focuses on obtaining the right technology to become interoperable --
the final step after collaboration -- and assumes agencies want
interoperable equipment.
As almost an aside to the
conversations about 10-codes, politics and turf battles as they relate
to interoperability, Harlin McEwen, vice chairman of the National
the lack of radio interoperability among first responders from
different agencies and locales.
"You've got all these
disparate systems -- I don't believe in my heart that's ever going to
what you change this year to bring some compatibility, next year
somebody has a newer and better product."
The problem isn't
the lack of technology from which to choose; in fact, plenty has been
done in the interoperability arena in terms of solutions first
responders can focus on without reinventing the wheel. The real need is
for responders to take rising costs into consideration, as well as the
ease of use, and look into forming partnerships with nearby
jurisdictions that have already deployed solutions.
Expensive Investment
There
are many considerations when procuring a radio system, and cost tops
the list. Effective radio communication systems can be expensive, and
many agencies and locales can't afford the investment.
"For
many years, radio systems were a pretty simple technology and lasted
for a long time," said Kevin Kearns, executive director of iXP Corp.,
based in Washington state. "It was not uncommon to see 20-year-old base
stations in use, and mobile and portable radios at 10 to 15 years of
age. The gear could be repaired by radio technicians as long as the
parts were available, and that was typically a long time."
That, however, has changed dramatically in the last decade.
"Systems
are much more complex now and utilize expensive new technologies that
have shorter life cycles," Kearns explained. "Radio systems are looking
more and more like IT systems, and some of the core components of the
infrastructures have comparable life cycles. That shifts a significant
capital expenditure burden on a jurisdiction that may be having a hard
time just coming up with adequate funding for personnel and operating
costs."
Though the right technology is a bit of a moving
target, it's important to find out what interoperability investments
have already been made, and consider partnering with another agency or
locale, said Chris Essid, interoperability coordinator for Virginia. He
said it's critical to coordinate with other locales in the region to
ensure that communications systems are interoperable.
"Many
times systems are built 100 percent independently -- without
consideration of partnering with a nearby system that would create a
larger footprint at a reduced cost," he said. "I was in a meeting where
a locality was going to build a system, but once they realized the
state was building the same kind of system, they let the state use
their frequencies in return for being able to become a primary user on
the system. This resulted in millions being saved."
Essid advises agencies to retain internal technical expertise when dealing with the vendors.
"Many
times what you need is much different from what you are being sold, and
localities can save millions on large systems by having some internal
technical expertise to advise them."
A Cyren Call
If a certain project comes to fruition, technology costs could be mitigated.
The
project in question -- a nationwide, public-safety grade broadband
network for emergency responders, built by commercial operators and
shared with the government -- is proposed by the co-founder of Nextel
Communications, Morgan O'Brien, now co-founder and chairman of a
company called Cyren Call.
The Cyren Call project would
take an estimated 10 years to build at approximately $17 billion. It
would use a block of 30 MHz in the 700 MHz spectrum band, which is to
be auctioned off in 2008. The bill for the project was introduced by
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in March, and would put the band spectrum in
a public safety broadband trust.
Former Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Tom Ridge urged the project's
creation, while McEwen said he's intrigued by the idea, adding that the
network wouldn't be designed to replace traditional land mobile legacy
systems, but could tie them together.
"You'd have
nationwide, roaming, compatibility," McEwen said. "And you'd have voice
over IP [Internet protocol] backup to your traditional, more reliable
voice systems."
But the project has its critics, including
senators, the FCC and telecommunications companies, who want to guard
the spectrum and dislike the concept of having Cyren Call managing it.
McEwen
said he hasn't seen a better proposal for a nationwide system, and that
it would be a relief to taxpayers, who'd otherwise have to pay for many
more local systems. Critics, however, say users will still be on the
hook for expensive proprietary handsets. Passage of the bill may be a
long shot because Congress has a tendency toward wanting to sell
spectrum commercially rather than putting it in a public trust.
Statewide System
In
the interim, some states, such as Florida, are building 800 MHz radio
systems through which public safety agencies statewide can communicate.
Okaloosa County, Fla., is in the process of joining this system, and
expects to go online in 2009.
The county is now working
with 1970s architecture, but emergency workers, deputies and county
workers all operate on different systems. Joining the state system will
save the county the $10 million it would have spent to build radio
towers. However, there's still the cost of $600,000 for dispatching
consoles, as well as startup costs for radios, which is expected to be
$200,000. Sheriff's deputies are expected to pay more than $500,000 for
radio startup.
In Silicon Valley, a group of 30 law
enforcement, fire and emergency medical agencies in Santa Clara County
is developing a voice/data wireless system that was cited by the DHS as
a "Best Practices" model for interoperability.
The system
will rely on a microwave network, now being built, that will enable
first responders to exchange voice and data. Another part of the area's
interoperability system is the Bay Area Mutual Aid Communications
System (called BayMACS), which responders can use to communicate
regardless of jurisdictional boundaries.
But because this
system exists on a single channel, it would be easily overwhelmed
during a catastrophe. The group is looking at a network-based VoIP
radio solution to solve the problem.
The Gee Whiz Factor
The very mention of IP-based systems is the cause of many a furrowed brow.
