Effect of population density and network availability on deployment of broadband PPDR mobile network service
| Published date | 08 January 2018 |
| Pages | 78-96 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-07-2017-0042 |
| Date | 08 January 2018 |
| Author | Matti Peltola,Heikki Hämmäinen |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information policy |
Effect of population density and network
availability on deployment of broadband
PPDR mobile network service
Matti Peltola and Heikki Hämmäinen
Matti Peltola is Consultant
at the Department of
Communications and
Networking, Aalto
University, Espoo,
Finland.
Heikki Hämmäinen is
Professor at the
Department of
Communications and
Networking, Aalto
University, Espoo,
Finland.
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of the paper is to define the best deployment alternatives for a public
protection and disaster relief (PPDR) mobile network service – the implementation alternatives being
either a dedicated network, a commercial network or a hybrid of the two network types. The selection
criteria are based on the social benefits that the PPDR mobile service is expected to bring to society. The
critical parameters are population density and service availability, which both directly relate to the
socioeconomic benefits achieved by providing broadband (BB) mobile services in various
demographic areas.
Design/methodology/approach –A causal loop model has been developed to define the
socioeconomic benefits of the PPDR network, the parameters being population density, service
availability, socioeconomic value of the service and the costs of the network. The network solution
alternatives are studied using the Finnish PPDR network as a reference – analysing various areas of the
country with differing population densities from remote, rural and more densely populated suburban
and urban areas.
Findings –Socioeconomic value is a common measure for assessing the value of governmental
investments; population density has a strong impact on the optimum deployment alternatives as the
socioeconomic value is directly proportional to this variable. The flat nationwide fee of the mobile users
means that the users are subsidised in sparsely populated areas – and overcharged in densely
populated areas. This is the main reason why the commercial network seems to be most feasible in rural
areas, whereas the dedicated network works best in urban areas. Based on the case study, the
commercial network is most preferable up to the point when the population density reaches 50-125
persons/km
2
. After that point, the dedicated network becomes more appropriate. Proposals are being
made to improve the availability of the commercial networks enabling them to serve as a PPDR network:
ensuring priority functionality and a protected power supply; allowing PPDR subscribers the exclusive
use of one of the 700 MHz spectrum bands in restricted, critical areas; and extending use of the existing
narrowband PPDR network in areas where communication availability is crucial.
Originality/value –On the one hand, the financing of BB PPDR mobile networks is an unresolved issue
in many countries. On the other hand, the ability of commercial BB networks to provide better quality of
service is improving, making viable the alternative to subscribe for radio service from a commercial
operator. Therefore, the feasibility study on how to provide an optimum mobile BB service for PPDR
organisations is of real value at this time.
Keywords Broadband networks, Social benefits, PPDR, Public safety networks
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) radio communication networks refer to those
mission critical networks which are built for the voice and data communication of critical
organisations like police and rescue – but are also of value for other organisations that
provide society infrastructure services, such as railways and power utilities. The current
dedicated PPDR networks offer secure and reliable mobile services for their users. The
Received 25 July 2017
Revised 7 September 2017
Accepted 3 October 2017
PAGE 78 DIGITAL POLICY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE VOL. 20 NO. 1, 2018, pp. 78-96, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2398-5038 DOI 10.1108/DPRG-07-2017-0042
broadband (BB) mobile services make it possible to improve the operations of the users to
create additional socioeconomic benefits, both in terms of cost saving and improved
citizen safety, compared to earlier times, relying much on voice and short messaging
services.
Traditionally the PPDR mobile networks have all been dedicated government-owned
networks. Today, in Europe, PPDR networks are based mainly on the narrowband (NB)
TETRA or TETRAPOL technologies (Peltola, 2013). Moreover, PPDR organisations also
utilise commercial BB networks, although the availability of commercial networks in times of
crisis cannot be taken for granted (Lezaack, 2017). The required BB mobile network
capacity for PPDR users is somewhere between 500 and 4,000 kbit/s (Borgonjen, 2012),
whereas the existing NB mission critical networks are only able to offer data speeds of
5-200 kbit/s (Peltola, 2013).
If commercial networks are utilised for the deployment of mobile BB for PPDR users, both the
financing and radio spectrum issues will be more easily resolved. The commercial networks
fulfil functionality (3GPP, 2013), security (end-to-end encryption), resilience requirements
(multiple alternative networks) and communication performance issues (high bitrates and wide
coverage), but the question has been raised whether commercial networks can fulfil the
availability requirements of the authorities (Swan and Taylor, 2003;TCCA, 2012;Peltola and
Kekolahti, 2015). The priority functionality has been developed for LTE technology (3GPP,
2016) to enable prioritised communication for certain user groups – if needed and allowed by
regulators and operators. The congestion of traffic in LTE networks can be eliminated by taking
into use the proposed quality of service (QoS) mechanisms (Airbus, 2017b), such as the
subscriber specific parameters access class barring, allocation and retention priority and
quality of service class identifier (3GPP, 2016); a multimedia priority service mechanism can be
used to ensure the flow of the command messages from top down. A proper understanding of
the availability of PPDR networks is necessary – irrespective of the platform, whether dedicated
or a commercial network – and also which network type with specific services is able to
generate the highest socioeconomic value.
The valuation of societal services – and the making of investment decisions based on those
valuations – is a common practice used by the road construction administration (Finnish
Transport Agency, 2011) when evaluating the profitability of new road construction
projects. The same principles can be utilised for the purpose of evaluating new
telecommunication investments. In many countries, studies have been completed to
understand the optimum utilisation of spectrum and the costs and benefits of the
implementation alternatives of PPDR mobile BB services – examples of such studies are
several (Saijonmaa, 2009;Hallahan and Peha, 2011;Grous, 2013;SCF, 2015;Ure, 2013;
Gierszal et al., 2014;Peltola and Pesonen, 2014;Vinkvist et al., 2014;Minehane et al., 2014;
Peltola and Hämmäinen, 2015;Australian Government, 2015;Delgado, 2015).
2. Research question
The purpose of the study is to define how to measure the effect of network availability
together with population density on the deployment of a BB PPDR mobile service, the
network alternatives being either a dedicated or commercial mobile network. The
“commercial” network in this study refers to a network which can be utilised by both
commercial and PPDR users; the “dedicated” network refers to a network with a frequency
band in the specific area which is reserved solely for the utilisation of emergency agencies
or other organisations that provide crucial services for society. The term “dedicated” takes
no stance on either ownership or operational responsibility. The paper is done with the
anticipation that the LTE technology will be used as BB technology as indicated in many
studies (Nokia, 2012;Ferrus et al., 2013;FCC, 2012).
The research question is as follows:
VOL. 20 NO. 1 2018 DIGITAL POLICY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE PAGE 79
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