The Great Advantages of Digital Alerting

The Great Advantages of Digital Alerting -

Incident - Alerting - Intervention

www.swissphone.com About the Swissphone Group

The Swissphone Group is a leading onal standards. The market-leading ding-edge experience in the design internationally operating supplier that Swissphone alerting and communi- and construction of communication designs and produces secure reliable cation solutions for emergency servi- systems. alerting, resource management and ces have long ago become prevalent dispatching systems, and solutions standards. Swissphone products are In addition, Swissphone operates the for public safety organisations (emer- extremely popular in Switzerland and Swiss national Telepage paging net- gency services). As well as for a wide the international markets due to the work, which is being used by most of range of industrial sectors. high quality of devices offered as well the emergency service organisations Our systems comply with internati- as our extensive know-how and lea- for alerting. The reliable and secure

2 Telepage network is also commonly since. The company has a prominent Swissphone's strategic used in sensitive industrial and com- market presence in Germany, Austria, success factors mercial areas, as well as by private France, and in the USA. In addition, Swiss quality companies for their emergency res- Swissphone possesses a dominant Knowlege of the alerting philosophy ponse duties in the field. market position in the Northern Euro- Customer focus pean markets owing to its proficient Innovation Swissphone was founded in 1969 by partners. The corporate headquarters Development and manufacturing Helmut and Erika Köchler and it has and the production site are located in Experience with large projects been under Swiss ownership ever Samstagern Switzerland near Zurich. Your partner for digital alerting

3 DiCal® in combination/coexistence with digital communication (TETRA,Tetrapol, APCO 25, DMR): The most reliable and most economical alarming scheme

In a digital world of business critical communication for emergency or fire services, it is important to distingu- Digital POCSAG Voice Data 2-Way MS POCSAG ish between critical communication (voice) and alerting (alphanumeric).

TETRA, Tetrapol, APCO 25, DMR Voice communication is used in a spe- Emergency centre cific area, like a city, while the demand Working place Analog Voice of alerting is county or state wide. The alerting process is the disaster proven service to reach volunteers at any GSM 2-Way Apps time and any place.

4 We address the needs of volunteer Migration scenario emergency responders and provide you with good signal coverage for the entire area, sturdy and easy-to-handle end devices and tap-proof transmission. For professional organisations, Digital Communication communication is key: We provide a reliable combination of communication and alerting systems tailored to Analog Communication your needs. Communication

We use proven technology to reliably Analog Alerting structure your alerting process, dra- wing upon our many years of experience with analogue communication

Alerting Digital and alerting networks and minimising Alerting interference between alerting and communication. We also ensure that your systems function flawlessly in an emergency without having to involve We recommend that you use a digital radio paging network for alerting and a digital third-party systems such as LTE or communication solution for voice radio so that you can perfectly operate alerting and the Internet. voice radio in parallel.

Coverage for a DiCal digital alerting solution in combination with digital communication (TETRA, Tetrapol, APCO 25, DMR)

Digital Communication (TETRA, Tetrapol, APCO 25, DMR) = Digital Alerting (DiCal®)

Explicit need for volunteers local/regional and national Alerting Broad coverage + Encryption Text messages

Explicit need for professionals Critical communication Specific coverage Voice Data

5 How the alerting philosophy of Swissphone matches with the requirements for an alerting system

Radio network operator needs: Volunteer emergency responder needs: •• An secure solution to alert voluntary services •• To know when they are needed in any circumstances •• A self-reliant system that also remains (day and night, for straightforward operations or in reliable in disaster situations disaster situations) •• Fast broadcast alerting to all required individuals or groups •• They need pagers not mobile phones •• Defined alerts encoded as text message transmissions •• Reliable and loud alerting •• Saving and logging of alerts: the whole process is •• A robust device with high autonomy (several weeks) documented to enable incident reconstruction at any time •• Light and easy to carry •• Motivated users (volunteers) willing to carry the device •• Simple, intuitive use •• Cost-efficiency thanks to minimal investment •• Best reachability and operating costs •• Investment protection through backwards compatibility within DiCal •• A reliable partner

6 Swissphone alerting solutions fulfill these requirements.

Alarm input Access Paging Distribution Radio Terminals terminals Network Network Controller Network Network (Redundant)

Emergency centre Base station Pager Working place POCSAG First responder

IP Network PNC Server IP Network Telephone Wire WAN/LAN Radio GSM/UMTS/LTE Satellite Microwave link Alarm input Base station Sirens POCSAG

