This year's UEFA EURO 2024 for men is without doubt the largest plannable operational situation this year for the German police forces, fire brigades and rescue services. Four of the ten venues are located the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). In addition, the International Police Cooperation Center (IPCC) in Neuss, will serve as the nationwide situation centre for the European Championships. For some time now, the radio network planners at the Authorised Office NRW in the State Office for Central Police Services (LZPD) NRW have been working on re-examining the capacities of the Public Safety Digital Radio Network and further optimising them where necessary.

A new summer fairy tale?

Held from 14 June to 14 July, the 2024 European Men's Football Championship has the potential to give Germany another summer fairytale like the 2006 World Cup. However, the date of the final match, 14 July, brings back unpleasant memories for some. This is the third anniversary of the flood disaster in western Germany. “I don't tend to think the worst,” says Ulrike Nickel, Head of the Authorised Office NRW (AS NRW). “But we always have to bear such eventualities in mind in all our planning.” This means preparing for a major event such as the European Football Championship as well as potentially unforeseeable additional events. In this respect, digital radio in NRW has become even more resilient thanks to the management of the extreme weather situation in 2021. “We carefully evaluated the crisis at the time and drew our conclusions,” explains Ulrike Nickel. And ultimately, we invested a lot of money to make the grid even more robust.
For example, almost the entire Public Safety Digital Radio Network in NRW has now been hardened with emergency power generators to protect against a potential power outage. It is therefore extremely unlikely that a power failure could affect radio communication during the European Championship. The experts are therefore focussing on radio capacity and network coverage.

Public Safety Digital Radio Network in NRW is generally very resilient

“We have local derbies in the Bundesliga (the national football league), we have carnival events, we have major demonstrations,” says Sebastian Asshoff, head of radio network planning at AS NRW. “From a technical perspective, none of this has yet pushed the Public Safety Digital Radio Network to its limits, so why should the European Championship be any different?” Nevertheless, a great deal of effort is being put into further optimising the network in order to be prepared for as many things as possible during this major event.

Source: stock.adobe.com/Tupungato

According to forecasts by the European football association UEFA, around 2.5 million football fans from Germany and abroad are expected in Germany this summer, possibly including hooligans and other groups that are well-known and notorious for violence. Stadiums, public viewing locations, railway stations, airports, underground stations – all of these can be places of exuberant football fun, but also potential riots.

Where are the most fans at any given time? This question has been occupying the operational planners in the police authorities for months – and also the radio network planners at the Authorised Office NRW. Because where there are a lot of fans, a lot of emergency service personnel are needed to provide security. And where there are a large number of emergency service personnel, the capacity of Public Safety Digital Radio must be sufficient to ensure communication without the problem of queuing. Radio discipline is one thing, sufficient network capacity is another to ensure good radio communication.

Focal points in the sights of radio network planners

Source: stock.adobe.com/uslatar

According to the assessment of the Authorised Office NRW, the radio capacities will be sufficient. “I'm actually less concerned about the stadiums,” says Sebastian Asshoff. In NRW, these are the arenas in Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Düsseldorf and Cologne. “Bundesliga matches take place here practically every week, including some local derbies with fan groups where things can get pretty heated. The radio capacities in the stadiums are proven and adequate.” Nevertheless, the radio cell capacities at all stadiums were increased to the maximum expansion level as a precautionary measure and an additional organisational channel was integrated. “We can now fall back on reserves to deal with any situation.”

The challenge of assessing the security situation

One particular challenge for the planners was the late drawing of the preliminary round groups by UEFA on 2 December 2023. “For a long time, it wasn't clear which teams would play at which venue,” says Asshoff. However, this question is important for assessing the security situation, as the fans of some teams are considered to be more violent than others. Potentially violent fans in one place means more emergency service personnel – and not just in the stadium, but on all routes to and from the stadium, in railway stations, at public viewing locations and on fan miles, and even in and around the hotels where the fans or teams are staying.
“Of course, we need some time to check the radio coverage and network capacities at these locations,” explains Sebastian Asshoff. “If it turns out that we need to expand capacity at these locations, we also need time for these measures, as they have to be commissioned and initiated by the Federal Agency for Public Safety Digital Radio. The new AS NRW radio measurement bus has therefore travelled many kilometres in recent weeks to check the quality of coverage at the request of the district police authorities, both at potential focal points and at locations they have identified themselves.

