California's largest tribe deploys first white space broadband for remote public safety environment

The future of public safety communications technology has arrived at the Yurok Reservation in Northern California. Until now, the entire reservation has had to share a single T1 line for broadband communications — causing bottlenecks and slower than dial-up connections, greatly hampering the ability of public safety agencies to integrate with the world outside the reservation. Thanks to cutting-edge TV white-space technology, the Yurok community will soon bring its public safety network into the 21st century.

Yurok tribal lands stretch more than 40 miles along the Klamath-Trinity River in Del Norte and Humboldt counties. This rugged, densely forested terrain offers ideal proving ground for a near-line-of-sight solution like TV white space technology.

“We couldn’t support things like online conferencing or training of any sort, particularly if it required a video feed,” says Jim Norton, broadband manager for the Yurok Tribe. “We just didn’t have the bandwidth.”

It was apparent to Norton and Paul Romero, the tribe’s IT director, that their single T1 line could not handle the day-to-day broadband needs of the reservation, let alone what would be required were a major disaster to occur on the reservation.

They began to search for a better solution. The new network would not only need to serve public safety agencies, but also to provide Internet access for businesses and residents on the Reservation.

After researching the possibilities, Norton realized that older, more “traditional” technologies such as direction antennas, additional T1 lines, or satellite broadband would be either cost prohibitive or unreliable. Nearly all of the terrain on the reservation is hilly and heavily forested, making traditional Wi-Fi or microwave signals impossible.

With no time to lose, Norton’s team began to acquire land grants and begin the process of building towers — while continuing to search for a better option.

By this time, Norton’s quest was beginning to gather some attention. When Carlson Wirelss heard about the project, the company realized that the new TV white-space product it was developing could be the answer and that the Yurok Reservation would provide just the challenging environmental conditions needed to test and refine the product in the field.

The Yurok Connect Project

When the Yurok Connect Project was first conceived, white-space technology didn’t exist. When television broadcasting migrated from analog to digital in 2009, the transition freed up spectrum, or white spaces, between channels. The unique nature of these available frequencies makes them an ideal solution for rural areas with difficult terrain.

Carlson’s TV white-space radio, the RuralConnect IP, was exactly the technology that Norton and his team had been searching for.

“The RuralConnect IP is a game changer for us,” said Norton. “The near-line-of-sight requirements of the other technologies, as well as the antenna requirements, are significantly reduced. The frequencies have a much better terrain-following capability, and a punch for the dense foliage that we have here — one that the other technologies just can’t match.”

The advantages of using TV white-space made this an easy choice for Norton and his team. On January 26, 2011, the FCC granted the Yurok Tribe an experimental license, officially allowing the project to move past the planning phase and into reality.

The FCC’s Office of Native Affairs, headed by Geoffrey Blackwell, was instrumental in pushing the license through.

“The FCC moved mountains for us, so we could get an experimental license that allows us to use this bandwidth, or this new white space,” said Norton. With the license in hand, the Yurok Connect Project is occurring in phases, with an expected completion date of Summer 2011.

Purposing it for public safety

Thanks to a dedicated, secure T1 line, the Klamath Public Safety office is able to connect with the Department of Justice and access their criminal databases. This type of line is the only way to access this data, and this line is reserved solely for that use.

Another of the first links installed will serve the Klamath Fire Station, connecting firefighters to live video training.

“These folks are all volunteers,” said Norton. “They work during the day, and they come in the evening to get training. It works much better if they have a solid connection to the training resources.”

If a major emergency were to occur, the new network will be fully autonomous and capable of operating for days off-grid, with broadband reaching everyone on the reservation.

“Right now the plan for our new emergency services coordinator is that, in the event of a disaster, he’ll take the mobile command trailer out to one of our new towers,” Norton explained. “It’s up above anything that comes along, such as flooding from the river. Wherever they station the mobile command center, our towers will be able to see it and be able to communicate with it. They’ll have power from our generators that they can tie into if necessary.”

In addition to the public safety and emergency management benefits, the new network will also allow the reservation’s two clinics to conduct virtual telemedicine and exchange files. Patients will be able to go into the clinic and be online live with doctors in other areas, saving travel time and stress on medical staff.

Financial sources

Funding for the Yurok Connect Project has come from a variety of sources. The bulk of it came from the USDA Rural Utilities Service Community Connect grant program, with additional funding coming from the California Consumer Protection Foundation, the California Emergency Management Agency, Public Safety Interoperability (PSIC) grants, and the Infrastructure Protection Grants unit in Sacramento.

“We’ve had amazing support from our tribal council and the membership at large,” said Norton, “but when it comes to funding, I can’t believe how people have been really on board to help us.”

Norton and his team hope to be able to expand and upgrade the system, and eventually reach out to other tribes and government agencies which are also in need of vital communications services.

“One of our partners is the County of Del Norte,” said Norton. “Part of the reservation lies in the south portion of the county. We have co-located some of our equipment in the county’s communications hub. When our expansion allows us to link into the networks of different regions, we then would be able to provide emergency backup communications services for the county’s emergency responders in the event that their primary services are compromised. In an area where such redundant services aren’t available, that’s a very cool concept.”