Public Safety In-Building Radio Booster system

Update

Kevin Persing Safer Buildings Coalition Board

Cobham Wireless

Safer Buildings' primary mission is to ensure that

First Responders (Fire, Law Enforcement and EMS)

can use state-of-the-art voice and data

communications to communicate with one another

inside buildings as well as to and from their

Command Centers outside buildings during an event.

Safer Buildings also advocates for the public's

cellular service inside buildings to function at

levels necessary for making critical calls.

Mission…

Assessing the 3 Part Problem

Can General Public communicate?

Can General Public be notified?

Will First Responder radios work?

Can you hear me now

when I need you the most?

When “No Radio Coverage” Attacks !

Two alarm blaze contained at

Tiffany building at Union Square

By: Staff report 10/13/09 11:00 PM

A two-alarm fire at Union Square was contained within 35 minutes and there

were no injuries, according to fire officials. A smoky two-alarm high rise fire

in the Tiffany & Co. building on Union Square shut down Post Street and sent nine firefighters to the hospital.

The fire was reported at 6:55 p.m. after smoke was seen billowing out of the top of the building at 360 Post, right on Union

Square, said fire Lt. Ken Smith. Some 100 firefighters responded and found heavy smoke throughout the building. The fire was

finally discovered in a utility closet in the building's basement, he said.

The fire was extinguished by 7:25 p.m.

Smoke had risen through the elevator shaft and filled the rest of the building. Nine firefighters were taken to a local hospital for evaluation for possible smoke inhalation.

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/two-alarm-blaze-contained-tiffany-building-union-square#ixzz1Clm6yS81

LMR Frequencies Utilized by Public Safety Agencies

• Very High Frequency (VHF) • Low Band: 30 MHz to 50 MHz - Long range, large area coverage

• High Band: 152 MHz to 174 MHz - Medium range, medium area coverage

• Ultra High Frequency (UHF) - 450 MHz – 512 MHz

• 700 MHz: Public Safety’s largest band (24 MHz of dedicated spectrum)

• 800 MHz: Currently used by Public Safety

Responsible Stakeholders

• Local license holder: Police, Fire, EMS (AHJ)

• OEMs: repeaters, passives, antennas, & coaxial cable

• System Integrators: RF testing, design & installation

• Building owners (REITs)

• FCC

• Local AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction)

• Carriers

Codes, Standards and Regulations

72

1221

IFC

510

Local

510.1 Emergency responder radio coverage in

new buildings.

New buildings shall have approved radio coverage for

emergency responders within the building based upon

the existing coverage levels of the public safety

communication systems utilized by the jurisdiction

measured at the exterior of the building. This section

shall not require improvement of the existing public

safety communication systems. Exceptions:

1. Where approved by the building official and the fire code official , a wired communication system in

accordance with Section 907.2.13.2 shall be permitted to be installed or maintained in lieu of an approved

radio coverage system.

2. Where it is determined by the fire code official that the radio coverage system is not needed.

3. In facilities where emergency responder radio coverage is required and such systems, components or

equipment required could have a negative impact on the normal operations of that facility, the fire code

official shall have the authority to accept an automatically activated emergency responder radio coverage

system.

2015 International Fire Code:

510.4.1.1 Minimum signal strength into the building.

A minimum signal strength of -95 dBm shall be receivable within

the building.

510.4.1.2 Minimum signal strength out of the building.

A minimum signal strength of -95 dBm shall be received by the

agency’s radio system when transmitted from within the building.

Summary of Code Requirements

1. Requires Permits and Design submittals

2. Must amplify both the (Example) -700 MHz Police 800 MHz Fire/EMS system

3. Minimum Signal Strength of -95dBm in 90% of each floor with a delivered audio quality (DAQ) of 3 or better.

4. Critical areas to supply 99% coverage. (Command centers, fire control, pump rooms, exit stairs, elevators)

Basic Code Requirements (continued)

5. NEMA 4 enclosures for all active components – any AC or DC Powered device

6. 12 or 24 Hr. Auxiliary Power Back up (Generator, UPS, Battery)

7. Alarm output to a dedicated Fire Panel (supervised circuit)

8. Test grid size based on Maximum 20 in 128,000 SF per floor. Larger Floor spaces would require 40 grids per floor.

10. AHJ may have a list of approved equipment (compliant signal boosters, etc.)

11. Annual testing and Certification – every 12 months. Procedures as defined by the AHJ (NFPA 72, 2010 -14.4.12.1.6)

Test Example - Failing

FailingLower Level of 14 floor project in

Anaheim.

Signal level for County Wide

856.713 MHz @ -99.1 dBm

“Failing”.

Signal for all others failing at -100.3

dBm and lower.

2 Adjacent grids, or 3 total per floor,

failing this test would fail the

building.

Test Example - Passing

Higher Level floor on same 14 floor

tower.

County Wide channel on 856.713

MHz passing with -87.9 dBm.

Simulcast system (North) passing

on 866.650MHz at -84.8 dBm.

