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As South Korea made ready to host last November’s summit meeting of the G-20 group of world leaders, to be held in Asia for the first time, Incheon Metropolitan Police Authority upgraded its TETRA network to meet the challenge. Peter Clemons, TETRA Association board member, visited the city to hear the summit’s communications story With a population now approaching three million in the city itself and its surrounding area, Incheon is one of South Korea’s fastest growing conurbations. Incheon International Airport, built on reclaimed land between two former islands off the South Korean coast, has become a major hub for North East Asia, driving the local economy and the Korean transportation network. And the city of Incheon has become the major gateway into South Korea, with easy access to the capital city, Seoul, less than an hour away by road. At the impressive police headquarters in the heart of Incheon, Mr Kim Byung Hak, director of the radio division for Incheon Metropolitan Police Authority (IMPA), explains that IMPA separated from the National Police Authority as recently as 1987, at about the time when the population of the city began to explode. IMPA moved into this purpose-built headquarters in 1992. Today, IMPA is one of the largest police authorities in South Korea. It owes this to its growing population, its proximity to Seoul, and to its frontier status, with the bleak North Korean border not far away. IMPA’s total police force now numbers around 7000, a figure which is likely to grow in the coming years. This is a factor that the authority had to take into account when considering future requirements for its secure information and communications networks. The authority has ten main branches, each with its own police station. These are spread across the mainland and numerous islands of varying sizes which can be seen while approaching Incheon from the air. A move to TETRA Mr Kim explains that the police authority inherited a conventional VHF network, and that this is still sometimes used for indoor and underground coverage as a back-up system, and by special forces when they leave the coverage of the current TETRA network. However, year by year, as the TETRA network is built out further and upgraded, the need for VHF is being reduced. An analogue trunked system based on EDACS technology was installed in 1995 and operated for ten years, but this has now been switched off. When IMPA commissioned its own TETRA network back in 2004, several other South Korean police authorities had already chosen TETRA as their preferred technology. TETRA is now established as the technology of choice for South Korean public safety. Among the reasons are the strong global trend towards digital technology and the forces’ need for increased radio communications capacity and functionality. As the population continues to expand, its police forces are growing correspondingly, and there has been a qualitative shift in communications requirements to cope with the strains of a modern society. As a truly global communications standard, TETRA has been able to provide a real choice of radio suppliers, while competition between them has reduced the price of both infrastructure and terminal equipment. Full coverage for IMPA’s initial system was reached by 2005 with the installation of 11 radio sites. The total number of radio terminals working on the network is now close to 4000. They include more than 3000 handportables, almost 300 fixed terminals and close to 500 mobiles, including a number of special installations for police motorcycles supplied by Teltronic. Taking advantage of TETRA’s robust interoperability process, IMPA has obtained terminals from both Teltronic and the UK supplier Sepura. While most police networks in Europe operate in the ex-NATO 380–400 MHz frequency band, the Incheon police network runs at 800 MHz. A TETRA network at 380–400 MHz does exist in South Korea; it is operated by a utility company. Following the award of the Incheon Police contract to Teltronic, IMPA awarded the maintenance contract for the system to Teltronic’s Korean partner, Withus. Securing the summit The G-20 summit was a national event of exceptional importance to South Korea’s reputation as a rapidly developing, advanced economy. VIPs from 33 countries attended the meeting. Heads of state, ministers, business leaders and others passed through Incheon International Airport on their way to and from it. All these dignitaries needed to be escorted through the district of Incheon to the main venue for the summit, the COEX Convention & Exhibition Center in Seoul. Meetings and related events conducted by high-level politicians and civil groups were also held in the Songdo New City area of Incheon itself. Some 800 police officers were required just for the protection of VIPs. Their orders were issued by the police commander through the TETRA network. If the wireless system had failed, the commander would have been held responsible, and would have been required to answer to the President himself. During the event, technical staff from Teltronic, Withus and IMPA were therefore on standby 24 hours a day. To handle the increased radio traffic, the number of TETRA radio carriers was increased across the network.
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