Nokia steps up its push for PSMB

The provision of public safety mobile broadband (PSMB) is perhaps the leading source of discussion in mission-critical circles these days, with a number of models being proposed to provide the service.

There are also lots of discussions about which companies are going to be the ones to capitalise on the opportunities inherent in PSMB and which are going to be left behind.

So it's interesting to see that Nokia, perhaps best known for its mobile phones, is making a concerted push back into the public safety market.

The company is exhibiting for the first time this week at the Comms Connect Melbourne event and has sent one of its most senior executives — Hermann Rodler, Global Head of Public Safety — to be on hand to speak to attendees about the company's solutions.

To find out what Nokia has planned for the market, we spoke with Rodler on the eve of Comms Connect.

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Nokia's re-emergence into the public safety field has come as a surprise to many. What is the reasoning behind it?

Nokia has been in the public safety field for a long time; in fact, we have been working with government customers — such as defence organisations, security agencies and other government organisations — for the past 60 years.

If we look at the way public safety networks has evolved, the current systems — such as TETRA or Project 25 and TETRAPOL — provide mission-critical communication services, but they are limited in data connectivity. With the emergence of LTE as a cost-efficient enabler for fast and reliable mobile broadband — high data rates, carrier-grade experience and high availability of networks and service level agreements (SLAs), quality of service differentiation and a high level of security — it has become an obvious option for public safety communications. This is why many governments and operators in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, the US and Korea are evaluating the advantages of incorporating mobile broadband into their public safety systems.

Nokia is a leading supplier of LTE technology across the globe and we support seven out of the 10 largest LTE customers in the Asia Pacific and Japan region. Furthermore, Nokia has already released a 5G proof of concept in Korea and demonstrated a record-breaking wireless speed of 19.1 Gbps, which makes for an interesting future for mobile broadband that can be leveraged in public safety too. We are also a market leader in mobile broadband for railways, with projects running commercially in Australia.

It is quite natural and obvious that Nokia leverages this wide scale of products and capabilities to develop resilient and secure public safety solutions that are based on LTE technology to provide mission-critical services.

Your marketing material mentions a 'framework' of solutions. Can you give us some more detail about that?

The strategy on spectrum and infrastructure sharing is a topic of debate in many countries, including Australia. Depending on the model that the country chooses, we can provide a secure solution over the existing and available network infrastructure with the required QoS, georedundancy and security. Our architecture, which is based on the standard 3GPP framework, will ensure that priority is given to the emergency responder during an incident. Nokia radio and core technology can connect to optical, microwave or IP interfaces of several operators, which allows high resilience architecture by using backhaul and backbone networks of different service providers using link redundancy schemes.

From a deployment perspective, our 'Network in a Box', which you can see at our booth at the Comms Connect conference, is one of the smallest in the industry. This solution has an in-built core and it eliminates the need for extra costs for quick and easy deployment.

How mature are your public safety systems? Are they just concepts, or are there real-world examples currently operating?

Nokia has an end-to-end public safety solution that is available today and ready for deployment. Network in a Box is a rapidly deployable, portable solution that helps establish mobile broadband connectivity in just 15 minutes. This is a perfect match for first responder units that need to communicate in conditions where traditional network coverage is not available or compromised. Our solution is offered in multiple bands — including 700 MHz band 14, 800 MHz band 20 and 700 MHz band 28 — all available today.

While public safety mobile broadband is relatively new, Nokia has already completed commercial deployments in the US and Middle East as well as conducted many live simulations and trials to demonstrate the proven capabilities of our solution.

Very recently, we had a live demonstration here in Australia with the New South Wales Telco Authority where we demonstrated our Network in a Box solution and new ruggedised Tough Mobile (TM1.0) handset through a simulated incident (mock chemical fire and a medical incident).

In the US, Nokia provided our Network in a Box solution to the State of New Jersey to ensure public safety for several mass events, including Pope Francis's visit to Philadelphia. We have also completed commercial deployments in the Middle East.

We are also working closely with Vodafone New Zealand and recently demonstrated the capabilities of our Network in a Box in a live search and rescue simulation. It showed the power of a portable LTE solution in rural areas where commercial mobile connectivity is not available. We also showed how we have integrated push-to-talk communications capabilities to our LTE solution.

Which geographic markets are you targeting?

We are working with our many partners to target all markets where governments and/or operators are evaluating mobile broadband to be used in their public safety networks. Having said that, a vast majority of the countries that are taking this next step are developed countries that already have LTE, such as Australia. Nokia is ready to have strategic discussions with these governments and operators to bring the power of LTE to their public safety systems with a ready solution.

Are you targeting any particular mission-critical sectors?

Our Nokia LTE Public Safety solution is not a one-trick pony. With the right consultation by Nokia experts, it can be applied to a variety of sectors — including transport, mining, security and many others. There is a clear need in these sectors for reliable and secure LTE network that offers a platform for business-critical communications and Nokia can support these companies.

What is your viewpoint on public versus private approaches to providing PSMB?

This is indeed the discussion and situation in many countries across the world. While Nokia is well positioned to support either of the two situations, the decision is typically balanced between two key areas — available government budget to build a dedicated public safety network and service levels agreements with the commercial carrier on network availability and resilience.

On one hand, public carriers already have LTE coverage and the spectrum that could be used to provide mission-critical service; with Nokia's LTE solutions, features such as carrier aggregation and QoS prioritisation, will ensure that a high level of service can be provided to emergency responders. On the other hand, emergency services organisations can have their own autonomous networks that stretch beyond commercial coverage, particularly in remote areas, but upgrades and field maintenance for large public safety networks that require stringent KPIs can be rather costly.

I believe the policymakers are considering the most feasible outcome, which could possibly be a hybrid where all assets are leveraged into one network that can be used for commercial mobile usage and public safety.

Which companies are you partnering with to provide solutions?

Nokia has an open ecosystem approach with 3GPP standardised interfaces, which gives our customers, especially government agencies, the flexibility to choose national partners, and both solutions can be easily integrated together. An example of our partnering success is our relationship with Harris in Australia, where we have integrated the Harris BeOn Communications Suite to our public safety solution. Together, we provide features such as group communications and push-to-talk (similar to traditional mission-critical voice services) as well as live video streaming, location tracking and enhanced situational awareness.

Does Nokia see itself as just providing the technology, or will it get involved in a managed services role as well?

A managed services role is definitely a possibility for the future. We have a strong position in managed services of regular networks and have the right expertise — we currently manage 550 million subscribers in more than 100 operator networks in a multivendor environment. While we will evaluate this option in the future, right now we are focused on consulting various countries on utilising LTE in their public safety networks and delivering our industry-leading technology.

What can visitors expect to see on your stand at Comms Connect Melbourne?

Visitors can drop by our stand in the delegate area to view a live demonstration of our Network in a Box solution. It's literally an LTE base station that can fit into your car, which makes it easily transportable and rapidly deployable, and does not even require backhaul connectivity. You can experience capabilities, like edge video orchestration and much more that is better seen than described.

I am personally available for an engaging discussion on the public safety landscape along with other key members of our Nokia team. Please drop by if you get a chance!

Pictured: Hermann Rodler