A Distributed Man-Machine Dispatching Architecture for Emergency Operations Based on 3GPP Mission Critical Services

Abstract

With the number of nonhuman devices expected to significantly overtake human users of long-term evolution networks, it is no surprise that First Responders in mission critical (MC) operations will need to interact with an increasing number of unmanned devices, “bots” or drones. In this paper, we propose the MC “bot” concept as an entity capable of gathering environmental/situational information and triggering certain automated actions without the need of human intervention. We prove that in certain circumstances these bots can help quickly resolve emergency situations and complement traditional centralized coordination from dispatch control rooms. We explain how such “bots” relate to and expand the 3GPP MC Communications architecture framework, considering different architectural approaches and complexity levels. Importantly, because First Responders must remain focused, hands free, and context aware most of the time, we cover specifically the case where man–machine interaction is based on voice communication without having to use hands or look at a screen. It is hence of particular interest to convert “bot” interactions into audio information exchanged over push-to-talk communication services, be it through the cellular network or leveraging the 3GPP device-to-device capability. This paper is complemented with theoretical use cases as well as description and multimedia material of a prototype implementation of a concept emulator.