Public Call to Promoters to Submit an Application Detailing Their Interest in Operating

Public Call to Promoters to Submit an Application Detailing Their Interest in Operating

PUBLIC CALL TO PROMOTERS TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION DETAILING THEIR INTEREST IN OPERATING A PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP PROJECT

1. INTRODUCTION

In accordance with the Decision of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia no. 38100-5/2013/4 as of 25 July 2013, the Ministry of the Interior calls on all interested parties (hereinafter referred to as promoters) to submit their applications detailing their interest in operating a public-private partnership entitled "The completion of the uniform digital radio network of the state authorities of the Republic of Slovenia, Phase 1 – TETRA Project", which encompasses the upgrading and completion of the existing network, or construction of a new network, including the operation, maintenance and management of the system and the implementation of services as an operator.

2. CONTRACTING AUTHORITY

Republic of Slovenia

Ministry of the Interior

Štefanova 2

1501 Ljubljana

3. SUBJECT OF THE PUBLIC CALL

The subject of the public call to promoters to submit their applications detailing their interest in operating a public-private partnership is the implementation of the project entitled "The completion of the uniform digital radio network of the state authorities of the Republic of Slovenia, Phase I – TETRA Project", which encompasses the upgrading and completion of the existing network, or construction of a new network, including the operation, maintenance and management of the system and the implementation of services as an operator for a framework period of 15 years with the possibility of extension of by 5 years.

4. PUBLICATION OF THE PUBLIC CALL

The public call to promoters has been published on the website of the Ministry of the Interior: http://www.mnz.gov.si/, menu above "O MINISTRSTVU" (About the Ministry), left menu "Javna naročila" (Public Procurement).

5. LEGAL BASES

The Public-Private Partnership Act or ZJZP (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, no. 127/06 and Official Journal of the EU, no. 317/07, 314/09): provisions under the section on the preliminary procedure (from Article 31 to 35).

6. FORMS OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

With this call, the Contracting Authority does not prejudice the forms of public-private partnership or the method of completing the first phase of the uniform digital radio network of state authorities according to the TETRA standard or the content of the decision and the Public-Private Partnership Act.

Considering the Contracting Authority's criteria for selecting the optimal variant, which are determined in Project Identification Fiche no. 007-148/2009/143 as of 4 July 2013 (hereinafter referred to as PIF), the Contracting Authority's desired framework is as follows: the company (co)owns – the company is the operator, maintenance services provider and manager of the entire TETRA system, i.e. the model under the legal rules of the public-private partnership. The Contracting Authority also permits other variants. Combinations of conditions and potential activities which are determined in the PIF or in other rational forms are also possible.

With this call, the Contracting Authority expects the promoters to implement the project with the aim of guaranteeing that the system operates in accordance with Project documentation for the completion of the construction of the uniform digital radio network of state authorities - TETRA, Subnet no. 1105-1 (July 2012) and system operations in accordance with the requirements under item 7.B (Requirements for system operations and maintenance - SLA). The Contracting Authority anticipates that approximately 15,000 users will be state users of the TETRA system after the completion of Phase 1 (the anticipated maximum capacities are stated under 7.A of the subject public call). The remaining network capacities may be sold by the public-private partnership contractor on the market i.e. to users of special national and security significance; however, on the basis of the preliminary consent of the Contracting Authority under the conditions stipulated in advance in the contract.

7. INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROJECT

Introduction

The construction of the network according to the TETRA standard started in Slovenia in 2003. The central communications network was built on the national level; coverage of approximately 65% of the state's territory was reached. Approximately 7,000 radio terminals were included.

The current management of the TETRA radio system is performed by the state (Contracting Authority). The state also regulates the procedures for leasing locations and concluding contracts for the lease of locations where the infrastructure equipment is installed. The current radio system is currently maintained by an external contractor. The state covers all operating costs of the existing radio system (leases of locations, leases of data connections, maintenance and other costs). All the activities described and future costs respectively will be undertaken and borne by the public-private partnership operator.

The TETRA uniform radio network of state authorities has been primarily built in accordance with all adopted governmental strategies, i.e. as a uniform digital radio infrastructure for all state users in the Republic of Slovenia which require radio communications to perform their work and tasks. The most significant state users are or will be the Police, the Slovenian Army, the Ministry of Defence, the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief, the Ministry of Health, the Prison Administration, the Customs, the Ministry of Finance, the Protocol of the Government etc. The network can be accessed by users of special national and security importance (city traffic warden service, electrical engineering services providers, Motorway Company of Republic of Slovenia - DARS, private security agencies etc.) which have to pay a user charge in accordance with the valid governmental price list. The central part of the system enables the inclusion of 27,000 national and 10,000 external users as defined by the strategy.

The uniform digital radio network of state authorities is categorised under critical infrastructure, for which a high level of autonomy must be established. Therefore, the owner and operator of this infrastructure must establish capacities that enable a uniform maintenance and management of the system and reduce security risks, as well as managing system operations in extraordinary events. The state will perform supervision of the system’s operations in the future, and in the case of extraordinary events or conditions, will take over supervision of the system’s operations.

