Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue Service GSM for Mission Critical Voice & Data Applications

When Lincolnshire Fire decided to replace PMR with GSM for all brigade communications, many said that was innovative enough.

But when Alan Riddet, Deputy County Fire Officer decided that he wanted status messaging from those handsets, many said it was impossible.

Lincolnshire Fire considered that SMS (Short Message Service) was too slow, using a store-and-forward approach, GSM data required terminal equipment, and voice was inaccurate and slow. So Lincolnshire Fire ordered an Apollo Access Server from Brand Communications Limited. One of its unique features was the ability to recognise the dialled digits and caller identify of every GSM user, and to convert that information instantly to a data packet – ideal for status updates.

But then Lincolnshire and Brand then embarked on a project to integrate that feature into the entire Command and Control system in order that any appliance or officer could directly update its status into the host Command and Control and mapping database – via nothing more than a standard GSM handset, and via a simple one-touch dial.

The ground-breaking innovation of combining GSM standard facilities with the Apollo Access Server and the Lincolnshire Command and Control system has been a total success, with satisfied crews, very low communications costs, a future proofed system and a truly integrated approach. It has already paid dividends for Lincolnshire, they have won many admirers, and they have made the impossible – ‘status messaging via GSM’ – a reality.

GSM itself has proved to be a more reliable, feature-rich, future-proofed, maintainable and cost-effective to the PMR network and Lincolnshire have been the first to prove those facets in an emergency environment.

Lincolnshire Fire Brigade’s work has now paved the way for others to follow, and his philosophy of sticking to standards and keeping it simple is being adopted by many others in the industry.

Technical information about the Innovative Use of Networking Products and Services within Lincolnshire Fire Rescue Service

For most brigades in the UK there is a level of uncertainty regarding the future of mobile communications that is exacerbated by the age and functionality of existing systems. Historically the Fire Service have had to rely on a VHF radio system that was very limited for voice traffic, in that it can only support one concurrent message and was almost unusable for data communications.

Increasingly the Fire Service is also having to enhance it’s information systems to accommodate the requirements of the Heath & Safety at Work act. This supports the need for risk information to be available at the scene of incidents to aid officers in their decision making process. This information could be anything from chemical treatment data to weather conditions, site plans and increasingly for access to Intranet servers containing common brigade documents such as standing orders and incident reports.

The PSRCP (public safety radio communications project) utilising the TETRA standard, designed to support the emergency services is still some way from being a commercially available service capable of delivering voice and data with anticipated roll out commencing early in the new millennium. The uncertainty to the future of mobile communications has been increased by the limited level of support available centrally. Lincolnshire Fire believed that there was other suitable alternatives to the private systems and made the decision to follow a different route using GSM technology and began to undertake trials.

The overall objective of the trial was to determine the viability of using GSM technology as a primary mobile voice and data medium for a fire brigade. The equipment used would, also, wherever possible be of a widely available standard that could be readily obtained and bespoke solutions avoided. For the trial the functionality would be limited to the level that required little or no customisation of the products and those limitations were acceptable for the purposes of gaining experience and usable data. The critical success criteria for the initial trials, were defined within three broad areas; technical, business and operation.

Technical Information
Reliable access to voice and data transmission	All users achieve access: at first attempt on 95% of occasions
Reliable transmission of voice and data messages	Transmissions completed successfully: At first attempt on 95% of occasions At second attempt on 97% of occasions
Primacy of use	Identify methodology for ensuring primacy of use – where necessary
Acceptable call set up time	Connection to be achieved within 5 seconds of instigation
Acceptable data transmission rate	Transmission rate within stated network performance

Business Information
Airtime usage	Determine likely usage based on pilot project data
Running costs	Determine likely costs of total roll out to a County Fire Brigade

Operation Information
Ease of use	The facility to be simple in operation with minimal or no training requirement.
Identify likely changes in protocols for use in a fire brigade.	Must be deemed acceptable and achievable to users (without unreasonable resistance due to custom and practice)

In the Autumn of 1997 the trial took place using five fire engines and fire officer’s vehicles, each with the GSM mobile technology installed by Brand Communications. One unit also utilised a vehicle mounted PC which used the Brand Apollo Software, if a call is dropped between cell sites or as a result of passing through a tunnel, Apollo, re-established the connection and continues the file transfer from where it left off so that no vital information is lost. This all happens without intervention from the user. Removing the need to log in again, a process that often takes up to a minute. The users, also doesn’t need to start the file download again, the data already received will be maintained and the download will continue. Out of these features resilience is the most important, even with the best networks in the world, GSM is an RF medium and calls will sometimes fail. Resilience will enable virtual sessions to be set up and spoofed, using Brands spoofing combined with an efficient recovery protocol, calls are re-established and data flows from the last bit sent. The data access was made easy through the use of WEB browser technology and a touch-screen from DataLux.

The result of the trial was a success, the overall success rate of the number of calls made from mobiles to Control or the data server and from control to the mobiles was 98.8%. Allowing for under reporting and one fault in a network cell that took several days to repair the results were well within the criteria set for the trial.

Upon completion of the trial the brigade retained the use of the limited mobile communications system, and after each vehicle is fitted with a top-of –the-range carphone connected to the Vodafone GSM network, enabling direct communications between the vehicles and the Control Centre at Lincoln, which maintains contact with all 37 fire stations in the county. Lincolnshire also went on to improve the system by adding the Brand Communications ‘Apollo Access Server’ to the Command and Control System. The Apollo Access Server allowed Lincolnshire to use status messaging, this enabled any appliance or officer to directly update its status into the host Command and Control and mapping database.

Alan Riddet, concludes, "We looked at several options for improving and updating our communications. The Ability to transmit data as well as voice over GSM was a major advantage that helped us to make this decision, and being able to supply our Control Centre with real time information will benefit not only the brigade but also the general public in Lincolnshire."

Further consideration decided to change over to GSM in 1998. The project took under 6 months to implement, from decision to purchase to go ‘Live’. A traditional PMR route, using known technology, needs a minimum of two years.

About Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue

Lincolnshire Fire Brigade has an establishment of 750 uniformed and non-uniformed staff operating from a base of 37 stations. The brigade serve a population in excess of 610,000 over an area of 2,237 square miles. In addition to normal duties expected of any Fire Brigade, Lincolnshire Fire Brigade has specialist trained units for Marine Incidents and for the UK search and rescue team which is ready to go at a moment’s notice to international disasters.

The Brigade operates a fleet of 100 vehicles comprising of 48 fire pumps, 3 hydraulic platforms in addition to rescue tenders, 4 prime movers with 20 demountable units, a water carrier, four wheel drive vehicles and an eight wheel Argocat.

Receiving on average 15 – 16,000 emergency calls per year, the brigade attend 8,000 incidents annually.