Public safety and homeland security are issues of utmost importance in the United States and the world at large as a result of the events in New York City on 11^th September 2001.  This paper focuses on the role of wireless in support of improved systems, procedures, and applications to provide improved safety and security.  Safety and security are distinguished as two separate and yet related issues with the former being focused more on day-to-day concerns such as routine emergencies, local and natural threats and the latter being focused more on the threat of terrorism and the need to support civil defense. 

This paper is provided as a service to MobileIN.com readers to help educate readers on the relationship of wireless technologies to these matters and to provide reference to additional information on the subject matter.

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The Role of Wireless in Public Safety
and Homeland Security

Public Safety

As it is discussed in this paper, public safety pertains to those issues relevant to everyday concerns such as accidents, local disasters such as fire and flood, natural threats such as hurricane/cyclone or tornadoes, personal security, and health related issues.

Wireless Emergency Service

As discussed in the WES paper, WES is enabled by location-based services (LBS) to provide location information of a person in distress, allowing emergency services responders to more efficiently assist the person(s) in need.  The United States is building a national infrastructure of positioning equipment to support WES whereby the caller invokes the emergency call by sending the digits “911”, the national official emergency dialing pattern.  Varying dialing patterns are used in different parts of the world such as “112” in Europe.The infrastructure put in place for WES may also be used for various commercial location-based services (LBS).

While WES is currently exclusively voice-based, there will be a need in the future to data-enable WES.  There is already a need to enable next generation networks utilizing VoIP.  In the future, WES will need to also support data invocation such as various advanced messaging applications.  These applications would be especially important in the event that the invoking party either can’t acquire a circuit-based channel and/or can’t speak such as in a duress situation or temporary use of voice such as a smoke inhalation situation.  One critically important enhancement of location-enabled WES is that the invoking party may be found even if they dial 911 and are disconnected or invoke via non-voice communications.

The build-out of FCC-ordered phase II 911 mobile postioning systems continues in the US.  Meanwhile, Europe is focusing efforts to determine how it may follow in similar fashion.  As with fixed network invoked emergency service, WES has the issue of needing to deal with “prank” or false calls, which are patently immoral and illegal, taking resources away from people who truly have emergencies.  Fortunately, law enforcement officials have the ability through positioning determination to track down and (hopefully) prosecute wrong doers.

Emergency Warning and Evacuation Services

Otherwise referred to as “reverse-911”, this service pertains to the ability to alert wireless users of impending danger such as bad weather, civil disobedience, etc. by way of voice and/or non-voice communications.  For example, LBS technologies can be utilized to determine the whereabouts of wireless users within a given proximity.  Based on information about the location of users relative to some impending danger, communication such as mobile terminated messaging can be invoked to alert those in a given area.

EWE services can be greatly enhanced by the introduction of presence determination technologies, which identify the characteristics of a target entity relative to its current device, status, network, and/or application.  Presence information can be relayed to centralized processing equipment, working in conjunction with LBS infrastructure to autonomously and efficiently determine when emergency notification should occur based on various triggering mechanisms.

Automatic Crash Notification

Automatic Crash Notification (CAN) is a telematics feature that enables the notification that a automobile crash has occurred, alerting emergency response personnel and concerned parties.  CAN speed the process of assisting endangered and/or injured persons who may not be able to communicate themselves.

Personal Tracking and Alerting Services

Based on the introduction of presence and LBS infrastructure and applications, it is possible to track and report the whereabouts and/or condition of individuals.  For example, various detection technologies such as Blue tooth and WLAN may be used to track the presence of individuals such as school children, allowing concerned parents to be alerted to events such as their child leaving school unpredictably.  Other examples include tracking Alzheimer’s patients and other health related concerns.

Privacy Protection

The law of the United States (and certain other countries) calls for protection of Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) such as phone number, location of the user, usage and behaviors, and personal information that may be obtained as part of the subscription process.  It is incumbent upon the service provider to ensure that CPNI be maintained in a secure fashion and not released to a third party without expressed consent of the customer.  Certain CPNI information, such as the ability to position mobile phones using a GPS for commercial (non WES services) LBS applications, follow a default negative policy, meaning that the end-user must positively confirm that they want to be positioned for non-emergency LBS applications.

Homeland Security

As it is discussed in this paper, homeland security pertains to those issues relevant to defense against (hopefully) less mundane occurrences such as the threat of terrorism or acts of war.

Priority Access Service

Priority Access Service (PAS) is the ability to provide priority access to authorities and governmental officials in time of extreme emergency, which is usually when the communications systems would be most prone to congestion and the inability to gain access.  Unlike GSM systems, which support PAS natively, non-GSM systems such as CMDA must support via Wireless Intelligent Network (WIN) functionality.   For more information, see the GETS Mobile in a Minute.

Lawful Intercept

Lawful Intercept (LI) represents the “tapping” of wireless calls by law enforcement personnel for purpose of tracking the communications and/or apprehension of suspected perpetrators. 

Location-based Services Technology

Location-based services (LBS) technology, initially driven by the need for improve emergency services, may also be used in the role of homeland security as a means of tracking the whereabouts of suspected perpetrators.

Presence

The ability to detect and monitor the presence of individuals can be a powerful tool in the detection, prevention, and prosecution of unlawful events.  For example, the use of presence and location technologies together comprises a significant enhancement to LI.

Wireless Communication Interoperability

During times of crisis, it is especially important for emergency response personnel from various agencies – fire, police, FEMA, FBI, etc. – to be able to communicate with one another and coordinate activities.  Unfortunately, each agency typically makes independent purchase decisions in term of equipment and/or operate on different communications frequencies.  There is a need for an interoperability function to ensure that proper communications occurs among agency personnel, especially in time of crisis, when communication is all-important.

Other Technologies

Ultra Wide Band

Proponents of ultra wide band (UWB) purport that this technology may be used for more commercial applications than just ground penetrating radar.  UWB may also be used for efficient, autonomous signaling, presence and location determination.  It remains to be seen whether UWB will emerge as a supplement and/or a replacement to cellular radio and other more traditional RF technologies.

Wireless LAN and VoIP

The advent of WLAN over VoIP will have more than just implications for wireless communications in terms of representing a disruptive commercial alternative to cellular voice.  WLAN over VoIP will also represent a more distributed and therefore potentially less vulnerable network in terms of sustained communication in terms of crisis.  Not only may WLAN over VoIP potentially be less exposed to disruption due to purposeful acts, it may also be less prone to congestion, as communication over the PSTN will likely remain the primary form of communications for most users for many years.

Additional Resources:

Books about: Public Safety and Homeland Security

Partnership for Public Warning
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