Based on the Decision of the Government of the RS, no. 38100-4/2012/17 as of 10 January 2013, it has been determined that, considering the situation of radio networks in state authorities and considering the studied possibilities of a uniform digital radio network of state authorities of the Republic of Slovenia being established in the form of a hybrid (combined) solution with the use of two standardised digital technologies in two phases:

- In Phase 1, the Police digital radio network shall be completed in the scope determined by the technical documentation as stated under item 7.C of the subject public call. In Phase 1, the connection between the existing radio network of protection and recovery and the Police digital radio network in construction shall be guaranteed.

- In Phase 2, the radio network of the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief shall be gradually digitalised in accordance with the expiring lifespan of the current radio system devices, and the uniform digital radio network shall be optimised.

The subject public call to promoters refers to the implementation of Phase 1, constructed according to the TETRA standard (without the connection with the existing analogue radio system of the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief).

B. TETRA radio infrastructure – description of current situation

The promoters may request the documentation on technical data about the current digital radio network status in electronic form at the Ministry of the Interior (in accordance with Item 11 of this call to promoters), and this documentation shall be considered a business secret and used only to prepare the application in relation to the subject public call.

Central switching and management infrastructure

The existing switching and management infrastructure (SwMI) enables the following functions: commutation, users' database and infrastructure management, users’ mobility management, call control, resources management, protocol control, basic and additional services; it contains interfaces to other telecommunications networks (voice and data), short data service and status messages servers.

The central switching and management equipment has the following interfaces:

  • The interface to equipment for infrastructure management equipment and radio terminals management
  • Interfaces to other telecommunications networks – (PSTN, i.e. analogue and digital telephone network (ISDN PRI level), existing analogue radio networks, LAN/WAN data networks with included TCP IP router)
  • Interfaces to voice communications recording systems
  • Interfaces to dispatcher systems
  • Interfaces to base stations

The central equipment enables the following functions: circuit-switched voice communications (individual half or full duplex calls and phone calls, group calls, alarm calls), circuit-switched oriented data communications with 28.8 kbit/s speed in 4 timeslots and packet-switched oriented data communications, short data service (SDS) and status messages, rerouting of circuit-switched and packet-switched traffic to other switching infrastructure, users’ mobility management, authentication key distribution and the distribution of radio interface encryption parameters to other switching infrastructure, call traceability, basic and supplementary services.

The network enables a constant and unreduced level of radio interface protection during switching between various cells (base stations). The network uses encryption on the radio interface with a dynamic key and TEA1 algorithm. All radio terminals use an authentication protocol to access the network.

The switching infrastructure (part of SwMI) is in a fully redundant configuration. Doubled modules are in a hot-standby operation. In the case of any defect, the switching infrastructure automatically reroutes traffic to operating (reserve) modules. In addition to redundancy at module level, redundancy at device level is ensured. In this case, redundancy devices are installed at dislocated locations, thus enabling the central switching system to be established in a 2 + 1 configuration (two switches operating, one on standby), and the control-management system is in a 1 + 1 configuration (one system operating, the other on standby).

Various methods of re-selection between cells (base stations) are enabled:

  • Classic cell reselection
  • Undeclared cell reselection
  • Unannounced cell reselection
  • Announced cell reselection (at least type 3)

The central switching system is managed by the Network Management Infrastructure. This infrastructure has the following functions:

  • Operations and maintenance management:
  • Defect management enables the operator to control and discover errors (automatic display of improper operations).
  • Review of the entire system, the status of individual items of equipment, the status of individual modules, module testing, alarm detection, alarm display and alarm recording into files, redundancy device management, and the disablement of defective devices.
  • The configuration enables the operator: to enable/disable the radio terminal; to set parameters and the method of radio terminal operations; to determine logical ID numbers for physical devices; to delete data about radio terminals; to display the status of radio terminals; to arrange radio terminals' database; to manage reroutes and manage the registration of radio terminals in the network.
  • The performance function enables the operator the following: traffic statistics, traceability of radio terminal activity, the entry of all activities in the database, average connection time, number of calls at the base station, traffic by radio channels, performance measurement analysis, the printing of performance measurement reports.
  • Protection management (encryption)
  • Enables the encrypted distribution of security information (e.g. various keys). The authentication centre stores data on key users that enable the authentication of each individual radio terminal in the network. The keys for the encryption of the radio interface are transferred remotely to all dislocated base stations.
  • Network and security management can be performed by authorised personnel only; therefore, any access to the infrastructure must be limited by passwords. Access to various levels is enabled, and this can be defined individually for each operator.
  • The management of users
  • The basic tasks comprise setting: the basic data for radio terminals, basic services, supplementary services, users groups and creating data for new users.
  • The following data (settings) are stored and used for each individual user and group. For an individual user: identity, protection parameters, priority, group membership, information on calls, information on operations area, permitted communications services, permitted basic and supplementary services. For groups of users: identification parameters, priority, protection parameters and the list of group members.

Any major authorities in the state administration must be able to connect the system to supervise their virtual networks.