Fallback Radio-/TV-Broadcasting Public telephone system

Requirements for a modern alerting system Network coverage and scalability 1. Fast delivery of alerting messages Solutions based on broadcasting (paging) require significant 2. Parallel delivery of alerting messages to all required less transmitters than trunking systems (2-way). Full coverage individuals and groups can be reached cost efficiently also in rural areas and within 3. Guaranteed reliability 24/7/365 buildings and tunnels. Scaling up or down the geographical 4. Highest reachability of first responders owing to coverage can be executed fluently. professional radio planning focusing on geographical and in-house coverage Independent and separate 5. Redundancy of all critical systems components Mission critical alerting systems - including their power supply - as well as of emergency power must function at all hours. Thus, such systems must be plan- 6. No congestion due to other users (e.g. voice traffic) ned and operated separately from commercial communica- 7. Low operational cost tions systems. Alerting and communication networks ought 8. Investment protection to be run separately so that cross-interference and total failu- 9. Logging messages and status informations re can be eliminated.

Backwards compatible and future-proof Swissphone's experience in integrating new technology Performance and data throughput within existing systems and processes guarantees that aler- Broadcasting guarantees delivery of alert messaging within ting will stay 100% available also during the migration phase. seconds to defined individuals or groups - in extreme situa- Swissphone, as an innovation leader, will continuosly take tions to ALL first responders − without network overload. Pre- new alerting concepts into consideration. defined messages avoid misinterpretations. Proven deployment and references Availability and redundancy Swissphone stands for proven systems and best practi- System components are protected against failures using va- ces. We will introduce new developments and specific cus- rious planned fall-back scenarios so that the alerting system tomizations in operations not before fully field-testing them. will remain fully operational and system management will be Large emergency organisations trust in us for long term instantly informed. There is no single point of failure. collaboration.

7 Swissphone Solutions

In an emergency every second works have to be reliable and failsafe. Swissphone took these requirements counts. People in accident situations As early as the planning stage a va- into account in the development of its need immediate help. The emergency riety of factors, such as the system’s radio networks and provides flexible services have to be alerted as quickly topography, radio coverage quality solutions. The “One solution, different as possible, which works best over and failsafe capabilities have to be configuration” philosophy of the net- alerting networks. They form the link considered and built-in. As these fac- work covers various customer requi- between the emergency call center tors are immutable, they determine rements. and the emergency personnel’s end the type and structure of the radio devices. To ensure that emergency network. services can be reached, alerting net-

8 DiCal® Solutions for all requirements

Solution for local networks Multi-primary-secondary or a radio link for each transmission solution for efficient regional location and require the fastest possi- and national radio networks ble alerting time. Simultaneous broadcast networks only use master base stations that have been interconnec- ted in a network. Messages are transmitted across all of the master base stations in the radio network in a bit- synchronous manner. This type of radio network configuration only requi- res a single transmission for the entire The local solution allows you to send area that needs to be covered. Repe- out radio calls from a single digital The multi-master system offers multi- titions are unnecessary and transmis- base station. This base station can ple benefits: sturdiness, even shorter sion time is reduced to a minimum. supply the transmission location’s im- transmission time and an even greater mediate surroundings with sufficient coverage area. It also interconnects signal strength, thereby guaranteeing several master and slave base sta- One solution, reliable alerting. Alerting can be trig- tions in a single network. Numerous several constellations gered locally or from a remote control feed points in the radio network al- All types of radio networks can be centre and transmitted to the base low operators to significantly reduce realised with the proper configu- station. transmission repetitions. ration – they do not necessarily re- Single- and multi-master systems can quire new components. This provides also be equipped with decentralised users with the greatest possible fle- entry points, such as ones for alerting xibility in terms of their radio network Primary-secondary solution for fire stations in the network. Alerts are infrastructure’s structure, migration regional radio networks transmitted to the control centre in a and operation. PNC (Paging Network decentralised way via digital paging – Controller) control, configuration and at the control centre, they are coordi- monitoring components support all nated and sent out across the entire radio networks. network. Additional features such as patented network status confirmati- on enable a general overview of the Failsafe because of status of each base station in the net- fallback scenarios work at all times. These kinds of multi- The radio network is designed for path alerting networks are among seamless transition from one opera- the most cost-efficient types of net- ting mode to another. If, for example, The regional solution consists of a works and currently represent the one or several connections to base primary and several secondary base most advanced paging technology on stations are disrupted or interrup- stations switched into a group net- the market. ted in a simulcast network, the radio work. Messages are transmitted over network switches to multi-primary the central base station to the radio operation mode. The synchronous network. Synchronous solution for base stations that cannot be reached Base stations in the transmission re- radio networks then run in the secondary operating ception range save the messages mode until they can be used again and then re-transmit them bit-syn- as synchronous base stations. If the chronously to each other. This trans- entire TCP/IP communication breaks mission can take place up to a ma- down, the PNC can access an indivi- ximum of 8 times in succession and dual primary base station directly. The be transmitted to other base stations radio network then runs in primary- that are further away. This significantly secondary operating mode. All the increases the coverage area. other synchronous base stations that no longer have a connection then run in secondary mode, thus maintaining Meanwhile, a simultaneous broadcast radio network operation. (Simulcast) network is the ideal solution if you have wire-based delivery

