A glimpse of the future

When we first began to write about IP technologies a little more than three years ago, we got a lot of questions from MRT readers — particularly from those in the public-safety sector — who were unable to see the relevance to their communications networks.

At the time, commercial voice over IP (VoIP) was in a nascent stage, with reliability problems stemming from latency, packet loss and a lack of bandwidth. The voice quality of those consumer-oriented systems was barely adequate for application in the enterprise sector and was out of the question for mission-critical communications, although private VoIP networks from companies like M/A-COM were gaining momentum.

Nevertheless, the quality then was light years ahead of where it had been just a few years before, when the only people willing to use VoIP were those wishing to speak with grandma on the other side of the country at cut rates. And it was clear to see, if one peeled back the layers just a bit, that VoIP technology vendors were quickly closing the quality gap and that it only was a matter of time before packetized voice became a viable option for first responders.

At the same time, a parallel track was emerging — mobile data — that had its own technology challenges, the biggest of which concerned bandwidth. One of the most exciting mobile-data applications — for both to the public-safety and enterprise sectors — involves streaming video in real time to maximize the application’s effectiveness. Imagine how useful it would be to incident commanders if first responders at the scene could stream video of a multi-vehicle accident, the inside of a burning warehouse or a house under police stakeout. Equally compelling to enterprises is the ability to protect vital assets via video surveillance. But transmitting video over the airwaves eats up a lot of bandwidth and, with spectrum in short supply, the enthusiasm quickly dampened more than a bit.

However, just as it occurred in the VoIP sector, the innovators began to find a way around these hurdles, by developing spectrum-friendly technologies — such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, which divides spectrum into several narrowband channels at different frequencies — and creating new solutions — such as video compression and intelligent video, which allocates bandwidth when and where it is needed — to make more efficient use of the spectrum that’s currently available (see a related story in this edition’s dataNEXT supplement, beginning on page 12).

It’s no wonder that Morgan Wright, Cisco System’s global manager for public safety, is delivering the keynote address at IWCE 2007 at the Las Vegas Convention Center this month. Given the ongoing migration of public-safety mobile voice and data communications to IP technologies, it is only natural that Cisco — a leading vendor of such technologies — would target the first-responder sector.

And Wright seems ideally suited to lead Cisco’s initiatives, given his background as a former state police trooper and police detective. In a recent interview with MRT Senior Writer Donny Jackson, he outlined several emerging applications that clearly will make first responders more effective in the field. But Wright also said that public-safety officials must alter the way they think about mobile data in order to take full advantage of these opportunities (see dataNEXT, page 10, for the complete interview).

With the 800 MHz reconfiguration effort a complete mess (see story on page 12) and the debate just beginning on Capitol Hill regarding several proposals to create public/private partnerships to build next-generation wireless broadband networks for public safety (see story on page 10), IWCE will feature several sessions devoted to these topics. Attendees shouldn’t miss “800 MHz Rebanding: Are We Any Closer?” on March 29 from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m., and “Solving Public Safety’s Broadband Wireless Conundrum,” on March 30, also from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m.

One of the most interesting uses of mobile data technology involves tracking people and assets. For instance, enterprises are using radio frequency identification (RFID) to track product as it moves through the supply chain and GPS to monitor their employees as they move through the work day. The Departments of State and Homeland Security also are using RFID in border-crossing documents and in U.S. passports, in an effort to keep better tabs on those who enter the country.

But this sort of surveillance has raised the interest, if not the ire, of privacy advocates, who are quite concerned about whether — and more important, how easily — sensitive information about individuals could land in the wrong hands. The debate is lively and comes to IWCE in the session “RFID in Public Safety and Homeland Security Applications,” (which this writer will moderate) at 3:00 to 4:15 p.m. on March 28.

The above just scratches the surface of the robust educational content that will be offered at IWCE this year. Add it all up, and IWCE is the best bet in Vegas.

IWCE 2007 basics

Where: Las Vegas Convention Center

Technology workshops: Mon., March 26, and Tues., March 27, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Conference sessions: Wed., March 28, 11:00 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.; Thurs., March 29, 10:00 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.; Fri., March 30, 10:00 a.m. to 12:10 p.m.

Exhibits: Wed., March 28, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Thurs., March 29, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Fri., March 30, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Conference tracks: Interoperability; Land Mobile Radio; Broadband Mobile; Spectrum Utilization; Emerging Technologies

Keynote: Morgan Wright, global manager for public safety, Cisco Systems, Wed., March 28, 8:30 to 10:30 a.m.

Networking reception: Wed., March 28, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Dealer Day: Wed., March 28, 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Spotlight sessions: “800 MHz Rebanding: Are We Any Closer,” Thurs., March 29, 8:30 to 9:45 a.m.; “Point/Counterpoint: Public Safety’s Wish List and Technology’s Reality,” Thurs., March 29, 1:30 to 2:45 p.m.; “Solving Public Safety Broadband Wireless Conundrum,” Fri., March 30, 8:30 to 9:45 a.m.

More info: www.iwceexpo.com