Project MESA summary

Date: 1/3/2010

Source: Highways Agency, john.slip@highways.gsi.gov.uk

Project MESA is an international standardisation forum for the development of broadband wireless communications for use in incident management and disaster response. It aims to design a self-establishing, self-healing digital mobile broadband network, which can be used at "hotspots", such as road accidents, natural disasters and chemical spills.

This month, John Slip of the Highways Agency provides an update on the next phase of on-road trials of MESA in the UK:

The technology behind the MESA concept offers the facility to design a high-bandwidth, self-healing mobile communications network applied to highways incidents on the strategic road network, the objective being to explore a more resilient method of communication for the Highways Agency Traffic Officer Service.

Robust communications enhances incident management i.e. timely provision of accident location & severity information; information sharing between those attending incidents; communications/updates on the situation in order to provide accurate information via an incident control centre to the media and road users; interworking between the emergency services, Traffic Officers and Incident Support Units involved in managing and clearing of network incidents.

The global Project MESA initiative was ratified as an international partnership agreement in January 2001. Some UK blue light services are already aware of the European MESA project and current membership includes police, fire and ambulance services as well as various disaster relief/co-ordination organizations and equipment providers.

Alongside these stakeholders the Highways Agency is a member of the international MESA project and consultants have been appointed to investigate the potential of adopting this system for enhancing the communication, and thus the management of, incidents on the strategic road network.

Currently, there is no standard communication and management infrastructure across all the emergency services. Even with current radio technology, the level of communication is restricted to narrowband, giving limited voice and very low-rate data capability.

The MESA technology indicates a more resilient communications environment for incident management on the road network. Most radio networks require a fixed infrastructure and if this is unavailable due to poor coverage, interference or a power outage, the users’ radios are rendered useless. Existing radio systems are repeater-based and sometimes provide poor coverage during a given highway emergency.

When managing an incident over a length of network, responders such as emergency services, Traffic Officers and Incident Support Units cannot necessarily communicate directly. Existing radio systems are low bandwidth, hence remote incident management is difficult or impossible. Using cellular phones as a ‘back-up’ could be unwise when managing a very major incident as it could block or clog up networks.

Therefore the Agency’s desire is to have the option of implementing an alternative wireless broadband communications technology that might also enhance integrated communications between the emergency services and their Regional and Network Control Centres.

Consultation with Stakeholders.

MESA Phase I, examining the potential and availability of this technology, was completed in March 2007. Phase II, stakeholder consultation and basic technology demonstration, was completed in April 2008. Phase III has recently completed off-road trials of the system as well as a more extensive demonstration to internal HA parties who have expressed an interest.

The Way Forward.

The next phase of this project intends to provide an on-road trial of the technology carried out on a ‘live’ carriageway over a selected stretch of the motorway network. If it is eventually decided that MESA is a viable option for the Highways Agency to adopt, implementation is by no means imminent and will be dependant upon creating a successful business case, obtaining the necessary approvals, funding and procurement processes. MESA will grow slowly, influenced by commercial market forces driven by the major communications companies, and not by the Highways Agency. There are potentially great business benefits of the agency subscribing to a MESA system, especially from the inter-working point of view, but for the foreseeable short term future it will not replace the Airwave TETRA (restricted to ‘voice only’) system. 

ITS Radar International monitors the latest news and developments in Project MESA, and a Fact Sheet and previous articles can be found here: www.itsradarinternational.info/.

ITS Radar International will continue to monitor developments

Keywords: Communications, Emergency, Incident, Project, Safety