“procurement & planning” national digital radio service in ireland

RCEG Meeting 11th April 2013 Dublin – “Procurement & Planning of NDRS” – Garda Telecom Division

“Procurement & Planning” National Digital Radio Service in

Ireland

An Garda Siochana – Telecommunications Division

Sgt James Leonard

Presentation to RCEG Meeting - 11th April 2013


Agenda

NDRS – A Brief Overview

NDRS Procurement Timelines to the NDRS Contract

NDRS Planning Garda Project TeamSteps to Migration (Strategy, Communications, Integration, Testing)

Key Lessons Learnt



The National Digital Radio Service (NDRS) contract was awarded to Tetra Ireland on May 1st 2008.

The NDRS is based on a managed service model with designated Government agencies paying a monthly subscription fee. Garda is the largest user with 15267 subscriptions.

Garda migrated onto the NDRS on a Divisional basis over a 24 month period.

Circa 600 sites (green field, third party & state owned) deliver the following coverage;

Handportable In-Building Coverage – 100% of specified buildings (2000) 97.1% HP coverage on whole land mass 99.3% Mobile coverage or all roads, railways and canals. 98.2% of offshore waters to 20km 96% Mobile and 88% HP Overlapping coverage.



Mobile Coverage Handportable Coverage


NDRS Procurement


The Business Case for the NDRS commenced– Jan 2003

The main body of this business case explored four (4) main ownership and operation models; Government Owned – Government Operated (“Go-Go”)

Government Owned – Company Operated (“Go-Co”)

Outsourced Service Provision (“OSP”)

Public Private Partnership based on asset sharing (“PPP”)

Note: A “Value for Money” analysis was conduct by AGS on the four (4) main ownership and operation models.

NDRS Procurement – Timelines to the NDRS Contract


Consultations with Dept of Finance on Garda user requirements began – Nov 2004

A National User Requirement Evaluation was commenced by Garda Telecom. Allowed feedback from end users on “what was needed”. (Yellow Map & Indoor)

Formed basis of how RFT was written and fundamentally determined

how the NDRS was built.

(Extract from RFT on Mobile Coverage Requirements)

The network must provide mobile radio coverage with a probability of coverage of at least 96% on all categories of roads (i.e., surfaced roads under the management of the local County Council or the NRA), railways, major lakes, canals, and navigable rivers, within any 1 kilometre grid square on any OSI discovery series maps (1:50000 metres) set out at Figure 1, throughout the Republic of Ireland, including its islands and sea areas up to 20 kilometres offshore to support inshore operations.



Business Case was submitted to Dept of Finance (considering OSP) – Dec 2005

NDRS Procurement Group formed – Jan 2006

Chaired by Dept of Finance All Government agencies were represented and had an input. Group conducted a comprehensive risk assessment under key headings (Procurement, Financial, Security, Services, Contract, Health & Safety).Agreed RFT award criteria.

NDRS RFT was sent to marketplace – June 2006



The key elements of RFT included;

The RFT did not specify TETRA as the technology. (“Digital radio services provision”)

Prior to a contract being agreed, the preferred service provider had to prove their capability to deliver the service solution it had proposed through a Service Performance Evaluation (SPE)

The State was willing to make Garda sites (including masts) and other State owned properties available to the chosen provider.

Detailed Service Requirements were specified in RFT – Coverage, National Mobility, Integration, Resilience, Security, Quality of Service, Terminal Mode of Operation, Resource Experience, SLA’s

NDRS Pre-Qualifier for the RFT completed – Dec 2006



NDRS - RFT Evaluation Began – Jan 2007

A total of five (5) vendors were involved in the tendering process6 person evaluation team (multiple government agencies)6 months of evaluation (reading, assessment, very time consuming)Meeting with Tenderer’s on clarifications

Procurement Group evaluated and scored each Tender – June 2007

Tetra Ireland chosen as the “preferred bidder” – Sept 2007

Preferred Bidder status based on technical and financial evaluations;Technical Merits & Suitability of the Proposed Service SolutionFinancial & Legal EvaluationService & Support Arrangements, SLA’s & Associated PenaltiesTrainingTerminals (GCK)




Tetra Ireland commenced build of Special Performance Evaluation Area - Oct 2007

SPE - 15 sites in DMR (urban & rural), 3 month build, TI covered costs.

The SPE was extremely important as it.Indentified Tetra Ireland’s ability to build-out a network.Indentified unknown issues (terrestrial & cable tv interference, clutter model)Conducted Operational Scenarios (blue light agencies)Fleetmap Workshops.

SPE Evaluation Completed – April 2008

NDRS Contract Signed with Tetra Ireland – May 1st 2008

Note: Tetra Ireland still needed to apply and wait to be issued with an “Operators Licence”


NDRS Planning


Project Board ( 8 Persons) – Overseen activities and decision making board.

