Increasing Public Safety Broadband Network Resiliency Through Traffic Control

Area of Science:

• Telecommunications Engineering
• Network Resilience
• Public Safety Communications

Background:

• Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks offer enhanced capabilities for public safety.
• Commercial networks prioritize capacity, while public safety networks require robust coverage, especially during outages.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the impact of network outages on coverage and throughput in LTE-based public safety networks.
• To propose and evaluate novel traffic-control schemes for enhancing network resilience during outages.

Main Methods:

• Proposed three traffic-control schemes leveraging variable modulation and coding in LTE networks.
• Analyzed the effect of preempting low- and high-priority users on network performance.
• Conducted sensitivity analysis to validate scheme effectiveness across various scenarios.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated significant restoration of network coverage during simulated outages.
• Investigated the trade-offs between different traffic-control schemes based on user prioritization.
• Confirmed the effectiveness of proposed schemes in diverse operational conditions.

Conclusions:

• Traffic-control schemes effectively restore network coverage in LTE public safety networks during outages.
• Variable modulation and coding are crucial for managing resources and prioritizing users.
• The proposed methods offer a viable solution for ensuring reliable public safety communications.