Survey of Public Safety Communications: User-Side and Network-Side Solutions and Future Directions

Abstract

To prevent economic losses, maintain social order, and protect the well-being of the populace during public safety and crisis recovery scenarios, such as man-made and natural disasters, the efficient and effective delivery of time-critical information to first responders and victims plays a key role. Nonetheless, too often, the communication infrastructures that enable time-critical information delivery become dysfunctional, due to traffic overloads or physical damage. Thus, the user-side solution [e.g., device-to-device (D2D) communications] and the network-side solution [e.g., dynamic wireless networks (DWNs)] are essential communication techniques that can enhance or restore communication for responders and victims in the harsh environment associated with public safety scenes. While D2D has been widely studied and investigated in legacy/commercial communication networks, as well as DWN, little work has been done toward adapting D2D and DWN from a public safety perspective. In this survey, we first design a layered structure, consisting of the public safety service layer, time-critical information delivery layer, and physical object layer, from which to consider the public safety system and its key components. We then extensively review research efforts on both D2D and DWN as complimentary user-side and network-side communication techniques toward effective public safety communications. Particularly, we investigate the approaches and standardization progress of D2D and DWN for public safety communications. Finally, we provide insights into challenges and potential solutions regarding D2D, DWN, security and resilience, and performance evaluation of public safety communication, as well as the integration of state-of-the-art communication and computing technologies to further improve time-critical information delivery in various public safety scenarios.