Land Mobile Radio using analog voice communications over locally dedicated radio frequencies and transmission facilities has been the mainstay of public safety agencies--law enforcement, fire, and emergency response departments. Developments, such as trunking and computer-aided dispatch, have been introduced to improve the performance and capacity of systems, and access to wireless data has been implemented in some jurisdictions. However, the quality of public safety communication systems has generally lagged behind that of commercial systems. This disparity in performance and the lack of interoperability between departments was not fully appreciated until recent crises highlighted the importance of coordinated operations on a wide scale and the need for access to critical data in real time. Now it is recognized that upgrading public safety communications infrastructure is a high priority, and progress has been made toward implementing interoperability standards and increasing system capacity. In many instances, the opportunity exists to "skip" several generations of wireless communications developments when equipment and systems are replaced. But which of the features and capabilities of the current and the near-future wireless technology are suitable for the operational and the other requirements of local and regional public safety agencies (law enforcement, fire, and emergency response)?

The purpose of the special issue is to update the IEEE communications community on the progress in upgrading the public safety communication systems, in regard to both interoperability and the introduction of state-of-the-art systems and protocols.

Scope of Contributions

Contributions are solicited that discuss recent research, development, deployment, application, and business issues relating to the use of wireless technologies for local and regional public safety communications (law enforcement, fire, emergency response). The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Status of initiatives to improve public safety communications interoperability and performance
• Requirements for future public safety wireless systems
• Quality of service and security issues involved in using commercial technology
• Potential of wireless technologies (e.g., WLAN, WPAN, ad hoc, mesh) to improve public safety communications system and operational performance
• Architectures and protocols for broadband, wide-area digital voice and data public safety networks

Schedule for Submissions

Submission Deadline: March 15, 2005 --EXTENDED TO MAY 1, 2005
Notification of Acceptance: June 30, 2005
Final Manuscript Due: September 30, 2005
Publication Date: January 2006

Manuscripts should be submitted through the magazine's submissions Web site at http://commag-ieee.manuscriptcentral.com/. On the Manuscript Details page, please click on the drop-down menu to select the special issue on public safety communications.

Guest Editors

For additional information about this Feature Topic, please contact the Guest Editors listed below:

Leonard E. Miller
Information Technology Laboratory
National Institute of Standards & Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8920
LMiller@antd.nist.gov

Zygmunt J. Haas
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
haas@ece.cornell.edu html>