DNA, Ericsson and the State Security Networks Group Finland tested prioritisation of public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) services in the 4G LTE network

DNA, Ericsson and the State Security Networks Group Finland demonstrated how  commercial LTE network might be utilized by the authorities maintaining safety and order in situations when high quality continuous data communications must be guaranteed to the authorities. Such situations may include sharing status pictures and videos from the site of a crisis or group video calls. Dynamic prioritisation of traffic and pre-emption were verified as test cases.
 
Dynamic prioritisation means that capacity required is continuously assigned to the PPDR subscriptions. In other words, this means that PPDR traffic uses the same frequency band as the commercial traffic, but in case of high network load, commercial traffic is restricted in order to provide more capacity to the PPDR traffic. Pre-emption is a more radical measure than dynamic prioritisation. An exceptional network load situation might be managed by completely dropping the local commercial traffic, making all local network capacity available only for PPDR usage.

“The performed tests confirmed our assumption that required speed and quality of service can be guaranteed to PPDR subscriptions under all circumstances also in a commercial network. The benefit of dynamic prioritisation in the commercial mobile network benefits everyone, because the required capacity will flexible be assigned to authorities at any given moment. During exceptional emergency cases  more bandwidth, or even the whole bandwidth can temporarily be assigned to PPDR users only,” says Tommy Olenius, Senior Vice President, Technology, DNA.
 
The successful tests of dynamic prioritisation and pre-emption provide key information to PPDR users, service providers and network operators. Prioritisation of PPDR traffic and service access prioritisation in case of congestion in current LTE 4G mobile networks is a requirement for implementing mission-critical PPDR services in commercial networks,” says Sami Orakoski, COO of the State Security Networks Group Finland.
 
“Utilising commercial 4G technology for PPDR is an excellent solution for Finland. It gives quick access to reliable, high-quality and extensive mobile networks that are at the top of their class globally. In addition, the standard 4G and the future 5G technology enable flexible use of different kinds of terminal devices and future services without need to invest in dedicated public authority networks. In this respect, Finland can show a good example to rest of the world as regards good cooperation between authorities and commercial actors,” says Olli Sirkka, Country Manager and President of Ericsson Finland.
 
Prioritisation and pre-emption would be implemented in exceptional situations where the amount of simultaneous traffic in the area of a base station exceeds its capacity. Such exceptional situations may occur at large public events, for example. Normally, PPDR traffic does not reduce the quality of service experienced by the other customers in any way.  The prioritisation of PPDR data traffic in exceptional situations does not prevent emergency calls from getting through.
 
The tests with PPDR services were conducted in DNA’s commercial 4G LTE network on 19 May 2017, in cooperation with experts from Ericsson and the State Security Networks Group. In the tests, the behaviour of PPDR subscriptions was compared with other subscriptions with various level of network congestion.
 
Further information for the media:
Tommy Olenius, Senior Vice President, Technology, DNA Plc, tel. +358 44 220 3240, tommy.olenius@dna.fi
 
Sami Orakoski, COO, State Security Networks Group Finland, tel. +358 40 514 0000, sami.orakoski@erillisverkot.fi
 
DNA communications, tel. +358 44 044 8000, communications@dna.fi

Ericsson corporate communications, tel. +358 44 299 2556, milla.nummenpaa@ericsson.com

State Security Networks Group Finland, communications, tel. +358 40 756 0850, mari.suokari-parssinen@erillisverkot.fi