LTE enhancements for public safety and security communications to support group multimedia communications

Currently public safety and security communication systems depend on reliable and secure PMR networks that are mainly devoted to provide voice services. However, the evolutionary trend for professional mobile radio (PMR) networks is toward the provision of new value-added multimedia services such as video streaming, in order to improve situational awareness and enhance life-saving operations. The challenge here is to exploit the future commercial broadband networks to deliver voice and multimedia services satisfying PMR service requirements. In particular, a viable solution now seems to be the adaption of the new Long Term Evolution technology to provide IP-based broadband services with the security and reliability typical of PMR networks. This article outlines different alternatives to achieve this goal and, in particular, proposes a proper solution for providing multimedia services with PMR standards over commercial LTE networks.