Recording/reproduction system

The recording/reproduction system (established only on two active central switches) enables the collection, reproduction and archiving of all voice communications in the TETRA network. Recordings are archived (in accordance with the legislation) together with all data on the call which are relevant to reproducing the course of events: group identification number (GTSI) and individual identification numbers (ITSI) of those who actively participated in conversations, the time of the start and the duration of conversation, the dialled and dialling phone number if calls are made on external telephone networks.

Base stations

Base stations ensure radio coverage of the terrain (79 fixed and 1 mobile). At base station level, the possibility of local supervision of the base station's modules is enabled also if the connection with the central infrastructure is disconnected. In this case, the base station automatically switches to independent operations (local site trunking). If the connection with the central infrastructure is disconnected, the radio communications in the area of radio signal coverage still have sufficient support. The required functionalities for connection termination are: full and half duplex individual call for voice and data communications, half duplex group call for voice and data communications, alarm call, open communication, short data service (SDS) together with other traffic, pre-emptive call. After a reconnection between the central infrastructure and the base station, the base station automatically starts operating in normal mode. The mobile base station of the TETRA system also operates in the network with the possibility of connecting with the existing network, thereby establishing additional communication in the relevant geographical area.

Dispatcher systems

Dispatcher equipment (50 dispatcher workplaces with 9 dispatcher servers) enables the following radio and other functions:

  • simultaneous operations for several groups
  • ambience listening and discreet listening
  • call management
  • alarm call management
  • group management
  • general voice message (broadcast)
  • user regrouping
  • dynamic group number assignment (DGNA)
  • group combining
  • radio terminal control
  • status messages and alphanumeric messages (SDS – short data service) submitted and

received for individual users and groups

  • communication with external voice networks
  • call authorised by the dispatcher (CAD)
  • sending/receiving data files
  • managing at least 16 simultaneous voice communications

Radio stations (terminals)

Radio users (terminals, there are currently 7,000) can use the following functions and services in the network (individual functions and services are selectively permitted to individual users depending on the available capacities):

  • group calls,
  • individual calls,
  • telephone calls,
  • priority emergency calls,
  • call forwarding,
  • communications encryption (dynamic keys) and network access protection (authentication),
  • network transparency for various encryption types (End-to-End),
  • short message transmission,
  • status transmission,
  • data transmission (circuit-switched and packet-switched transmission),
  • connection between individual groups and dynamic grouping (DGNA),
  • closed user groups functioning principle,
  • remote blockage and de-blockage of terminals; when a terminal is lost or stolen, it can be

blocked; any tapping or disturbance of radio traffic is thus prevented; immediate de-blockage of the terminal is enabled,

  • data transmission with 28.8 kbit/s speed in four timeslots,
  • packet data transmission with 3-4 kbit/s speed in one timeframe at a signal level of -80 dBm,
  • each radio terminal must support authentication.

TETRA transmission system (SDH)

Add/drop multiplexor (ADM)

Adding/dropping traffic flows of various transmission capacities VC-n, in accordance with ITU-T g.707 and G.803 recommendations.

Digital cross-connect (DXC)

The connection of traffic flows of various capacities between random line interfaces, random inflow interface and random line interface or random inflow interfaces. The connection of traffic flows within a switching matrix applies to at least the following requirements in connection with SDH virtual containers (VC-n), tributary units and groups (TU-n and TUG-n) and administrative units (AU-n):

  • connection on VT-1.5/VC-11, VT-2/VC-12 and LO VC-3 levels,
  • conversion of HO VC-3 to LO VC-3,
  • connection of mixed traffic flows TU-3 and TUG-2 to AU-4,
  • conversion of TUG-2 traffic wrapped in AU-3 unit to AU-4.

The switching matrix of the connector is non-blocking.

The transmission system for IP/Ethernet traffic flow transport (NG SDH)

The new generation SDH (NG) SDH, TDM transmission (E1, E3, STM-n) and Ethernet (10/100 Mbit/s, 1000 Mbit/s), traffic flows within the same aggregate connections (STM-n), ranking Ethernet traffic flows in accordance with the following mechanisms:

  • VCAT in accordance with ITU-T G.707/Y.1322 and G.783 recommendations
  • LCAS in accordance with ITU-T G.7042/Y.1305 recommendations
  • GFP in accordance with ITU-T G.7041 recommendation

Connection in various network topologies

Connection in point-to-point topologies, linear topologies with multiple nodes, ring topology and hybrid topology.

The equipment guarantees a high level of reliability and availability:

  • duplex control unit,
  • duplex switching matrix on the VC-12 level,
  • duplex power supply; each power supply has its own 48 VDC connection and separate distribution of supply sections within the device,
  • automatic fast rerouting of signals is supported according to the current situation of the communication infrastructure of transmission STM-1 connections. The equipment supports a standard mechanism of automatic fast signal rerouting in connecting nodes with STM-1 connections:
  • 1+1 APS or 1+1 MSP
  • SNCP
  • 1+1 Path protection
  • Rerouting of signals to bypasses is encompassed in all possible protection scenarios in a time shorter than 50 ms

Synchronisation

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