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

5LTE Networks for PPDR Communications

5.1 Introduction

Various arrangements are currently in use by governments and PPDR organizations for the procurement of PPDR communications services over dedicated narrowband PMR networks. The defining elements commonly used to characterize such arrangements include:

• Ownership of the infrastructure. The network used for PPDR communications is typically owned by the PPDR agency in the case of systems only used by that organization. In the case of networks shared by several PPDR organizations, the network assets can be owned by the government itself or by a public entity or department created by the government for such purpose. These options are typically referred to as government-owned (GO) arrangements. Furthermore, in some arrangements, commercial service providers like mobile network operators (MNOs), infrastructure vendors or system integrators can also be the owners of the network assets. This case is typically referred to as contractor owned or commercial owned (CO).
• Operator of the infrastructure. Running and maintaining the network can be conducted by the owner itself or outsourced to a third-party company that provides specialized managed network services. The combination of ownership and network operation mainly leads to three different models: government owned and government operated (GO–GO), contractor owned and contractor operated (CO–CO) and government owned and contractor operated (GO–CO).
• Users admitted in the network