Electro/Telecom Industry Trends
Project MESA A Collaborative Effort
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The efforts of law enforcement, fire fighting, medical and other public safety services may soon be boosted with new advanced broadband mobile communications systems. These will include software-defined radios; smart antennas and ad hoc networking based on advanced public safety mobile service technologies.
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) have agreed to work collaboratively by providing a forum in which the key players can contribute actively to the elaboration of MESA (Mobility for Emergency and Safety Applications) specifications.
Project MESA is an international initiative whose main goals are:
- To produce the specifications for an advanced digital mobile broadband standard far beyond the scope of currently known technologies
- To represent the users and organizations from the Public Protection, Disaster Relief and Peacekeeping sectors to join forces with Industry for the production of a truly global standard
Unlike most other standardization projects, Project MESA began work with specifications of user needs - written by the users themselves - to ensure a user-driven, rather than a technology-driven approach to standards making.
At the fourth meeting of Project MESA, held April 10th-12th, the public safety mobile broadband standardization group, including experts from 11 countries in North America and Europe, outlined the future for telecommunications services in support of public safety and disaster relief workers.
During the three day meeting the project experts from North America and Europe, representing both industry and governmental agencies, such as the FBI, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the UK Police Information Technology Organization, together with two of the world's leading standards development organizations, the TIA of the USA and ETSI, approved the first service specification document, known as a statement of requirements (SoR). The SoR, defined by public safety users, outlines advanced mobile broadband scenarios and definitions of the services to be supported by broadband public safety mobile telecommunications networks.
"Providing our public safety services with secure, high-quality communications equipment is an important element in ensuring the safety of citizens in emergency situations - something that was emphasized during ETSI's recent workshop on emergency telecommunications. Project MESA has now created a foundation for future secure mobile broadband telecommunications facilities," comments Kjell Strandberg, head of ETSI's standards-making support department.
The SoR is based on scenarios and analyses of real-life events, such as the September 11th World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. The analyses will be attached to the SoR, which, after editing, will be available on the Project MESA web site.
"The meeting results demonstrate the excellent co-operation between the European and North American public safety experts. I'm pleased to see that the co-operation between ETSI and TIA now bears fruit, with the imminent publication of three basic documents on which the future technical work can be based," adds Dan Bart, senior vice president, standards and special projects at TIA.
The project has also created technical specification groups, which have started work on the technical specifications for the systems and equipment necessary to support the services. These technical working groups include:
- MESA CN - MESA Core Network
- MESA RA - MESA Radio Access
- MESA SA - MESA Services and Applications
- MESA SC - MESA Steering Committee
- MESA T - MESA Terminals
Being committed to the relief of suffering people in situations of complex humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters is an enormous task. Not only does this involve technical equipment but also human engagement and advanced methods of communications. Project MESA is an important international initiative designed to develop new technologies to guarantee the safety of people and nature.4
4 Primary Source: Project Mesa Mesa www.projectmesa.org