https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • Product Guides
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • Product Guides
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Call Center/Command


Expanding horizons

Expanding horizons

Interoperability vision must move beyond voice to include data
  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 1st August 2007

The term “interoperability” has taken on enormous meaning and consequence for public-safety communications. Threats from terrorist attacks and other manmade or natural hazards require emergency responders and government and non-government decision-makers to effectively manage prevention, protection, response and recovery activities.

The ability to manage these emergency tasks depends in part on the availability of interoperable emergency communications systems and applications that can support real-time radio communications and exchange operationally useful information between response agencies and other organizations — both within and across the affected area, which typically affects multiple jurisdictions.

Figure 1 illustrates the various stages of interoperable communications, both voice and data. Emergency responder communications requirements are defined by the complexity of events such as the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. Emergency responders require the support of robust radio, broadband wireless and fiber optic networks, combined with dependable access to, and sharing of, mission-critical data. The ability to achieve advanced stages of information interoperability is the next challenge.

Radio interoperability is of paramount importance to the first responder community. The topic of extensive research and debate, interoperability is a major focus of federal, state and local public-safety technology investments. Advancing voice communications interoperability has been the primary objective of public-safety licensees for decades. The challenges of radio interoperability are quite obvious to system designers, technicians, manufacturers, the FCC and end-users. These challenges include:

  • Disparate frequencies at VHF, UHF, 700 MHz and 800 MHz.

  • Absence of affordable network multi-technology, multi-spectral end-user radios.

  • Limitations of network standards.

  • Radio network deployment strategies focused on the jurisdiction in lieu of a regional, state or national architecture.

  • Differences of opinion on how best to achieve radio interoperability.

Individually and collectively, these challenges affect achieving optimal interoperability. Public-safety radio personnel, information technologists and vendors have implemented a variety of innovative solutions to advance voice communications because such communication is essential to first responders. Consequently, radio interoperability technology has advanced significantly. Today, the primary obstacle to achieving interoperability is the actual implementation itself, although funding issues are still a factor.

But while the lives of first responders and of those they protect depend on interoperable voice communication, these same responders have a similar — perhaps even more compelling — requirement for real-time, anytime, anywhere access to mission-critical data. Access to, and sharing of, such information across local, state and federal jurisdiction boundaries; across agencies; and across all technical and administrative boundaries are essential to the emergency responder community.

At its most elementary level, data interoperability means having the ability to send and receive information, typically through the use of fax, e-mail and other simple means of exchange. Another basic level of data interoperability is defined by standardizing single Web-based applications, such as crisis information management systems, computer-aided dispatch systems, geographic information systems (GIS) and others.

For the purposes of this article, data interoperability is defined as the exchange or query of structured data from one responder agency application to an application used by another responder agency. Data interoperability must be supported regardless of the type, structure or other variables unique to the information. This interoperability must transpire regardless of whether responder agencies are using the same or differing applications, or wired or wireless transport media.

There are significant challenges to achieving data interoperability:

  • Disparate legacy applications and databases incapable of direct information-sharing.

  • Absence of common naming conventions for public-safety resources.

  • The lack of, or the lack of adherence to, public-safety data standards.

  • Commitment of responder agencies within and across jurisdictional boundaries to share information.

  • Challenges concerning security and governance between jurisdictions.

While these challenges are significant, they are not insurmountable. Federal agencies including the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, together with local and state public-safety entities, universities and vendors, are designing and implementing advanced information-sharing technology and data standards to guide the advancement of data interoperability. A prime example of public-safety data standardization to enhance interoperability is the National Information Exchange Model. NIEM is designed to develop, disseminate and support information exchange standards to effectively share critical information in emergency situations.

Emergency responder data exchange requirements vary from agency to agency, depending on each agency’s specialized functions. But police, fire, emergency medical, emergency management, health and medical, and transportation also share many common requirements. Law enforcement requirements for access to local, regional and national criminal databases, as well as motor vehicle and driver license data, are as essential to its mission as the ability to report and analyze disease information and monitor patient tracking is for health and medical professionals.

Similarly, access to crucial data, including building architectural drawings and on-scene video, enables firefighters to perform their life-saving work more efficiently and safely. Emergency managers also need real-time access to an extensive array of information to better coordinate their efforts and improve their ability to deploy the appropriate available resources in complex situations.

The National Capital Region Interoperability Program (NCRIP) is a comprehensive data interoperability program designed to provide emergency responders and all emergency support function personnel in the Washington, D.C., region with advanced information access and exchange capabilities. The NCRIP leverages a government institutional fiber optic network known as INET throughout the region to facilitate secure and reliable connectivity and information transport. Additionally, the program includes the implementation of a Regional Wireless Broadband Network that will provide desktop mobility capabilities to the region’s responder community. The network will facilitate wireless high-speed, multimedia functionality throughout the region’s 2500-square-mile footprint by interconnecting to the INET where available.

