For public safety, advances in wireless technology were in accelerated to remedy the lack of interoperability and spectrum limitations that plagued the response to September 11, 2001. Each iteration from 2G to 5G and beyond has been designed to address critical gaps and meet the evolving challenges of the 21st century.
Today, these advancements in LTE communication and wireless connectivity are transforming voice and data into a multidimensional networking platform that supports a range of public safety uses.
The current state of 5G – long in coming and still evolving – is the fulfillment of promises made long ago. That the promises to date are becoming realized offers an exciting glimpse into the near future for public safety.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF LTE
The introduction of smartphones to the consumer market in 2008 led to explosive growth in smartphone adoption. Beyond offering the ability to make phone calls, smartphones running on third-generation mobile network technology (3G) offered mobile internet access. This innovation sparked rapid development of mobile applications from GPS navigation, entertainment, fitness and productivity to social media, ecommerce, meal delivery and ridesharing that are now part of everyday life.
Many public safety organizations recognized the value mobile internet access and cellular communications running with faster data speeds on 3G would bring to their organizations. Over the following decade, laptops and tablets began to replace traditional mobile data terminals, offering greater computing power and flexibility on the go along with GPS navigation, instant communication and direct access to national crime databases as well as local computer-aided dispatch and records management systems.
The then-current 3G applications, however, were data hogs, revealing the limitations of 3G to keep up with the flood of data. The need for “more bandwidth” enabled the deployment of Long-Term Evolution (LTE) in 2009, when the Federal Communications Commission reallocated certain bands of spectrum to 4G LTE, delivering significantly higher speeds, lower latency and improved spectrum efficiency. This paved the way for the evolution being deployed today – 5G.
THE INTRODUCTION OF 5G
Previous and current generations of wireless technology from 2G through 4G LTE have relied on coverage layer in the sub-2 GHz range of the spectrum, which provides great propagation but relatively low data capacity.
To facilitate the deployment of 5G, in 2020 the FCC completed the reallocation and auction of new licenses in underutilized spectrum to wireless carriers, enabling comparably swift deployment of additional 5G capabilities.
“If you want to go faster, you need more bandwidth. You need more spectrum capacity on the airwaves,” said Anthony Lawson, product manager at Ericsson. 5G adds two new spectrum layers:
- The high-capacity layer – high-band or millimeter-wave (mmWave) – refers to frequencies in the spectrum of 24 GHz and above. When fully mature, this layer will deliver speeds between 1 and 3 gigabits per second for uses such as wireless robotics, large-site failover, mobile high-capacity diagnostics and AI-video recognition.
- The second new spectrum layer is in the 3.7 to 4.2 GHz range. This capacity layer or “C-band” is in the “Goldilocks” (just right) zone that is valued for its propagation characteristics, offering a balance between capacity and range.
Together, the coverage, C-band and mmWave layers are critical components of 5G networks’ multilayer architecture, providing different but complementary characteristics for a range of uses.
PUBLIC SAFETY USE CASES
In law enforcement, 5G keeps officers connected to mission-critical information from CAD and RMS to body-worn and in-vehicle camera systems. It enables livestreaming of drone footage at low latency for search and rescue as well as situational awareness during tactical operations. 5G is critical for fast data transmission, including the automatic secure uploading of multimedia files to cloud storage for immediate review and sharing – an important feature for officer safety, public transparency and ensuring a secure chain of custody.
In the fire service, drone video streaming makes remote inspection of structural damage possible in the wake of disasters. Streams from observation cameras and environmental sensors can detect wildfires and alert the fire service before the flames become a conflagration. Sensors in self-contained breathing apparatus can protect firefighters by alerting them and command staff when breathable air supply is running low. Body-worn sensors can detect chemical exposures, physiological conditions or a rapid increase in external temperature that can portend a dangerous flashover.
In EMS, 5G helps ensure accurate location data, so an emergency response is not delayed. En route to the hospital, 5G enables voice, image and data transmission with the highest priority and lowest latency so doctors at the receiving hospital can evaluate the patient remotely and prepare the appropriate level of care.
Across public safety, 5G enables myriad uses and will enable uses yet to be dreamed – anything requiring faster data speeds, lower latency, greater bandwidth and instant and reliable communication.
PROMISE OF 5G
When 5G was launched, it introduced a new network architecture leveraging mmWave, massive MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) and network slicing. For 5G to fully realize its potential, these evolutionary technologies need to build on each other.
“We were all around when 5G first came out. We saw the vision statements, and basically those were fourfold,” said James Weaver, product marketing manager for Ericsson. “Performance would be better – 10 to 100 times faster in terms of download. Latency would be much improved – maybe up to 80%. Network slicing would also be on the forefront and massive IoT would be on the horizon.”
“LTE took about eight years to reach full maturity,” said Lawson. 5G is working its way there, with some agencies in the United States deployed on 5G, yet many still relying on 4G where 5G is yet unavailable.
