Software Defined Radio and Its Implications For the Public Safety Services

摘要

Emerging Software Defined Radio (SDR) technologies offer great promise to resolving some of the public safety community's biggest technology challenges. With local/state public safety first responder agencies spread across 10 discreet RF bands, lack of interoperability is the most often quoted problem in after-action reports from major public safety incidents. Most citizens do not realize that their police and fire officers cannot communicate directly with each other by radio, a well-publicized obstacle faced by FDNY and NYPD at the World Trade Center on September 11. Software Defined Radio (SDR) promises perhaps the best long-term interoperability solution, providing the field officer with a belt-worn subscriber unit offering the ability to communicate in real-time with whomever she / he needs to communicate within limits established by agency managers. However, the technology still faces significant technical challenges as it grows from its infancy at the Department of Defense and from within commercial development enterprises. But technology hurdles are only part of the race to implement SDR. Regulatory hurdles must also be overcome due to the agility of the technology and its potential impact on other spectrum users.