Setting Expectations for Communications Interoperability

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Transit Communications Spectrum Issues
Setting Expectations for Communications
Interoperability
Bill Hiller Dave Jackson Booz Allen
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Setting Expectations for Communications
Interoperability

• Common understanding of interoperability
• How transit is meeting interoperability challenge
• Levels of interoperability
• Interoperability as an element as you plan,
  train, and practice emergency preparedness

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Interoperability is the ability to exchange both
voice and data communications on demand in real
time

• Public Safety First Responders
• Police
• Fire Fighters
• EMS
• Support Providers
• Emergency Management
• Transportation
• Utilities
• Hospitals and clinics

Public transit is expected to appropriately
support the needs of emergency management and
public safety agencies
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Communications interoperability is needed for
different types of situational responses

• Provide temporary shelter
• Evacuate people
• Transport emergency personnel and supplies
• Avoid dangerous areas
• Hostage situations
• Special events

Communications support the operating procedures
covered in agency emergency management plans,
policies, and strategies.
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Dedicated channels and priority access must be
available at all times to handle unexpected
emergencies

• Reliable one-to-many broadcast capability
• Highly reliable and redundant networks to
  withstand natural disasters and other emergencies
• The best possible coverage with a minimum of dead
  zones

A communications system will experience an
unusually high demand during an emergency,
exactly when it may be the most vulnerable.
Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
Transit Security Design Considerations
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Transit agencies employ interim techniques to
improve communications interoperability

• Deploying second radios
• Difficult for personnel to monitor different
  systems, especially during an emergency
• Radio caches
• Maintaining multiple radios that cover the
  different frequency bands
• Commercial services
• Limited by cost and lack of flexibility
• Channel patching
• access another system in the dispatch center and
  make an audio patch with wiring

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Agency planning should guide communications
replacement or upgrade project strategy

• Internal planning to understand staff needs
• Local and regional planning process to coordinate
  within the region
• Plan for success by including key components
• Standards
• Scalability
• Support incremental development
• Demonstrate investment returns in both human and
  financial terms

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To meet expansion needs or obsolescence agencies
may require a different funding approach to their
existing private networks

• Joint ventures to share startup, skilled staff,
  and operating costs
• Public-Public partnerships where common coverage
  areas, common funding, or shared resources are
  leveraged
• Public-private partnerships that may include
  co-location, land swaps, etc.

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) states
that any radios funded by DHS should be APCO-25
(P25) compliant

• Wikipedia Project 25 (P25) or APCO-25 refer to a
  suite of standards for digital radio
  communications for use by federal, state/province
  and local public safety agencies in North America
  to enable them to communicate with other agencies
  and mutual aid response teams in emergencies.
• P25 system should be considered when planning to
  phase out older equipment as these systems are
  providing platforms that are easily upgradeable.

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The continuum of interoperability is a function
of the institutional arrangements
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P25 addresses interoperability through a series
of eight interface standards that are being
implemented in a phased approach

• Equipment will connect with any configuration of
  equipment to create a wide-area system
• The Common Air Interface assures the ability of
  one companys P25 digital radio to communicate
  with another companys P25 digital radio
• Allows agencies to setup talk groups to
  interoperate with other agencies i.e. police,
  fire, and other city services

This technology is making the technical aspect of
interoperability the easiest part of the equation
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Todays technology is providing the means to
integrate the systems in place today without
having to align our systems with other agencies

• Multiple bridge applications allow disparate
  systems to be interconnected
• Provides the flexibility to relatively ad-hoc add
  other agencies to the network for unified command
• Reduces the capital expense required to provide
  interoperability within the region

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As we look at how to interoperate, the
institutional issues take the most work to
overcome, Governance and SOPs come first

• Train your key people in the Incident Command
  System/Unified Command (ICS/UC) principles
• Work with partner agencies to integrate your
  operations and determine how you are going to
  interoperate in different response scenarios

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Training and regular practice using the systems
provide the key to smooth operation in an
emergency

• Work with partner agencies regularly on tabletop
  and live exercises
• Involve personnel from all shifts where possible

As with any task, lack of practice generally
equals lack of performance
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• Thank you

Bill Hiller Booz Allen Hamilton hiller_william
_at_bah.com (319) 270 2359 David Jackson Booz
Allen Hamilton jackson_david_at_bah.com (319) 361
0007