5G New Radio for Public Safety Mission Critical Communications

Driven by increasing demands on connectivity to improve safety, situational awareness and operational effectiveness for first responders, more and more public safety agencies are realizing the need of modernization of their existing non-3GPP networks. 3GPP based cellular networks offer the unique opportunity of providing fast, reliable, and prioritized communications for first responders in a shared network. In this article, we give an overview of service requirements of public safety mission critical communications. We identify key technical challenges and explain how 5G new radio (NR) features are being evolved to meet the emerging safety critical requirements, including enabling connectivity everywhere, supporting efficient group communications, prioritizing mission critical traffic, and providing accurate positioning for first responders.