Telecom & Satcom Nuggets (2008/09 GUIDE)
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National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC)
NPSTC is a federation of organizations whose mission is to improve public safety communications and interoperability through collaborative leadership. The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) Members consists of a Governing Board, including fifteen voting members and two non-voting, associate members. The participating organizations are:
Voting Members
Associate Members (Non-Voting)
From Continuity Central
Can Your Call Centre Handle a Disaster?
Although many companies use standard network management tools to ensure the ‘up/down’ status of their infrastructure, for contact centre operations, this isn’t enough. To ensure you have a successful failover site, businesses must test and monitor the backup systems rigorously to ensure that customer calls are handled properly and that interoperability between systems, applications, and agents is running normally. This is especially critical as contact centres move to an IP-based infrastructure, allowing them to consolidating networks, virtualize agents and add new applications. Read this helpful article to find out:
www.continuitycentral.com/feature0591.htm
Hanging On the Telephone: Some Practical Considerations For Crisis Communications
This helpful article gives information for handling incoming communications. In the aftermath of a disruption, organizations may have to handle large volumes of telephone calls from a variety of sources including:
www.continuitycentral.com/feature0590.htm
Three Important Priority Telecommunications Offerings You Need to Know About
Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) -
provides emergency access and priority processing in the local and long distance segments of the public switched wireline network. Used in an emergency or crisis situation during which the probability of completing a call over normal or other alternate telecommunication means has significantly decreased. (GETS Brochure)
Telecommunications Service Priority (TSP) -
provides service vendors with a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandate for prioritizing service requests by identifying those services critical to NS/EP. A telecommunications service with a TSP assignment is assured of receiving full attention by the service vendor before a non-TSP service. (TSP Brochure)
Wireless Priority Service (WPS) -
provides priority cellular network access. The WPS was approved by the FCC for NS/EP requirements on a call-by-call priority basis. The NCS executes the program on behalf of the Executive Office of the President. Only individuals in NS/EP key leadership positions are authorized use of WPS. (WPS Brochure)
From GVF – Global VSAT Forum
GVF Resources for the Emergency Manager
Satellite communications have a proven track record for providing essential emergency-management solutions. The GVF is pleased to provide this online tool kit, which aims to serve as a valuable source of the most current information on state-of-the-art satellite systems and services related to the emergency-management sector. Also contained within this resource you will find the latest trends and analysis - as provided by the EMERGENCY RESPONSE newsletter - as well as direct links to upcoming emergency-management events, details on regulation and case studies relating to this vertical market.
www.gvf.org/solutions/vertmarket/index.cfm?page=disaster
GVF Announces Online Training and Certification
The Global VSAT Forum provides a solid, fundamentals-based training program for VSAT and broadband satellite terminal installers. It is delivered in several course building blocks:
Level 1: Introduction to VSAT Technology.
Level 2: Fundamentals of VSAT Installation.
Level 3S: Advanced/SCPC VSAT Installation and Maintenance with hands-on exercises. Available in the classroom only.
Level 3i: iDirect Remote Terminal Installation.
Hands On Skills Test. Demonstration of skills to a GVF instructor/examiner.
From Satellite Today
Alternative Uses of Emergency Communications Networks Driving New Market
When terrestrial communications equipment has either been destroyed or rendered unavailable, satellite-based emergency systems receive praise for picking up the slack. But memories fade after the debris is cleaned up, and emergency communications...
www.satellitetoday.com/via/features/23236.html
From Utility & Telecom Fleets
Disaster Recovery: Is Your Network Ready?
Fuel cells provide backup power capability beyond batteries.
Network operators have a lot on their minds these days—cost pressures, rapid buildouts to meet demand, expanding bandwidth to handle a wide range of new broadband content features (VoIP, Wi-Fi, IP-TV, etc.), and the constant clamor for uptime—all in a market where consumers can switch providers as easily as they send text messages.
As if that weren’t enough, major grid disruptions have become all too common. Hurricane Katrina, the East Coast blackout of 2003, and rolling blackouts and brownouts due to an aging infrastructure lagging behind consumer demand are all examples of unexpected occurrences that can disrupt the grid—and the networks it powers—for hours, days, even weeks. For critical sites that can earn hundreds of dollars an hour in revenue for wireless carriers, the economic impact can be significant, making reliable backup power a topic of pressing concern.
Where batteries fall short unfortunately, a favorite solution for telecom backup power—the valve regulated lead acid (VRLA) battery—may not be up to the task. Runtime is the big issue here: with a typical capacity of just two to four hours, batteries may not have enough power capacity to run your network through a regional blackout, let alone a Katrina-scale disaster.
www.utfleets.com/site/archives/features/TO_1207_DisasterRecovery.php
SAFECOM Communications Program
SAFECOM is a communications program of the U.S. DHS’s Office for Interoperability and Compatibility that, with its Federal partners, provides research, development, testing and evaluation, guidance, tools, and templates on communications-related issues to local, tribal, state, and Federal emergency response agencies.
