Alberta First Responders Radio Communications System (AFFRCS)

The Alberta First Responders Radio Communications System RFP was released on October 15, 2008. The Government of Alberta (GOA) is seeking a Vendor to design, construct, implement, operate and maintain for an interim period, a province-wide First Responders two-way radio communications system. The network will replace both the GOA's MDMRS two-way radio system (MDMRS) and the RCMP's current two-way radio system (PACS). It will be based on Project 25 (P25) standards using the 700MHz spectrum.

The network will be completed by 2012 and provide the following coverage:

95% Mobile Coverage on all Alberta Primary Roads, Secondary Roads, Roadways, and railroads.

95% Portable Coverage on Alberta’s Primary Roads, Secondary Roads and Roadways, within Communities.

95% Mobile and Portable Coverage in Specific Locations.

How Does This Impact the Deployment Rural Broadband?
The RFP specifies three types of requirements: Mandatory (M), Desireable (D), and Information (I). If the requirement is not marked as either mandatory or desireable then no action is required by the vendor. Section 3.3.7 provides a network architecture model. The intent of the model is to guide the design of AFRRCS through key guiding principles within the context of the mandatory and desirable requirements. If a conflict exists between the model and the requirements, the mandatory and desirable requirements will take precedence using the following key guiding principles:

1. Existing towers should be utilized where practical.
The AFFRCS network will be constructed using existing and new towers. The new towers will be built and owned by the GOA. The GOA will retain the rights to the new towers for future use.

2. Co-habitation with non-First Responder infrastructure components can physically co-exist if security is maintained by distinct functional separation.
Allows Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) radio equipment to be installed on the towers.

3. Co-mingling with non-First Responder electronic data packets over any media can co-exist if security and reliability is maintained by distinct functional separation.
Allows for the sharing of spectrum with Non-First Responders traffic.

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)

The implementation of the AFRRCS network will have a significant impact on all rural areas if the Alberta government ensures the following:

• The vendor is required to support open access on both the government and non-government towers.
• Co-Habitation and Co-Mingling is managed by an independent forum or company.
• The vendor provides 95% coverage in all areas.
• Recognize that the counties and municipalities are major stakeholders.

Which Wireless Access Technology Will Support the Future Broadband Requirements of a Rural Community?

Rural broadband requirements are changing. Both residential and businesses are migrating from using asymmetrical applications such as E-Mail and Web to symmetrical applications including Voice Over IP (VoIP) and Video.

There are three wireless access technolgies: 802.11 (WiFi), 802.16e (WiMAX), and Long Term Evolution (LTE). In order to provide the level of service that users will need in the next two to four years, these technologies will have to meet specific requirements including:

• Support Asymmetrical Applications (E-Mail, Web)
• Support Symmetrical Applications (VoIP, Video)
• High Availablity (99.999%)
• Quality of Service (QoS)
• Low Monthly Costs

A. 802.11 (WiFI)
The 802.11 (WiFi) standard operates in the unlicensed spectrum band of 900MHz, 2.4GHz, and 5.8Ghz. It specifies the physical and MAC (Media Access Control) layer of wireless communication technology designed to provide high bandwidth wireless data communications between computers in an indoor environment.

The standard defines a single channel between the Access Point (AP) located on the tower, and the customer premises equipment (CPE). The channel is used for both transmit and receive traffic. The original 802.11 standards could not guarantee QoS, because no mechanisms were adopted to give real-time traffic such as voice and video a higher priority access to the channel. The recently adopted 802.11e and WMM (WiFi Multimedia) standards were designed to enable QoS provisioning by using access enhancements such as Enhanced Distributed Control Access (EDCA) and Hybrid Controlled Channel Access (HCCA).

Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) have adopted 802.11 (WiFI) to provide rural broadband access for two reasons:

1. Low Cost of Entry
Many people attribute the success of 802.11 to the low cost and availability of 802.11 wireless interfaces in laptop computers. A WISP can setup a broadband access service a comparatively low cost versus other wireless access technologies.

2. Availability of Unlicensed Spectrum
Industry Canada manages both the licensed and unlicensed spectrum in Canada. Unlicensed spectrum was initially established for indoor voice and data applications. Licensed spectrum is typically auctioned to the highest bidder. Most WISPs use unlicensed spectrum in rural areas.