Passing RF Values

Delivered Audio Quality

NFPA 1221 2016 Edition

9.6.8 Signal Strength.

9.6.8.1 Inbound. A minimum inbound signal strength sufficient to

provide usable voice communications, as specified by the AHJ, shall

be provided throughout the coverage area. The inbound signal level

shall be sufficient to provide a minimum of DAQ 3.0 for either analog

or digital signals.

9.6.8.2 Outbound. A minimum outbound signal strength sufficient to

provide usable voice communications, as specified by the AHJ, shall

be provided throughout the coverage area. The outbound signal level

shall be sufficient to provide a minimum of DAQ 3.0 for either analog

or digital signals.

2018 International Fire Code

510.4.1.1 Minimum signal strength into the building. The minimum inbound

signal strength shall be sufficient to provide usable voice communications

throughout the coverage area, as specified by the fire code official. The inbound

signal level shall be sufficient to provide a minimum of DAQ (Delivered Audio

Quality) 3.0 or an equivalent SINR (Signal-to-Noise-Plus-Interference Ratio)

applicable to the technology for either analog or digital signals.

510.4.1.2 Minimum signal strength out of the building.

The minimum outbound signal strength shall be sufficient to provide usable voice

communications throughout the coverage area, as specified by the fire code

official. The outbound signal level shall be sufficient to provide a minimum of DAQ

3.0 or an equivalent SINR (Signal-to-Noise-Plus-Interference Ratio) applicable to

the technology for either analog or digital signals.

Process for In-Building DAS Deployments

1. Identify AHJ – Determine AHJ requirements and standards (NFPA72, NFPA 1221, IFC, ICC)

2. Site Survey / Baseline testing - Initial survey of floor plans, equipment locations,

impairments

3. Preliminary Design - RF link budgets, initial antenna and cable layouts, BOMs…

4. Statement of Work -Project requirements are clearly defined

5. RF Survey / CW testing - Perform interference & propagation measurements

6. Update design - Revise preliminary design & BOM based on results

7. Pre-Construction Survey - Installer walk-thru to validate cable routes & equip. locations

8. Final Design - Revise based on changes to installation design if necessary

9. Order Equipment - Order equipment

10. Installation - Install cables, antennas and active equipment

11. Commissioning - Verify RF & optical cable performance (if applicable); set system gains; test

12. System Acceptance – Post install walk through with AHJ Fire Marshal to demonstrate

compliance. Customer obtains Certificate of Occupancy from AHJ

• Interoperable communications for first responders

• Network and capacity to support broadband for data

• Expand LTE to more rural areas of US

• 700 MHz (758-768 MHz and 788-798 MHz)

• Guard bands at 768-769 MHz and 798-799 MHz to mitigate interference from adjacent channels

• All States have chosen to opt-in participation

• Leverage existing commercial carrier networks

• Public/private partnership for RAN, eNodeB, small cells

20

Update

I. AHJ’s (DC) will and are now requesting FirstNet for in-building PS requirements

II. Band 14 is available in most commercially available 700/800 Public Safety BDA’s

III. AT&T and FirstNet have not yet defined if or whether “Off Air BDA’s” for Band 14 will

be permitted.

IV. Currently FirstNet is operational on existing AT&T Carrier bands in 700/850Mhz and

1.9/2.1 GHz

V. Public Safety DAS OEM’s are waiting for direction from AT&T and FirstNet “What” will

be required for a public safety compliant FirstNet DAS.

VI. FirstNet to define Code Compliant Signal Source (OEM?)

VII. AT&T to define Signal level minimums as they apply to a carrier based solution

21

LMR / Carrier DAS

Design & Technology from the LMR Perspective

PS DAS technology mostly leverages the use an off-air BDA:

- almost exclusive use of BDAs, but sometimes direct feed from PS donor site (far less)

- fiber distribution to remote transceivers in larger buildings

- typically single band (700/800 MHz), sometimes VHF & 700/800, or more (UHF, 900 paging)

- some older designs may be hybrid (PS & cell on common distribution)

- capacity limited typically to a few simultaneous transmissions/sec. across 20 NB channels or less

- no requirement of sectorization, MIMO, or PIM in design

- rebroadcast agreement managed by AHJ

Design & Technology from the Carrier Perspective

Capacity management, and LTE RAN IX risk mitigation drives design

Direct-feed. BDAs (in particular) are often unapproved for use in many carrier markets

- carrier designed DAS engineered to high technical & performance standards and KPI’s (PIM, MIMO)

- privately owned DAS designs may require carrier review and approval

- neutral host cellular DAS usually support the “big four” across 6~7 bands (700/850/1.9/2.1/2.3/2.5)

- DAS requirements (policy, KPI’s, technologies) may differ across geographic market areas

- usually require carrier DAS passive distribution to be separate from Public Safety

- usually very high physical security/access requirements (i.e., separated from PS infrastructure)

- rebroadcast agreement legally required

The most important thing we build is trust

ADVANCED ELECTRONIC SOLUTIONS AVIATION SERVICES COMMUNICATIONS AND CONNECTIVITY MISSION SYSTEMS

Cobham Wireless Public Safety Channelized DAS

VHF, UHF, 700-800 NFPA compliant

Digital DAS – FirstNet compliant 2019

Kevin Persing 831-325-8201