By Barry Leitch of the FirstNet CTO Devices Group
Last fall, staff from FirstNet’s technical headquarters and the Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Lab traveled from Boulder, CO to observe the operation of a public safety LTE Band 14 demonstration network. The temporary network had been installed by Colorado’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) in support of a CPW hunter checkpoint along a chain-up area on eastbound I-70 in the Idaho Springs, CO area. Among its operations, the network supported collection of data from vehicles processed through the checkpoint suspected of being involved in illegal hunting or fishing activities in Colorado.
Developed out of a partnership of local, state, and federal government entities, the localized network provided a convenient method of data entry using touch screens and barcode scanning through smartphones that had wireless connections to local servers supporting multiple databases with no outside connectivity. During the 36 hours that the checkpoint was in operation, there were over 200 personnel involved, including state and federal law enforcement officers and special agents from CPW, Colorado State Patrol, Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, and Idaho Springs Police Department.
During our visit, CPW personnel provided an overview of the demonstration network and described the planning process that transformed the checkpoint process from a legacy paper-based data collection activity to an automated process using smartphones. They also developed a custom smartphone application to support this data collection effort. CPW provided a unique perspective on its law enforcement organization’s wireless communications requirement, including how it operates regularly in very remote areas and has a need for communication support in almost every square mile of the state.
The public safety demonstration network was comprised of the following elements:
- A combined micro LTE evolved Packet Core(EPC) and E-UTRAN Node B(eNB) to provide local Band 14 coverage
- Application servers that connected to the EPC and hosted the local databases
- Three in-vehicle routers (IVR) connected to the LTE band 14 network and provided local Wi-Fi hotspots distributed along the length of the checkpoint
- Android Smartphones connected via Wi-Fi to the local hotspots
- A custom application developed by CPW was loaded to smartphones to support checkpoint data collection
This Band 14 demonstration network is an early example of a vehicular network system (VNS) – which is planned to be part of future FirstNet service offerings – demonstrating the value of these types of platforms in isolated locations, where a large contingent of public safety personnel require interoperable communication support. Additional information about this band 14 demonstration network is included in a video produced by FirstNet Colorado .
We would like to thank Kim Coleman Madsen of the Office of Information Technology (OIT) of FirstNet Colorado and the CPW team for hosting us at the Band 14 Public Safety demonstration network. While it was only a temporary demonstration network, it exhibited many of the benefits that a broadband network could provide to public safety users throughincreased coverage, capacity, and access to broadband-based mobile applications. Further, the ability to simply set up such coverage extensions can dramatically improve public safety’s ability to operate in remote areas and to respond quickly to a variety of situations.
