5G for public safety: Improved networks for first responders

How 5G can be used for public safety

5G provides public safety agencies with reliable, always-on communication for mission-critical systems and life-saving services. The benefits include improved situational awareness, faster response times and real-time visibility in areas where first responders formerly could not get up-to-the-minute information. For example, wildfire-prone wilderness can now be monitored with IoT sensors.

"Public safety is one of the early adopters of private 5G," said Titus M, a practice director at Everest Group who focuses on network services and 5G, in an email interview. "The industry needs communications that hold up under pressure, move with responders and keep mission data flowing when the scene is chaotic. Private 5G checks those boxes by delivering deterministic coverage, mobility and on-prem control with priority and preemption. The result is safer responders, faster incident closeout, sharper situational awareness and reliable video and IoT -- even when the public network is congested or the environment is not conducive to radio frequency. Other options don't really fit the bill."

How 5G helps first responders

The low latency, high speed and bandwidth offered by 5G enable a number of use cases in the public safety sector, including the following:

• Continuous offloading from body-worn and in-car video cameras with real-time video analytics in the field at the network edge.
• Analysis of records and data at the edge, such as in law enforcement vehicles.
• Using drones for monitoring, with analysis of video at the network edge where the drones are being used.
• Transmitting on-site data to central locations, such as incident command posts, to improve oversight and support of field operations. As M explained, 5G can send firefighter vitals from thermal equipment and data feeds from helmet-worn cameras to incident command. Another example of a 5G-enabled use is employing drones and robots to map wildfires.
• Delivering telemedicine to off-site locations, including ambulances, with data such as patient vital signs collected on-site and shared with local hospital emergency departments in real time. Hospitals can also provide real-time updates, M said, to provide paramedics and other emergency personnel with critical information, such as status updates on emergency department capacity.
• Disaster-response support. 5G enables responding agencies to receive real-time data gathered from endpoints that are monitoring disasters such as floods, wildfires and active shooter events.
• Improved public warning systems and public safety supports. For example, 5G's speed and reliability provide increased assurances that the emergency blue-light boxes and closed-circuit televisions widely used on college campuses to ensure safety can always do so, said Swarun Kumar, a professor in Carnegie Mellon University's electrical and computer engineering department.
• Enhanced surveillance capabilities and mobile patrol connectivity in a wide range of settings, including college campuses, national borders, and sensitive facilities such as water treatment plants, etc.
• Next-generation 911 data and video processing, resilient dispatch connectivity and multi-access edge computing-based analytics.

The public safety sector was using 4G or Wi-Fi to enable some of those use cases, including drones and wearables, said Shrinath Thube, a senior member of IEEE, in an email.

"But they were limited by lag, signal drops and bandwidth issues," he said. "With 5G, the experience becomes more seamless and reliable. That difference is what turns these tools from interesting tech into mission-critical assets."

More specifically, Thube said 5G is powering connected drones for faster search and rescue, real-time video from incident scenes, wearable health monitors for responders and remote control of robots in hazardous environments. Smart traffic systems are also using 5G to clear paths for emergency vehicles. "These use cases help teams respond faster and operate with better visibility," he said.

Some use cases can only scale with 5G, according to Thube. One example is drones that capture high-resolution live video, which requires the low-latency and high-bandwidth links that 5G delivers without the buffering of slower network technologies. Another example is mobile robots used for remote inspection in disaster zones. 5G offers public safety officials real-time control and feedback with the robots that wasn't possible with 4G.

5G, public safety and smart cities

5G's performance and reliability are similarly supporting the creation and expansion of smart cities.

Just as 5G enables real-time data exchange, IoT and endpoint connectivity, along with analytics at the edge in industries of all kinds, it also delivers those capabilities to entire communities, Kumar said.

5G supports everything from energy-efficient smart grids, where it enables dynamic monitoring and control of energy use, to air quality monitoring, where the fast network makes instantaneous transmission of environmental data from IoT sensors possible.

"Smart cities run on data, and 5G helps move that data faster and more reliably. Think traffic systems that sync with emergency dispatch, or environmental sensors that alert responders to hazards. The faster and more connected the infrastructure is, the sooner first responders can act -- sometimes before a human even reports the problem," Thube said.

5G is particularly critical for smart cities' use of AI, he added.

"AI makes sense of the data that 5G delivers, like alerts from traffic systems, threat detection from surveillance cameras and predictive failure in infrastructure. With 5G handling the connectivity, AI is the brain that handles the decision layer. Together they let first responders act smarter, not just faster," Thube explained.

That's an important ability as smart cities increasingly integrate public safety technologies that also rely on 5G.

Smart-city public safety infrastructure includes smart traffic management systems, where 5G connects sensors and cameras for real-time traffic updates and adaptive traffic signaling. It also includes 5G-enabled smart surveillance with real-time video for use in crowd management, safety monitoring and more.

"The shift to 5G for public safety is more than just a network upgrade; it's a platform change," Thube said. "Agencies that pair the network with smart devices, trained people and clear workflows will see the real benefits."

The limits of 5G for public safety

However, the public safety sector faces limitations as it seeks to expand its use of services and systems that require 5G connectivity, while the technology remains far from ubiquitous, even in the United States.

"5G has a lot of promise for public safety, but coverage is still uneven," Thube said. "In rural areas or disaster zones, gaps can limit its use. Even in cities, rollout hasn't been smooth, like when airports had to delay 5G activation near runways due to interference with aircraft altimeters. So, while the tech is ready, the infrastructure still needs to catch up in some places."

5G might have competition here, M said, noting that to overcome the lack of 5G in some regions, public safety officials are turning to satellite-based networks to gain the required connectivity.

Mary K. Pratt is an award-winning freelance journalist with a focus on covering enterprise IT and cybersecurity management.