for clearer lines of sight. Henderson also has limited bandwidth, and connections were often lost even within the city.
The department wanted not only reliable 24/7 service but also to move to AVL dispatch, so personnel drove the city and developed a coverage map. All the major carriers proved to have areas of dominance. That informed a move to dual routers/bands that allowed two constant connections and automatic failover. That not only provided uninterrupted service but solidified GPS locating and resolved the need for boosters and SIMs. “We’ve gone from loss of coverage probably 25% of the time to now 100% coverage throughout our city,” Captain Tim Gardner said.
The dual-modem approach and the options within it are increasingly popular for emergency users and their growing data needs, Johnston noted.
“We have case studies now where departments are using literally every single feature we have available, including not only multiple modems but multiple PDNs [packets of data] per modem,” he said. “That gives us multiple connections per SIM in addition to multiple modems. So instead of just two modems and two connections, we’re actually running four concurrent connections with the ability to also add satellite and take advantage of Wi-Fi connectivity.”
SATELLITE ADDS ANOTHER LAYER
That’s some powerful assurance for emergency personnel, but they have additional resources, too – failover options not bound to the troposphere. Backup can also come from satellite – in Ericsson’s case, Starlink, the network of roughly 6,300 SpaceX satellites circling the earth to support global broadband internet access.
Geared to serve areas lacking infrastructure, Starlink has expansive reach and can complement 5G. Users in rural and remote areas without wired connections can fail over from wireless to satellite; where they have wired and wireless capabilities in addition to satellite, SD-WAN through a multi-WAN router can divvy up traffic across all three links for optimal performance. Keeping them all active, and not sitting idle until needed, means the network can handle more traffic. Vehicles don’t have wired comms, of course, but satellite can also be a third alternative there after dual wireless options.
Starlink’s advantage over other satellites in this area comes from its low-earth orbit. It circles the planet at just 342 miles up, compared to 22,000 for those in high-earth orbit. This means Starlink satellites travel a shorter distance with each orbit and pass overhead more often. Their downside is requiring an unobstructed view of the sky.
“We’ve seen a lot of uptick in satellite connectivity for first responders in places like Australia, where they have heavily rural areas without cellular coverage,” said Campbell. “They’ll use cellular when they’re in the cities and then switch over where they don’t have that connectivity.”
INTELLIGENT BONDING: MORE THAN A BIGGER PIPE
Also known as link bonding, WAN bonding or bundling, intelligent bonding can encompass wired, cellular, satellite and Wi-Fi as WAN. It has three primary purposes, the most basic of which is simple bandwidth aggregation – creating a bigger pipeline.
More than that, though, it allows smart control of what data travels where. This enables advances like flow balancing – dynamically directing certain traffic through certain links – and flow duplication, the sending of the same (usually critical) data through multiple means in case one flow is interrupted.
“It’s not just taking two lines and combining them to shotgun data faster,” Johnston explained. “I really have dynamic control. I can start off with low demand, where I have primary and secondary lines, and I can send, say, 80% of my traffic over one and 20% over that formerly redundant line. Then when I have high demand, everything shifts over, and I can take advantage of both pipes. In the past we’d simply hold that line as a reserve in case we needed it.”
An SD-WAN router and Ericsson’s NetCloud Manager platform allow users to set their preferences, prioritize applications, direct traffic and maintain oversight of the whole system. Intelligent bonding also permits forward error correction, a process that controls data transmission errors by adding redundant error-correcting code that allows the receiver to detect and fix problems without retransmission. This creates a platform well-suited for mission-critical communication in vehicles.
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
Much about police work is standardized. Much about their communications isn’t. But increasingly, advances in technology make it simpler to access and utilize the array of methods out there, with minimal latency and effort by the user.
Given the essential nature of law enforcement’s communications and data, it’s important to partner with providers who can enable the best use of those platforms.
“Ericsson has lots of different options depending on what a customer really wants to achieve,” said Campbell. “Intelligent bonding can be a part of it, if they have the budget to run dual modems. But many organizations can achieve their objectives with single modems as well.”
“It’s a choose-your-own-adventure type of story,” added Johnston. “If a customer says, ‘Hey, we really only have X amount of budget,’ we can start with one of our brand-new 5G devices that’s rated for higher upload bandwidth. From that we can scale up to customers like L.A. County Fire, which has all this great infrastructure and carriers that can supply bandwidth, and start to stack all that technology and take advantage of it.”
Ericsson’s 5G devices include the new Cradlepoint R980 series ruggedized router, which comes ready for network slicing and with the ability to use eSIMs, which allow switching carriers without physically changing out SIMs. It comes with either mobile or ruggedized IoT NetCloud service plans to meet diverse needs and can optimize traffic across LTE, 5G, 5G stand-alone network slices, satellite and Wi-Fi as WAN.
Also new is the semiruggedized S400 small LTE router for Internet of Things applications. Compatible with enterprise 5G, it features an embedded Cat 6 modem with dual SIM support and offers an intuitive cloud management platform for wireless routers.
“If everything lines up and the customer is willing to aggregate bands,” Johnston noted, “we can start layering services on and really enhance that performance. That takes infrastructure, but we also have a diverse product line if that’s not the case. If an agency really just wants basic connectivity, we can offer that in a very efficient manner as well.”
For more information, visit Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions.
