Next generation public safety networks: A spectrum sharing approach

Abstract

Wireless communications play a critical role in national security and disaster relief and are extensively utilized by first responder teams, such as police officers, firefighters, and ambulances. The first responders in emergency situations need to always be connected with one another and with the remote service centers for effective cooperation and coordination. However, the existing public safety (PS) services fail to satisfy the PS user requirements in many emergency scenarios, which usually leads to exceptionally high traffic loads. As a result, increasing the network capacity is one of the primary concerns, and spectrum sharing has been deemed the key solution. With appropriate spectrum sharing partnerships among PS agencies and commercial networks, PS users can access licensed PS spectrum, shared spectrum, as well as commercial networks when the need arises. In this article we present different initiatives undertaken by Wireless @ Virginia Tech toward the next generation PS network. We also discuss our vision of a flexible, rapidly deployable, and reconfigurable PS system to meet imminent and future demands on critical communications infrastructure and discuss the value of spectrum sharing for supporting this long-term vision.