With the number of non-human devices expected to significantly overtake human users of LTE networks, it is no surprise that First Responders in Mission Critical operations will need to interact with an increasing number of unmanned devices, “bots” or drones. In the paper we propose the Mission Critical “bot” concept as an entity capable of gathering environmental/situational information and triggering certain automated actions without the need of human intervention. We prove that in certain circumstances these bots can help quickly resolve emergency situations and complement traditional centralized coordination from Dispatch Control Rooms. We explain how such “bots” relate and expand the 3GPP Mission Critical Communications architecture framework, considering different architectural approaches and complexity levels. Importantly, because First Responders must remain focused, hands-free and context-aware most of the time, we cover specifically the case where man-machine interaction is based on voice communication without having to use hands or look at a screen. It is hence of particular interest to convert “bot” interactions into audio information exchanged over push-to-talk communication services, be it through the cellular network or leveraging the 3GPP device-to-device capability. The paper is complemented with theoretical use cases as well as description and multimedia material of a prototype implementation of a concept emulator.

Peer Reviewed