Information interoperability will be achieved via a data exchange hub (DEH) that will serve as a “portal of portals,” providing data access and sharing across all of the region’s 22 jurisdictions, the federal government, the states of Virginia and Maryland, and the District of Columbia. The DEH is being designed as a service-oriented architecture (SOA) network to support various Web services for all responder agencies.

The SOA is supported by an enterprise service bus technology that efficiently enables the sharing of information across disparate applications and database structures via extensible markup language (XML) data-message structuring. In the future, the region will aggressively adopt NIEM data standards to simplify data exchanges. Jurisdictional data will be accessed across the region through a secure authentication process. Specific data will not be centrally deposited, as the DEH will support data query and information analysis but not central aggregation. In addition, a regional GIS map is included in the system to support situational awareness viewing throughout the region and beyond.

Figure 2 presents a basic illustration of the DEH functionality. Authorized DEH users will be provided rights to access and share information via the hub. Data interoperability will be supported at the inter- and intrajurisdictional levels and will address the specialized requirements of all responder agencies. The expectations are that the DEH will support both day-to-day and critical emergency events on a cross-regional basis, and each jurisdiction will rely on the hub to support regular information exchange requirements.

Data interoperability is an essential tool for the emergency responder community. Mission-critical information must be available to responders both in the field and at the command/dispatch center over secure and reliable wireless and wired infrastructure. The challenges to the implementation of true data interoperability are as complex and diverse as the entities such systems are designed to serve.

Threats of terrorism attacks and large-scale natural catastrophes warrant the advent of large area and regional communications and information technology networks, with robust and reliable tools, to meet the nation’s need for data interoperability. Police, fire and emergency medical agencies, as well as myriad other organizations that work directly with the emergency response community, have an urgent need for efficient and timely data information and sharing.


Rick Burke is managing partner of Televate LLC, a public-safety information technology firm headquartered in McLean, Va. He can be reached at [email protected].

Tags: Call Center/Command content Wireless Networks

Most Recent


  • FAA approves beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) flights in North Dakota
    The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) avionics company uAvionix received Federal Aviation Administration approval to conduct advanced beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) flights of small UAVs in North Dakota.  The flights will be conducted at the Northern Plains Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Test Site (NPUASTS) in Grand Forks, one of seven FAA-run UAV test sites in the U.S., using […]
  • AT&T boasts of core 'white box' success in 5G, fiber push
    AT&T said it has now migrated more than 52% of all of its production traffic onto next-generation “white box” core routers running on products from the likes of Broadcom and DriveNets. The company said its move to such “open” systems has helped its aggressive 5G and fiber expansions. “We announced the next-gen open disaggregated core routing […]
  • AT&T wireless growth keyed by FirstNet—now provides 24,000 agencies with 4.4 million connections
    AT&T this week reported that FirstNet ended 2022 supporting more than 24,000 public-safety agencies with “about” 4.4 million connections, including 377,000 connections that were added during the last three months of 2022—a total that represents more than half of the carrier’s post-paid wireless growth for the quarter. AT&T officials released these figures in conjunction with […]
  • Report: Remote work causing offices to empty, but walkable cities still in high demand
    Given the reliance on vehicular transportation in the United States, some American cities historically haven’t prioritized being walkable in past planning and or design. But amid an unprecedented shift in the economy toward remote work, those that have are increasingly desirable for prospective residents. A new report from Smart Growth American and Places Platform, “Foot Traffic Ahead […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Robot-bus trial succeeds ... mostly
  • NENA does not oppose $15 billion NG911 proposal, but wants language ‘corrected,’ CEO says
  • Cars, Medicine, Electric Grids: Future hackers will hit much more than networks in an IT/OT integrated world
  • Securing an open-source OS for IoT

Commentary


How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient

26th January 2023

3GPP moves Release 18 freeze date to March 2024

18th January 2023

Do smart cities make safer cities?

  • 1
6th January 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

FAA approves beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) flights in North Dakota dlvr.it/ShgxHW

30th January 2023
UrgentComm

AT&T boasts of core ‘white box’ success in 5G, fiber push dlvr.it/Shgb4w

30th January 2023
UrgentComm

Spending American Rescue Plan Act funds: A primer for municipalities dlvr.it/ShgZ52

30th January 2023
UrgentComm

AT&T wireless growth keyed by FirstNet—now provides 24,000 agencies with 4.4 million connections dlvr.it/ShY5qH

27th January 2023
UrgentComm

Report: Remote work causing offices to empty, but walkable cities still in high demand dlvr.it/ShXM7Z

27th January 2023
UrgentComm

AT&T FirstNet unleashes robotic dogs for emergency services dlvr.it/ShW7p8

27th January 2023
UrgentComm

Federal agencies infested by cyberattackers via legit remote-management systems dlvr.it/ShVhn3

26th January 2023
UrgentComm

How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient dlvr.it/ShVS1h

26th January 2023

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.