B. 802.16e (WiMAX)
802.16e (WiMAX) was designed from the bottom up to support both asymmetrical and symmetrical voice and data applications. WiMAX uses licensed spectrum in the 2.3GHz, 2.5Ghz and 3.5Ghz bands. The WiMAX standard includes profiles to provide fixed, nomadic, and mobile services. WiMAX can provide multiple types of services to the same user with different QoS levels. For example, it is possible to install a single WiMAX transceiver in an office building and provide real time telephone services and best effort Internet browsing services on the same WiMAX connection. To do this, WiMAX was designed to mix contention based (competitive access) and contention free (polled access) to provide services which have different quality of service (QoS) levels.

Many companies are starting to mass produce inexpensive WiMAX chips. It is expected that a typical WiMAX interface on a Laptop will cost between $60.00 to $80.00. Intel predicts that cheap WiMAX chips will be embedded in all kinds of devices including parking meters, home energy meters, and vending machines. This mass production of chip sets will eventually drive the cost of using WiMAX to provide rural broadband access.

Rogers Communications and Bell Canada have announced an agreement to jointly build and manage a Canada-wide WiMAX network. Inukshuk Internet Inc. will build and operate the network. Inukshuk will be owned and controlled equally by Rogers and Bell. Both companies have launched WiMAX services: Bell Canada (Sympatico High Speed Unplugged) and Rogers Communicatins (Portable Internet)

C. Long Term Evolution (LTE)
Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the wireless technology that will replace the existing mobility networks. Rogers, Bell, and TELUS have announced plans to migrate to LTE in the near future. LTE is a new paradigm is access incorporating a new modulation technique called OFDM (Orthogonal Frequence Division Multiplexing) and an antenna platform called MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output).

LTE networks will also provide the capacity to support an explosion in demand for connectivity from a new generation of consumer devices designed for new "Mobile" applications. If you are interested Nortel has provided a LTE drive demo at YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTX4ixta17E).

Rural Users Should Have a Choice
In the next three years these three competing technologies will be available to rural users. The rural users should be able to chose the technology based on cost, availability, and their applications. As in urban centers, there will be a mix of users in rural communities. Some may only require basic access, while others may need more bandwidth or a higher level of service, and some users may want the ability to be more mobile.

IMHO (In My Humble Opinion)
All three wireless technologies will coexist in rural communities. Counties and municipalities should not focus solely on a single provider and technology, but provide the venue and opportunity for their community to have access to all three, providing the ability for their constituents to have a choice.

"Having a choice will be an enabler for rural economic development."

"One Size Does Not Fit All"

Prior to the Parkland Rural Broadband study, I incorrectly assumed that the broadband requirements for all the county's residents, businesses, and industrial parks were the same: "Provide Basic Connectivity".

A rural broadband network that is designed solely on today’s requirements may not address those of the future. Network design is ongoing process because requirements change, expectations of subscriber’s change, and new needs have to be addressed by the applications, and these in turn affect how all the various network elements tie up together, which means there is a change in the network infrastructure.

The 802.11 (WiFi) wireless access networks currently being implemented in Alberta's rural communities are designed to provide limited connectivity. The network will eventually become "Capacity Limited" where it will no longer be able support the application requirements of the subscribers.

At this time, the wireless provider will have three choices: Implement more towers/access points, implement traffic aggregation limiting the bandwidth for each subscriber, or upgrade to an alternative technology. These alternatives may not be economically feasible, forcing the sale or shutting down of their network.

In addition, there are different areas or markets within a county such as:

• Residential Areas
• Businesses Areas
• Industrial Parks

Each of these markets has different broadband requirements today and in the future. Alternative technologies such as copper and fiber based network architectures should be reviewed and considered prior to determing that a single wireless architecture will support these specific and unique requirements.

It is important that access providers should be ensuring that their network will scale to meet the needs of the future in terms of load and applications for all markets within a county or muncipality.

Parkland Rural Broadband Study

The Parkland Rural Broadband Study was conducted from June to September 2008.
The report is available at:
Parkland Rural Broadband Study
This is the first comprehensive rural broadband study completed in Alberta. This study will provide the framework for all future rural broadband studies.
Lessons learned:
1. Broadband is an Economic Enabler.
2. There are different broadband markets within a county and each have different broadband requirements. These include:
- Residential Requirements
- Business Requirements
- Industrial Park Requirements
- County Specific Requirements
3. There is no economic model that supports broadband in low density areas.
4. Rural communities will require long term government assistance in building the last mile in low density areas.
5. Rural communities will migrate from a connectivity limited market to a capacity limited market within 3 years. This will have a major economic impact on the WiFI networks currently being implemented.
6. WiMAX 802.16e using licensed spectrum will future proof the network and be able to support the future capacity limited networks.
7. The Alberta government has not fulfilled their promise to provide broadband to rural communities.