Future Proof Your Mission-critical Backhaul
Webinar Key Takeaways
01 Public safety communications are undergoing an evolution
Key Takeaways
Meet the Speakers
02 State and local governments must support digital services
03 What a shared backhaul network must deliver on
04 The best option: invest in an all-packet backhaul network
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05 Nokia’s public safety backhaul solution blueprint
06 How Dallas is transforming its network
Public safety communications are undergoing a significant evolution
When public safety authorities invest in backhaul networks, these networks stay in place for a long time—typically 10 years or more. Therefore, when investments decisions are made, it’s crucial to envision how networks will be used over this extended lifetime. They must remain relevant in future years and must be optimized for today’s services and the demands of the future. In looking at the evolution of public safety communications:
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“We have 52 company restaurants, making us the largest operator of the restaurant brand. So, we are right there next to the franchisee. We know exactly what it takes to run them and what it takes to build them and what the challenges are, be they labor or food or whatever.”
- Scott Deviney, CEO, Chicken Salad Chick
It is essential to be ready for the future era of mission-critical voice and data
Past few decades: Public safety communication services have been about voice. The focus has largely been on improving reliability and security for first responders’ voice needs.
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Past few years: There has been a rollout of mobile broadband networks for public safety. First responders now have access to new data and multimedia services, allowing them to improve their situational awareness and efficiency.
State and local governments must support a growing list of digital services
In looking at the communication needs of state and local governments, there is a growing list of services to support the acceleration of digitization.
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A shared mission-critical backhaul network can multiply the investment
Labor issues. Multiple reports have found that almost half of operators say they are unable to find enough staff. Operators also report labor issues related to employee morale.
Supply chain issues. As if labor issues alone weren’t enough, operators are struggling with supply chain issues, which have led to shortages of key items, such as flour, cheese, and proteins, as well as shortages and unavailability of to-go packaging.
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Tim & Kelly Paslowski, owners of two Chicken Salad Chick locations in Savannah, Georgia
“The best solutions may incorporate a balance between state and local’s own infrastructure and that of traditional CSPs.”
- Christopher Pickard, Nokia
The ability to leverage investment in the public safety backhaul network as a mutualized resource, carrying a variety of services for both mission-critical and for voice, could provide an option to multiply the benefits of the investment.
Mission-critical voice: For public safety, some services that include multimedia and mobile communication may be delivered by service providers. However, essential mission-critical voice remains owned by the state and local government.
Safe cities & smart cities: The many sensors required must rely on an industrial-grade fixed or private wireless network. These services require a massive number of connections, requiring carrier-grade reliability.
There might be some hesitancy in the public safety community to consider a shared backhaul network, which is understandable since lives depend on a highly available and resilient network for first responders. The key is whether a shared network can provide these four outcomes:
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What a shared backhaul network must deliver on
When considering a shared backhaul network, here are the four key criteria
“It’s a fairly reasonable way to get new guests in your restaurant, partly because third-party delivery is bringing them there.”
“The supply chain is going to be under plenty of pressure throughout the remainder of the year.”
- Mark Brandau, Datassential
The network must deliver the highest levels of availability for mission-critical voice and must guarantee that priority is uncompromised for the most critical services.
Prioritize
The network must protect against an expanded attack surface.
Protect
Knowing that the investment will last at least a decade, the network must preserve past investments in non-IP services and must allow for a smooth transition from TDM to IP. This requires scaling of new IP-based services alongside traditional TDM services, while providing the flexibility for traffic and capacity shifts as new services are added and old ones are removed.
Scale
The first three objectives must be met while achieving the investment objective of reducing overall operating expenses. Regardless of the traffic growth or unforeseeable demand from future services, the network must provide a lower total cost of ownership over the lifetime of the investment.
Control Cost
The best option: invest in an all-packet backhaul network
An all-packet backhaul network supports TDM traffic migrations with no compromise on performance. This allows for the secure continual operation of existing services to protect past investments. It is also mission critical thanks to mechanisms such as adaptive modulation, fast fault protection, fast reroute and the support of advanced resilient network technologies for improved resiliency.
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Naturally, if the network has to be shared among a multiplicity of services, cyber protection for public safety traffic must be guaranteed. This is even more critical in an all-IP world, which is more open to attack. The backhaul network has a key role to play here. It contributes to the protection of the most sensitive network traffic by embedding different security mechanisms natively into the network elements. This starts in the silicon and is extended with the support of segregated virtual private networks, traffic encryption, DDoS detection, cybersecurity analytics, and more.
An all-packet backhaul is an essential piece of a TDM to IP and cloud migration
“Having one holistic infrastructure to manage and maintain, as opposed to several siloed or single-purpose TDM or IP networks, will truly provide the additional OPEX and CAPEX savings we’re looking for. The all-packet network will support TDM and IP migration for public safety, and given its performance capabilities, will also support less critical services without compromise to public safety needs.”