“Speed is getting to a point where it’s almost always good. It’s no longer like I’m in a chase for speed now,” said Lawson. “I’m actually now looking for a more resilient, reliable and better-quality connection. That’s what 5G is really doing well. Then there are the evolutionary features that the new 5G networks bring into the cellular space, like network slicing.”
Let’s explore how these technologies are continuing to expand 5G and building a foundation for new releases that can reduce complexity and cost where needed while optimizing performance for mission-critical applications.
NETWORK SLICING
Not every organization and not every purpose requires top-of-the-line speeds or data capacity. While consumers may want a broadband connection so they can stream video from a concert to their social channels, they don’t need speed, low latency and capacity in the same way public safety needs it at that same event to conduct real-time surveillance from a mobile command center and provide situational awareness to officers in the field.
Network slicing helps ensure first responders get best-in-class connectivity for their data-intensive applications, even – and especially – during times of network congestion. 5G is more than a bigger pipeline – with network slicing, it’s a bigger pipeline filled with smaller pipes optimized for the speed, latency and data capacity appropriate for each mission.
Network slicing allows for the creation of multiple virtual networks on a stand-alone network. Each slice is self-contained and isolated and can be configured to meet specific performance, security and reliability requirements for different services with different connectivity requirements. On the same core network, for instance, slices could be dedicated to consumer, enterprise and public safety needs depending on how it’s configured. On a stand-alone network, one slice could provide consumer telecommunications, another could process retail transactions, and yet another could provide the speed, bandwidth and low latency to livestream drone footage or feed multiple inputs to a real-time crime center.
“With network slicing and the ability to segment and differentiate traffic and send it down a virtualized secondary parallel path across the network, the slice the carrier’s going to offer them will be above best effort treatment of that traffic end to end,” said Lawson. “That’s all going to be designed to give the enterprises more confidence that when I subscribe to this slice and put my mission-critical data on that slice, it’s going to perform the same from end to end.”
MASSIVE IoT
IoT (Internet of Things) devices are connected devices that communicate with one another and with centralized systems, often using wireless technologies. These devices are designed to perform specific, often simple tasks at scale. IoT capabilities are built into many devices used in public safety.
To enable large-scale deployment of massive IoT – the built-in ability of a network to handle massive amounts of lower-power, low-bandwidth sensors and devices – network slicing and a stand-alone network core are required.
“The slicing can actually determine what the pipe looks like,” said Weaver. “That’s how we get massive IoT on the carrier network: One device isn’t continuously communicating. ‘Does the device only check in once every five hours?’ It’s only checking in every few hours. That’s a different type of network than a video camera which checks in constantly.”
NETWORK APIS
Another exciting development among Ericsson and the major carriers is a joint venture to develop applications for the 5G core network. While there are similar applications now, these 5G APIs will be more advanced versions that use data extracted from the carrier’s network.
“The network knows how many SIM cards are in different areas so if a first responder needs to evacuate an area, knowing how many people are in those areas would be super valuable to them,” said Weaver. “Being able to keep drones within certain geofences would be helpful as well. Or, perhaps there’s a verification that needs to occur from law enforcement. The network knows pretty clearly if you’re the person you say you are, so it can be very helpful from an identification and verification perspective.”
THE FUTURE OF 5G
The next release of enhancements and features to 5G build upon the core 5G architecture and capabilities. Key features include enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) that improves throughput, reliability and spectral efficiency for higher data rates and makes possible enhanced user experiences for applications like AR/VR and ultra-HD video streaming and enhancements to Massive IoT.
Another upcoming feature is 5G RedCap (Reduced Capability). Because not all use cases require the full capabilities of traditional 5G devices, such as ultra-high speeds or extremely low latency, 5G RedCap is designed to provide a middle ground between high-performance 5G devices and ultra-low-cost IoT devices.
While the rollout of 5G worldwide is phased based on agency needs, implementation of foundational architecture and buildout and deployment of new features in development, it has been incredibly successful. Meanwhile, LTE isn’t going anywhere – it remains widely used globally due to its extensive infrastructure and versatility. The two technologies will peacefully coexist for the foreseeable future, ensuring seamless connectivity for first responders while 5G continues to roll out globally and mature.
“I think we’d all agree that the rollout has been as fast as any generation. 5G has permeated itself across the globe faster than anything we’ve seen,” said Weaver. “If you’re in an area where maybe 5G isn’t delivering the promise that you expected, just wait, because it’s moving. It’s going to fulfill its promises.”
For more information, complete the “Request more information” form. In doing so, you consent to the following:
“I would like to receive emails and communications from Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions, Inc. This includes marketing, sales, and partner communication. Emails can include product news, company insights, trade show and webinar updates. You can customize your permissions or opt out at any time. Please review our Privacy Notice for more details.