9 DiCal® alerting system demonstrated on an implemented solution in Germany

The administrative area of Lippe has taken the decision to Asch, in Köterberg and Tönsberg-Oelingenhausen. The transfer fire brigade and rescue service alerts completely over radio network consists of forty base stations (4 primary and to POCSAG technology on the 2-meter band. An important 36 secondary stations), which are distributed across the area factor in the decision to use Swissphone technology was the so that they deliver homogeneous field strength overall. The speed and security of alert transmission. This is even guaran- site selection for the primary and secondary stations is deter- teed where the terrain is demanding – as in the area of Lippe. mined from a radio network planning tool. The simulated field The Lippe mountain region has marked variations, ranging prediction is then verified in the field. from peaks and ridges to lowlands and hills. …and even in geographical basins Alerts issued in seconds… “The measured wireless coverage delivered by the digital Alerts are sent via wired and radio link communication to four alert network means that we are now finally well covered for multi-primary stations. After distribution the alerts are trans- the areas of Kalletal and Extertal, which were a problem until mitted from the four multi-primary station time synchronously. now“, reports Friedhelm Plöger of the Regiebetrieb Bevölke- The multi-primary network delivers sufficient field strength to rungsschutz (Government Civil Defence Force) for the area of ensure rapid and secure alerting in the area to be covered. Lippe. His colleague Meinolf Haase also adds: “The encrypti- The multi-primary site locations are in Lemgo, on the Hohe on of alerts also enables us to meet data protection directive”.

10 Alarm input Access Paging Distribution terminals Network Network Controller Network (Redundant)

Emergency centre Working place wire

IP Network PNC Server IP Network radio Telephone WAN/LAN Secondary GSM/UMTS/LTE Alarm Microwave link Alarm input Receiver

Primary

Doubly secure References of DiCal® system projects in Europe The Swissphone system is doubly secure: during normal operation, the alert from the emergency center is transferred to Administrative area of Bautzen, Saxony two redundant paging network controllers PNC. The active City of Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia one sends the alert on to one wire connected primary station City of Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt and three further multi-primary stations, which are reached City of Göttingen, Lower Saxony via a radio link solution. If either one of the two PNC fails, City of Halle, Saalekreis, administrative area of the other one automatically takes over and sends the alert to Merseburg-Querfurt, Saxony-Anhalt the four primary-stations. If both PNCs fail, the appropriate Harzkreis, Saxony-Anhalt operators can send the alert via an emergency input posi- Region of Lausitz, Saxony tion to the wire connected primary station. From there, the Administrative area of Lippe, North Rhine-Westphalia alarm message will reach the 36 secondary stations and the Administrative area of Mansfeld-Südharz, Sachsen-Anhalt 3 remaining primary-stations, which now works in secondary Administrative area of Olpe, North Rhine-Westphalia operation mode, and therefore the alert reception devices. Administrative area of Pinneberg for the region of Steinburg/Dithmarschen/Pinneberg Fallback scenarios for extreme emergencies Administrative area of Schaumburg, Lower Saxony If either of the wired primary-stations fails, the PNC will auto- Administrative area of Siegen-Wittgenstein, matically connect the other primary-station. And if both wired North Rhine-Westphalia primary-stations and either one of the radio link connected Administrative area of Vogtland, Saxony primary-station fail, the system independently switches to City of Wilhelmshafen, Lower Saxony another operating mode, known as fallback mode. The sur- South Tyrol, Italy rounding primary and secondary stations register that a pri- Telepage, nationwide in Switzerland mary station has failed and take the message from another Lower Austria, Austria primary or secondary station. Fallback mode gets around Administrative area of Mettmann, North Rhine-Westphalia the problem by using a remaining primary station, ensuring network wide transmission in spite of the loss of all the other primary feeders – albeit at a slightly reduced transmission speed. A patrol car has also been additionally fitted with a digital alert transmitter. If the emergency center were to fail, the alert could be issued via the patrol car.

Area of Lippe (North Rhine-Westphalia): District area: 6’519 km² Population: app. 2 million Basestation: 40 (4 primary)

Technische Änderungen und Irrtümer vorbehalten. Technische

Swissphone Wireless AG Fälmisstrasse 21 CH-8833 Samstagern Tel. +41 44 786 77 70 Fax +41 44 786 77 71 E-Mail [email protected] www.swissphone.com EN 05/2016 0342425 v2 BIK