Public Protection and Disaster Relief Communications

The public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) sector brings essential value to society by creating a stable and secure environment to maintain law and order and to protect the life and values of citizens. One important task of PPDR services is to deal with emergency and surveillance situations on land, sea and air. The most important part of this work is done in the field, so all the tools must match the needs accordingly. This chapter provides a comprehensive vision of operational aspects concerning PPDR communications that includes a categorization of PPDR operational scenarios, a description of a generic operational framework, the identification of main components and communications’ reference points and the identification of current and expected communications services that are central to PPDR operations. The chapter also describes the main communications technologies and systems currently in use for the delivery of the communications services needed for PPDR operations.