"There
are lots of gee whiz technology solutions that could help these folks
in various parts of their jobs," said John Clark, former deputy chief
of public safety for the FCC. "But in terms of making sure they have
real-time communications that might be the difference between life and
death, it has to be with them in the tower, in their hands, on their
belt, and it has to be seamlessly usable. In other words, it can't
require them to dial up channel 9; it's got to be something that just
happens."
Some agencies are operating with legacy equipment
that precludes them from considering interoperability with their
neighboring agencies and jurisdictions.
"It's pretty
common," McEwen said. "There are a lot of people around the country
having problems because of their systems being old and needing
replacement. Little by little they're getting replaced, but it costs a
lot of money to replace them."
There's not a lot of
incentive, Clark said, for a local agency to break the bank to purchase
technology for interoperability's sake -- for a catastrophe that may or
may not happen.
"It's the same problem they had in New
Orleans," he said. "How much money do you want to invest on a category
5 storm that you might not see in your lifetime?"
And there's another issue, McEwen said.
"Unless
you have good communications within your agency to do your own job,
you're not going to be really enamored with, �???�??�?¢??How can I improve
things to talk to my neighbors?'"
Gateways to Interoperability
Most
of the time, Clark said, internal communications are all that's needed.
And interoperability can be achieved -- and might have to be achieved
-- by use of gateway devices, McEwen said, like the Raytheon ACU-1000,
which can be deployed quickly to connect disparate systems.
As
Kearns said, these communications systems are prestaged and
preprogrammed to allow quick deployment, but that takes prior
coordination.
"At the strategic level," he said, "you can
utilize larger and more network-centric versions of these gateway
technologies to link together dissimilar system infrastructures so that
interoperability is essentially permanently in place and users of one
system can talk with users on a linked system on a routine basis."
Florida has used the ACU-1000 and other emergency deployable interoperable communications systems, in numerous situations.
"They are extremely useful," said Silvia Womack, 911 communications chief of the
Okaloosa
County Department of Public Safety. "Any county in the state can
request its deployment. It also can and has been deployed outside of
the state for emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina. They have been
used for every type of emergency -- tornadoes, hurricanes, conferences,
the Super Bowl and even the Space Shuttle retrieval mission."
Learning From the �???�??�?¢??Amateurs'
Steve
Rauter, former deputy chief of the Lisle-Woodridge Fire Department in
Chicago and current 911 director, said he wants on-scene, off-network
tactical radio solutions for most interoperability needs.
"My
issue is in-the-hand tactical interoperability," he said. "I want the
technology in the hand -- not at some controller far away or an
IP-based system that is fairly brittle."
There's a time and place for the IP-based solution, he said, but not in critical, on-scene communications -- at least not yet.
"Some
of the military IP solutions are starting to come out," Rauter said.
"Those are in essence hardened; they're encapsulated, meaning they're
not wide open to anybody who wants to smack into them."
But
as far as public safety is concerned, he said, the IP-based system
hasn't arrived yet. "I don't want to have to wait and reboot my radio
before I can go into a fire scene; that just doesn't make sense to me."
Some
manufacturers sell radio systems and call them IP compatible when
they're really not, Rauter said. "Some of the bigger manufacturers,
including some of the biggest, will tell you they've got IP from end to
end, which is completely false because the radio is not IP compatible
-- though they will tell you it is."
He said public safety officials could take a page or two out of the amateur (ham) radio playbook.
"For
at least 35 years, the ham radio community has enjoyed multiband,
multimode radios, and we're trying to migrate some of that technology
to public safety," Rauter said. "Give me a bag of them with
some AA batteries, and I can deploy some folks to go do work. The
technology lends itself to instantaneous work. You're going to hear
people opposed to that. They're going to say that you need to bring in
a full up trunk radio system to handle large emergencies, and there is
some merit to that. But for the most part, for most of the country, a
much less expensive methodology could be had."
He said there
are products available now that fill this need. Amateur radio units
cost about $300, and it's rumored that a couple of manufacturers will
unveil new, multiband, multimode radios at this year's International
Wireless Communications Expo in Las Vegas.
"One of the
manufacturers was talking about a military style or at least a
migration from the military, that's an intra-team radio that's
sometimes known as an MBITER radio that [covers] 30 MHz through 512
[MHz] continuous tuning with digital, analog, wideband, narrow band and
encryption," Rauter said. "That's a standard-issue handy talky called a
PRC-148."
Read the Label
Some
manufacturers are peddling Project-25 compatible systems that are
advertised as interoperability solutions. But, Rauter said, it's not
that easy.
"Project 25 does not address the band issues,"
he said. "Interoperability has to start with spectrum. Project 25
started out as a digital on-the-air interface, which they were fairly
successful in implementing, but some of the manufacturers would put in
proprietary options, which would make them nonstandard, meaning you
can't put Brand A on a Brand X system, and this has been a problem."
Rauter
said he'd like to see labels on these systems, much like the food label
on a jar of peanut butter that lists exactly what's in it.
"The
manufacturers want to position themselves to be exclusive," Rauter
said. "If you go back 18 years when Project 25 started, it was supposed
to reduce the price of radios. They're not going down, they're going
up."