Communications interoperability is the ability of emergency response agencies to talk across disciplines and jurisdictions via radio communications systems, exchanging voice and/or data with one another on demand, in real time, when authorized.
The tragic events of 9/11 clarified the critical importance of effective emergency responder communication systems. The lack of emergency response interoperability is a long-standing, complex, and costly problem with many impediments to overcome.
While several government programs have made great strides in addressing this issue, much of this work has been disconnected, fragmented, and often conflicting. In an effort to coordinate the various federal initiatives, the SAFECOM program was established by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and approved by the President’s Management Council (PMC) as a high priority E-Gov initiative. More specifically,
Initiatives
www.safecomprogram.gov/NR/rdonlyres/9628BE4B-E7A5-4F1B-9179-2CFCF2653CA9/0/SCIPMethodology.pdf
From InformIT
Using Satellite Communications for Disaster Recovery
Why Use Satellite for Disaster Recovery? In the second installment of his informative series on disaster recovery, Leo A. Wrobel continues pulling together and applying his expert knowledge of control, communications, computers, and intelligence...
Telecom Newsletter
The ACK – NAK News is the official newsletter of the International Disaster Recovery Association, IDRA™. ACK and NAK refer to when a telecommunication signal is acknowledged successful (ACK), and when the signal is NOT acknowledged successful, (NAK). Hence, the relationship to telecommunications disaster recovery.
The focus of the ACK-NAK News is on the telecommunications aspects of voice, data, image and sensory issues relative to contingency planning & disaster recovery.
It is published bi-monthly and distributed free by email to those in Telecommunications, Information Technology, Disaster Recovery, Contingency Planning, Business Continuation, Emergency Management and other related industries.
From TechLINKS
A Quick Primer on Data Center Tier Classifications
“The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) are examples of organizations that formulate standards for the industry to follow. The TIA developed a specification entitled TIA-942 Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for Data Centers. This is the most widely referenced standard when talking about data center facility availability. From the title one might be inclined to think this is a specification of telecom for data centers. It is that, but it’s much broader than that including cabling, space layout, site selection criteria, and infrastructure tiers/availability. This last point, represented by Annex G in the TIA-942 standard, is where all the talk about data center tiers comes from.”
Interoperability Technology Today: A Quarterly Newsletter
The Office for Interoperability & Compatibility publishes a quarterly newsletter entitled Interoperability Technology Today. Its mission is to provide the emergency response community, policy makers, and local officials with information about interoperability initiatives nationwide, best practices, and lessons learned.
www.safecomprogram.gov/SAFECOM/library/newsletters/
Self-Assessment Analysis Questionnaire for the National Emergency Communications Plan
The National Emergency Communications Plan (NECP) is a strategic plan that sets goals and identifies key national priorities to enhance governance, planning, technology, training and exercises, and disaster communications capabilities. The NECP provides recommendations, including milestones, to help emergency response providers and relevant government officials make measurable improvements in emergency communications over the next three years. The vision of the NECP is to ensure emergency response personnel at all levels of government and across all disciplines can communicate as needed, on demand, and as authorized, through improvements in communications operability, interoperability, and continuity nationwide.
The Self-Assessment Analysis consists of 13 questions, taken directly from the 2006 National Interoperability Baseline Survey, that allow agencies to both compare their progress against similar agencies surveyed and to measure their current capacity of interoperability.
For each question, a response scale was developed that included four progressive stages: early, moderate, full, and advanced. The stages were used to ensure that response scales were consistent across survey questions in measuring interoperability approaches. The stages were defined as follows:
To the Self-Assessment Analysis questionnaire:
www.safecomprogram.gov/SAFECOM/selfassessment/
Communications Interoperability
What is it?
In general, interoperability refers to the ability of emergency responders to work seamlessly with other systems or products without any special effort. Wireless communications interoperability specifically refers to the ability of emergency response officials to share information via voice and data signals on demand, in real time, when needed, and as authorized. For example, when communications systems are interoperable, police and firefighters responding to a routine incident can talk to each other to coordinate efforts. Communications interoperability also makes it possible for emergency response agencies responding to catastrophic accidents or disasters to work effectively together. Finally, it allows emergency response personnel to maximize resources in planning for major predictable events such as the Super Bowl or an inauguration, or for disaster relief and recovery efforts.
What are the components of a truly interoperable communications system, and what are the barriers to creating one?
There are a variety of challenges to interoperability: some are technical, some financial, and some stem from human factors such as inadequate planning and lack of awareness of the real importance of interoperability.
According to a report published in February 2003 by the National Task Force on Interoperability, the emergency response community views the following as the key issues hampering emergency response wireless communications:
www.safecomprogram.gov/SAFECOM/interoperability/default.htm
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