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by Bill Lent
One of the most crucial
factors in responding to
and recovering from any
emergency or disaster
is the ability to see and
understand what is happening
throughout the
area involved. This understanding
or “seeing” is
what we call situational
awareness. There are two
ways to achieve this. Either
through voice descriptions
or through the exchange
of “information” (data),
and both are important to
the overall understanding
of what is going on and
what needs to be done. The
combination of the two can
allow responders to better
analyze the circumstances,
review available options
and make better and faster
decisions.
It would seem only logical that all voice
and software (data) systems utilized for
response to emergencies would allow
direct and seamless communications
between all of those participating in
a response. That is, however, not the
case. The 9/11 tragedy highlighted
the problem when the police and fire
departments could not communicate
with each other because of different
equipment and incompatible radio systems.
Private sector companies that
supply the public safety community
have had a vested interest in maintaining
their products in such a way as to
require that others wanting to communicate
with their products use only their
products. This is true for both voice and
data communications.
The public sector already understands
this situation cannot continue.
Toward this end there are several government-
sponsored standards being
developed in both voice and data that will eventually allow these disparate systems
to seamlessly communicate. Multiple
organizations are working together
with several federal entities to accomplish
interoperability in both voice and
data communications and these various
efforts are now being blended into a
coordinated effort to achieve at least a
mid level of interoperability through
the use of middleware (software connections
between legacy software). In
an effort to promote interoperability,
the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS), the Department of Justice and
others have initiated and supported
interoperability efforts in both the voice
and data arenas.
Voice Interoperability Standards
The Emergency Response Council
is a group of local, state and federal
responders, public safety associations,
and other interested parties that come
together to work on issues surrounding
interoperable voice (and now data)
communications. The ERC provides
recommendations to the Executive
Committee and the Practitioners Steering
Group so that the executive-level
governance bodies may provide input
into the Office of Interoperability and
Continuity and to the Office of Emergency
Communications regarding their
voice and data communications efforts.
The ERC met in Denver, Colorado
on June 14, 2007, to forge agreements
for a Nationwide Plan for Interoperable
Communications. This effort
was sponsored by the DHS Office of
Interoperability and Compatibility and
was an extension of the SAFECOM (one
of the 25 key Office of Management
and Budget e-government initiatives
to improve public safety voice communications)
programs. This effort was to
provide voice interoperability for first
responders and others. This was the
first group of public safety practitioners
to lead an effort toward a Nationwide
Plan for Interoperable Communications
(Voice). Key areas were established
for practitioners across the nation for
implementation of a “system of systems”
approach to voice interoperability.
These initiatives are:
- Leadership & Coordination: Clear
leadership structures to link all levels
of government and to coordinate
resources must be put in place. Otherwise,
emergency responders will
continue to suffer from misdirection
and inefficient use of resources.
- System Design and Interconnects:
Each system must be designed with
integrity so it can interoperate with
other systems when needed and as
authorized, but have the ability to
adapt to future technologies as they
are developed.
- Standards & Certification: For systems
to interoperate seamlessly,
technical standards must be in place,
as well as a certification/testing program
to verify these standards are
correctly implemented in equipment
and products.
- Standardization & Accreditation:
Standardization of protocol, procedures,
and accreditation must be in
place for responders to establish consistency
of operations and common
skill sets for personnel across the
nation.
The ERC is also involved in Project
25, which is a set of standards produced
through the joint efforts of The Association
of Public Safety Communications
Officials (APCO), the National Association
of State Technology Directors
(NASTD), the National Communications
System (NCS) and selected federal
agencies, and standardized under the
Telecommunications Industry Association
(TIA). It is an open architecture,
user driven suite of system standards
that define digital radio communications
systems architectures capable of
serving the needs of public safety and
government organizations. These standards
define the interfaces, operation and
capabilities of any P25 compliant radio
system. The P25 exists in the public
domain, allowing any manufacturer to
produce a P25 compatible radio product.
P25 compliant radios operate in
both digital and analog modes. Current
standards include an RF Sub-System,
Common Air Interface, Inter-System
Interface, Telephone Interconnect
Interface, Network Management Interfaces,
Data Host or Network Interface,
Data Peripheral Interface, Fixed Station
Interface and Console Sub-System
Interface. A full description of Project
25 and these standards may be found at
www.danelec.com.
As a part of its responsibilities the ERC
developed the “Continuum,” which is a
verbal and graphic description of the
process a jurisdiction would go through
to accomplish true interoperability. The
Continuum working group has recently
recommended changes which would
include a data element as a part of a
revised Continuum.
Data Interoperability Standards
In the area of data interoperability there
has been significant progress in the last
couple of years. The various federal
efforts at data standardization have been
joined together by agreements to make all of the standards currently established
National Information Exchange Model
(NIEM)-compliant. There is now a set
process for defining what information
needs to be standardized, developing
the schema to accomplish international
standardization, and coordinating with
the various software developers to write
their software to the established standards.
The DHS Office of Interoperability
and Compatibility is currently
supporting practitioner involvement
in the standards process. The OIC is
currently implementing a Memorandum
of Agreement (MOA) with the
National Incident Management System
(NIMS) and the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM). This MOA
will result in an agreement on processes
and standards, a unified grant guidance
document, and standards compliance
between all major programs.
There are current and in-process
standards and there is an effort to
include these standards as a requirement
for federal grants as a part of
published grant guidance. Other areas
and subjects that are currently under
consideration include the Health Information
Technology Standards Panel
Emergency Response Use Cases, World
Health Organization guidance, Patient
Tracking issues, injured persons and
notification and reunification efforts,
and fatalities including identification
and notification issues.
Coordinated efforts to achieve the
ability to allow emergency responders
from both the public and private sectors
to freely exchange information through
both voice and data channels will continue
to move forward and will someday
allow all who would be involved in the
response to and recovery from emergencies
and disasters to provide more
efficient services to those we serve.
The goal of these efforts is to improve
the efficiency of future responses, to
decrease property damage and reduce
loss of life.
About the Author
Edward W. (Bill) Lent III is currently the Director
of Sales for Compressus. He has been
an advocate of interoperable voice and data
communications throughout his career in emergency
management, which currently spans 28
years. He has been involved with technology
in emergency management virtually since its
introduction into the emergency management
profession. Bill may be reached by email at
blent@compressus.com, or by cellular phone at
301-452-5849.
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