Project Manager (1 Person) – Overall responsibility for Migration of NDRS

Project Implementation (4 Staff) – Procurement, Logistic Services, Data Gathering, Vehicle Installations, Auditing, Subscription & Billing Mgt, Quality Assurance, ICCS Integration.

Radio Propagation & Infrastructure (5 Staff) – Coverage Testing, Fleetmapping, Codeplugs, Site Readiness, Security Audits, Station Installations, Stock Mgt, Voice Recording, iTM, E2E, AVPLS.

Project Planner (1 Technical Resource) – Project Plan, Risk Register, Issue Log. Technical Writer (1 Technical Resource)– Policy & Procedure

PPMO (3 Admin Staff) – Project Management Office GSMC (3 Units on Roster basis) – Garda Services Management Centre

Garda Change Management & Garda College (Briefings & End User Training)

NDRS Planning – The Garda Project Team


Preparation for the move to the new National Digital Radio Service began in Sept 2007 between Tetra Ireland and the Garda Project Team. Business Case Objectives were broken into thirty six (36) work streams and managed to implementation.

Twelve (12) roll-out phases were identified to achieve national rollout over 24 months across all the Garda Regions & Divisions.

Key areas to successful Migration were identified, including; Strategy, Communications, Integration and Testing

When fully completed in April 2011, the rollout of the NDRS to the organisation integrated14,000 Garda Officers, 2,500 vehicles and 700 Garda stations nationwide.

NDRS Planning – Steps to Migration (Overview)


Phased Divisional Migration within Regions

Just in time Equipment Procurement & Provisioning.

Just in time training.

Advance dual fit of Stations and Vehicles.

Temporary Vehicle Fleet.

Local Liaison Personnel.

NDRS Planning – Steps to Migration (Strategy)


Two day live roll-out. (To cover different shifts)

Trained Help Desk and Service Management Support.

Note: Help Desk Support / Service Management Centre was essential for user support and reporting on service performance.

Application of Lessons learned after each divisional migration.

Proven Contingency Plans in place.

Operational Continuity Plans in place.

NDRS Planning – Steps to Migration (Strategy)


Conducted Pre-migration Briefing with each Region.

Conducted Pre- Go-Live Briefing with each Division.

Conducted Technical Briefings with Telecommunications Staff.

Early and regular engagement with the Representative Associations.

Preparation and Issue of Bulletins to the Organisation.

“On-the-Ground” support for each Divisional migration.

NDRS Planning – Steps to Migration (Communication)


Integration of existing ICCS in DMR Control Room with NDRS. Develop & Certify ICCS Integration Software. Integration Testing. Soak Test.

Contingency Planning in particular for System Integration is essential.

Motorola Radio Dispatching Equipment (no telephony)

Provision of a Managed Voice Recording Service on NDRS.

Integrated Terminal Management – iTM.

NDRS Planning – Steps to Migration (Integration)


Radio Profile Testing.

Fleet map testing (fleet map loaded and scenario tested)

Terminal code plug testing (before delivery)

Coverage Testing – Extensive – 3000 Indoor & in excess of 100,000 km of roads.

Pre- Go-Live QOS Testing in the DMR by AGS highlighted issues. AGA Coverage (subscriber class / neighbour lists)

Call dropping

Radio scanning excessively (FRT / SRT)

Interference recognised.

Some instances of coverage not meeting RFT requirements

NDRS Planning – Steps to Migration (Testing)


Switch Fail-over tested.

Local Site Trunking.

Base station coverage overlap.

Boomer network.

Resulted in optimisation of network and additional infrastructure been required.

NDRS Planning – Steps to Migration (Testing)


Key Lessons Learnt


Conduct a National User Requirement Evaluation

Complete a Special Performance Evaluation (SPE).

Invest in appropriate coverage testing equipment and test all functions and features extensively.

Purchase Terminals with common firmware release.

Take time in developing the Fleetmap. Conduct Scenarios.

Ensure base stations are configured with “all start”

Key Lessons Learnt


Terminal Evaluation – Involve your end users.

Liaison Inspectors.

Project Management E2E KMF – different terminal vendors – license issue.

Outsourcing Communications Mast Infrastructure & Development.

Health & Safety (audio testing, wearing of hp, clips for bikers).

Key Lessons Learnt


Policy & Procedure (lost radios etc..).

User Training – in house.

Stock Management – in house.

Software Release Migration – tested in the field first.

Radio Control Head & Transceiver maintenance.

Complete User Evaluation post Go-live.

Key Lessons Learnt


Thank You

“procurement & planning” national digital radio service in ireland

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