National Public Safety Telecommunications Council
In-Building Working Group Report
Stu Overby - Chair, In-Building WG
Jack Daniel - Vice-Chair In-Building WG
NPSTC- Seattle, WA
September 16, 2008
Overview Status
• NPSTC Best Practices for In-Building
Communications whitepaper 2008 outreach efforts
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IAFC, Denver in August
APCO in Kansas City in August
IACP LEIM in Nashville in May
IWCE in Las Vegas in February
Article in NPSTC newsletter
• WG currently developing Best Practices for InTunnel Communications Systems
– 8 companies participating
– Targeting November meeting for distribution to GB
NPSTC is a federation of organizations whose mission is to improve public safety communications
and interoperability through collaborative leadership.
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Best Practices for In-Tunnel
Communications – Outline (page 1 of 4)
1. Executive Summary and Background
2. Basic System Components for In-Tunnel Coverage
2.1 Donor Site
2.2 Signal Boosters (BDA’s)
2.3 Signal Distribution
3. Types of Tunnel Systems
3.1 Pedestrian
3.2 Vehicular (auto, bus, truck)
3.3 Transit (subway, rail)
4. Understanding the Spectrum Environment
4.1 Intermod Interference
4.2 Cross Band Interference
4.3 Time Domain Interference
4.4 Inter-system Interference, e.g., Commercial to PS
4.5 Regulatory Considerations to Minimize Interference
NPSTC is a federation of organizations whose mission is to improve public safety communications
and interoperability through collaborative leadership.
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Best Practices for In-Tunnel
Communications – Outline (page 2 of 4)
5. System Design Considerations and Tradeoffs
5.1 Harsh Tunnel Environments
5.2 Design for Installation & Maintenance
5.3 Specifying coverage expected: (e.g., moving,
stationary, etc)
5.4 Specifying “Delivered Audio Quality”
5.5 Choosing the Donor Antenna and Antenna Site
5.6 Balancing uplink/downlink coverage
5.7 Link Budget Margin Factors Specific to Tunnels
5.8 Choosing Appropriate Power Levels
5.9 Accounting for Dynamic Range
5.10 Maintaining Uplink/Downlink Isolation
5.11 Attaining Sufficient Adjacent Channel Selectivity
5.12 Minimizing Time Domain Interference
5.13 Keeping Noise Floor Low
NPSTC is a federation of organizations whose mission is to improve public safety communications
and interoperability through collaborative leadership.
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Best Practices for In-Tunnel
Communications – Outline (page 3 of 4)
6. Signal Distribution Methods and Tradeoffs
6.1 Greenfield vs. Overlay on Existing System
6.2 Leaky Coax
6.3 RF Over Fiber
6.4 Distributed Antenna System
6.5 DAS Options: Active, Passive, Hybrid
7. Coverage Testing
7.1 Benchmarks
7.2 Limitations of testing in Tunnel Environments (e.g., no
GPS, scheduling, etc.)
7.2 Testing Methods – Summarize and reference TSB-88
8. Ensuring Reliability
8.1 Remote Control and Alarm
8.2 Backup Emergency Power
8.3 Redundancy
NPSTC is a federation of organizations whose mission is to improve public safety communications
and interoperability through collaborative leadership.
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Best Practices for In-Tunnel
Communications – Outline (page 4 of 4)
9. Maintenance
9.1 System Deterioration Due to Tunnel Environment
9.2 Planning/scheduling considerations
9.3 Maintenance Checklist
10. Summary
Status: Contributions of material for most sections received
Next Steps:
• Assemble complete draft (10/15)
• Review/edit in Work Group & Technology Committee
• Provide to NPSTC Support Staff for format cleanup (11/08)
• Distribute to Governing Board for review & approval (11/18)
• Finalize, including any Governing Board input (per GB sched)
• Place on NPSTC web site (early December)
• Begin outreach efforts – (December 2008/January 2009)
NPSTC is a federation of organizations whose mission is to improve public safety communications
and interoperability through collaborative leadership.
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