Nokia’s public safety backhaul solution blueprint
Nokia advocates a networking blueprint across the various domains of the backhaul network. It is a converged blueprint for backhaul that can be leveraged to support services beyond today's mission-critical voice. It can accommodate emerging needs for smart city, smart government, and residential broadband—connecting all community anchor institutions across education, health care, and community services. Nokia recognizes that this blueprint is not yet common in the market. But the technology now allows providing the mission-critical reliability expected by public safety agencies, while supporting other government services. And Nokia see the current economic trends pushing everyone in the direction of adopting this blueprint. Nokia currently has more than 120 state and local public safety customers; the majority of these operate backhaul networks.
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A blueprint that extends across the various domains of the backhaul network
Over the next two years, operators’ on/off-premise focus
The City of Dallas has 1.3 million residents and is an urban area with 6.5 million residents. Over the past decade, Dallas has transformed its network and is now looking to the future.
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How Dallas is transforming its network
Dallas is using microwave but longer term envisions melding multiple technologies together
“We realized that we were going to have to make some changes and we realized that the microwave system was going to be a critical component of it.”
- Jonathan “CJ” Holt, City of Dallas
Challenges in 2011: Dallas was hit with a narrowbanding mandate, had an aging infrastructure that was more than 10 years old, faced new and changing needs as IP-based platforms became more common, and wanted to look forward with expandable technologies. At the time, the legacy system was all TDM.
The plan: Dallas’ plan was developed by looking at the future. It focused on addressing the narrowbanding mandate with radios capable of migrating to Project 25, replacing the microwave system, and building a new radio system. In building the new microwave system, the radio system was the primary focus, with a particular focus on the critical infrastructure in the city and county, including police stations, fire training, and water plants.
Nokia’s solution: Dallas chose Nokia and went with 34 paths, 9500 MPR radios, multiple frequencies, a network service platform, and a custom-built MPLS system. However, at the time, everything relied on TDM1 circuits. In implementing this system, Dallas realized that microwave added new capabilities, such as video cameras at sites, an increase in police department bandwidth, and remote diagnostic capabilities.
“The modular capability . . . saved us a lot of money, saved us a lot of time, and allowed us to bring new technology online in a much more rapid fashion because we are already prepared for future growth.”
Why Dallas chose microwave: When Dallas was making its decision, the City didn’t have extensive city-owned fiber and leasing fiber was cost prohibitive. Microwave had a larger upfront cost but a limited recurring cost per site. Also, the City had existing microwave licenses and the City radio team was familiar with microwave. The team concluded that for its radio system, microwave was the best solution for its requirements. It was a modular solution that allowed expanding as needed.
Where Dallas goes from here: Dallas is in the process of building a new Project 25 radio system. This system will have increased redundancy and will be expanded to other areas of the county, providing greater interoperability with other cities. Overall, microwave will continue to support the City’s radio communications network. However, Dallas sees blending commercial fiber and microwave for its critical infrastructure. Fiber will provide data exit points for microwave data sites.
“Our long-term plan is to start melding all these technologies together to provide one common backhaul network that provides services to our citizens and to all of our city workers to ensure that they have the best, most capable, most reliable networks to continue to do their jobs."
Christopher Pickard
North American Digital Industries Leader Nokia
Mr. Pickard leads Nokia’s North American Digital Industries team focusing in the areas of Public Safety, Energy, Transportation, Manufacturing and Logistics. In this role, Christopher and his team of industry experts advance the adoption of technology to enable collaborative advancement in IR4.0 transformations. Leveraging Nokia’s broad and proven portfolio, Christopher applies key innovations in private-wireless connectivity, 5G, IoT, data analytics and AR/VR to create solutions for existing and emerging needs in the fast evolving world of Information and Communications Technology.
Jonathan “CJ” Holt
Radio Network Group Manager City of Dallas
Whether saving a person from a burning home, helping someone lost in the city, or making sure trash is picked up, the 13,000 employees of the City of Dallas rely on CJ to ensure their radio systems are up and always working. He has had a lengthy career working at various agencies in roles from Paramedic and Volunteer Firefighter to Dispatcher and Radio Coordinator. He is married, has a son, and they love to host foreign exchange students.
Donny Jackson
Editor IWCE’s Urgent Communications Moderator
Opening Remarks delivered by:
Speakers
Donny Jackson is editor of IWCE's Urgent Communications, generating content about the critical-communications arena for almost two decades and contributing to the annual IWCE conference program. Jackson won the 2013 Jesse H. Neal Award in the "Best Subject-Related Series" category for public-safety broadband coverage associated with the establishment of FirstNet.
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To accelerate the digitalization of their safety services, state and local public safety authorities need to modernize their network infrastructure. Such significant investment, which is here to last, need to be carefully optimized for the latest LMR technologies as well as for the all IP digital world that is quickly emerging. What are the solutions to ready your network for whatever tomorrow brings, while delivering the best in class resilience expected to support society critical services?
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How to future proof your mission-critical backhaul?
How to Future Proof Your Mission-Critical Backhaul
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