Network improvements around the venues and in Neuss

Source: stock.adobe.com/uslatar

After years of optimisation, the Public Safety Digital Radio Network in NRW is considered resilient and robust. With a view to the European Football Championship, five network modification measures to increase radio capacity were initiated and prioritised for implementation – in some cases quite a long time ago. In addition to the venues in Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Gelsenkirchen and Cologne, this also affects the city of Neuss.

Source: LAFP NRW

This is because the International Police Cooperation Centre (IPCC) is being set up in the training centre of the NRW State Office for Police Training and Further Training (LAFP) in Neuss. All tournament-related and security-relevant information will be collated, processed and forwarded here. The IPCC is run by the NRW police, but officers from other federal states, the federal police and international partner states are also involved. In order to provide the IPCC with even better network coverage, among other things, an additional base station that had been planned for some time was put into operation in December 2023.

Use of mobile base stations

Source: LZPD NRW

At the time of writing, the additional use of mobile base stations is an option that is being examined with regard to the European Championship requirements of the venue authorities. On the one hand, construction and connection-related requirements need to be clarified. On the other hand, the use of this resource must be carefully weighed up with regard to potential additional deployment requirements beyond the UEFA EURO 2024 for men. The Authorised Office NRW is involved in the nationwide coordination of mobile base stations and other mobile technology for the European Championship. “We want to be prepared for everything,” says Sebastian Asshoff.

Indoor coverage: Radio coverage in airports and railway stations

Source: stock.adobe.com/Markus Mainka

Indoor coverage plays a key role in the provision of radio coverage in buildings. This applies in particular to underground stations, railway stations and airports. Because where many people arrive and depart by public transport, indoor radio coverage must also be sufficient.

Indoor coverage systems have been in operation in all underground railway systems in NRW for some time now. Public Safety Digital Radio is therefore available in these locations. The situation at the state's airports is similarly positive.

From the point of view of the Authorised Office NRW, coverage at railway stations is adequate. Some construction sites are nearing completion. Responsibility for the railway stations lies with the national railway company Deutsche Bahn AG. “The AS NRW will once again inform users about the exact coverage at the site via the tactical-technical operating centres (TBB) and provide information on optimal radio usage,” explains Sebastian Asshoff.

Radio network planners on call

During the European Championship, the Authorised Office's radio network planners will be on call 24/7 to carry out interference rectification or optimisation if necessary. “You don't always have to assume there will be a major incident, but digital radio is technology and technology can sometimes break down,” says Sebastian Asshoff. “We are prepared for such cases.”

EURO 2024 – radio technology assessment

Before EURO 2024

• Review of the current and planned radio coverage
• Review of network capacity (call volume per base station)
• Evaluation of traffic volume (signalling and access network)
• Consideration of operational aspects (radio protection, network modernisation, KRITIS, network hardening)
• Initiation of measures (network modification measures, indoor coverage, capacity expansion, signalling, additional organisational channel)

During EURO 2024

• Nationwide radio protection – no construction and renovation measures in the network
• 24/7 monitoring of network capacities and network usage
• Monitoring of any mobile base stations deployed
• Immediate check by the radio monitoring service in the event of radio network problems
• Deployment planning and provision of mobile base stations to compensate for outages
• Operational readiness of radio network planning (for the potential deployment of mobile base stations)
• Call group distribution and allocation by the NRW Digital Radio Control Centre (The Digital Radio Control Centre (CCD), located at the AS NRW, monitors the entire Public Safety Digital Radio Network in NRW around the clock).

Author: Olaf Peters, Authorised Office NRW

This article first appeared in Wellenreiter, Summer 2024 issue.

All issues of the federal-state magazine Wellenreiter can be found under Publications.