Mobile Broadband Communications for Public Safety: The Road Ahead Through LTE Technology

2 Mobile Broadband Data Applications and Capacity Needs

Considering the great potential that mobile broadband data applications can have in improving the operations of PPDR organizations, this chapter firstly describes the various types of data-centric, multimedia applications deemed critical for on-scene PPDR operations. Special attention is given to the ‘Matrix of Applications’ developed by the Law Enforcement Working Party/Radio Communications Expert Group (LEWP/RCEG) of the EU Council, which provides a characterization of technical and operational parameters of a list of PPDR applications agreed by a significant number of European PPDR organizations and recognized by CEPT administrations as being representative in terms of future PPDR applications. Secondly, this chapter presents various estimates of the throughput requirements for the mobile broadband data applications in demand, outlining typical peak data rates, mean session duration and number of transactions in the busy hour in normal conditions to sustain typical PPDR needs. Finally, this chapter concludes with a quantitative assessment of the overall data capacity needed in a number of representative PPDR operational scenarios within the categories of day-to-day operations, large emergency/public events and disaster scenarios.

2.1 Introduction

While current PPDR operational practices primarily rely on the use of voice-centric communications and messaging services (e.g. status messages, short data messages, ...