Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR)

European agencies are working together in the Electronic Communications Committee to establish a harmonised frequency band for public-safety broadband services.  

A new Project Team FM49 has been established and shall focus on medium term and long term (before year 2025) spectrum realisation and develop a roadmap on the timeframes and necessary steps needed. The evaluation of suitable bands for European-wide harmonisation of spectrum (both below and above 1 GHz), will take into account cross-border-communication issues and PPDR application requirements including issues such as inter-operability needs. 

Public safety broadband requirements from industry and public safety users have already been described in the ETSI System Reference Document TR 102 628 and were sent from ETSI to the ECC Frequency Management Working Group (WGFM). 

The formation of the new project team FM49 follows a series of events in the past where the WG FM of Electronic Communications Committee of CEPT organised a workshop on spectrum needs for the public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) communication systems in March 2010, later followed by an EU workshop organised by DG Information Society and Media (INFSO) of the European Commission in March 2011.  

Another action taken was to send out a questionnaire on the radio spectrum demand for PSS by the ECO, which had been developed by the WGFM. Based on the responses received, WGFM identified some main conclusions based on these responses to the questionnaire: 

• The use of existing and new data applications (high speed data) by PPDR users will increase rapidly;
• Increased data usage, especially for mission critical communications, will have a significant effect on the frequency need and justifies requirements for additional spectrum;
• There are many requirements and conditions for the use of PPDR, which lead to the need to use dedicated PPDR networks. However, in addition to the dedicated networks, commercial / public networks are and will also be used for non-mission critical data applications.

Existing ECC deliverables for PPDR purposes include the ECC Decision (08)05 on the harmonisation of frequency bands for the implementation of digital PPDR radio applications in the 380-470 MHz range and ECC Recommendation (08)04 on the identification of frequency bands for the implementation of BBDR (Broadband Disaster Relief) radio applications in 5 GHz as well as ECC Decision (06)05 regarding Air-Ground-Air operation (AGA) of the Digital Land Mobile Systems for the Emergency Services and  ERC Decision (01)19 regarding DMO frequencies for Emergency Services.

The new FM49 aims at bringing together the regulatory authorities as well as the array of stakeholders and experts in telecommunications used for public protection and disaster relief purposes. This will facilitate the collection of further information and exchange of views and ideas concerning the future PPDR systems, especially the broadband systems and is a unique opportunity to discuss some key issues related to PPDR and the frequency bands to be used for these systems in the future.

Link to the FM49 webpage: here