Improving Public Safety Wireless Communications and Interoperability

1
Improving Public Safety Wireless Communications
and Interoperability

• March 2, 2017

David Boyd, Director Dereck Orr, Chief of
Staff SAFECOM_at_dhs.gov Office 202.772.9958
2
SAFECOM Program
SAFECOM serves as the umbrella program within the
Federal Government to coordinate the efforts of
local, state, federal, and tribal public safety
agencies working to improve public safety
response through more effective, efficient,
interoperable wireless communications

• SAFECOM was created to coordinate
  interoperability efforts across the Federal
  Government
• SAFECOM is one of the Presidents top three
  E-Government initiatives
• SAFECOM is a program driven by public safety
  practitioners
• Dedicated to develop better technologies and
  processes for the cross-jurisdictional and
  cross-disciplinary coordination of existing
  systems and future networks
• Responsible for outreach to local, state, and
  federal public safety agencies and to assist in
  interoperability planning and implementation

3
Program Background

• SAFECOM is the first national program designed by
  public safety for public safety.SAFECOM makes
  it possible for the public safety community to
  leverage resources by promoting coordination and
  cooperation across all levels of government.

With its partners, SAFECOM is working to assure a
safer America through effective public safety
communications.
4
SAFECOMs efforts are funded by a number of
federal partners
Department of Homeland Security
5
The local public safety community is the
practitioner of interoperability
Level of Local Public Safety Needs Across
Operational Scenarios
Highest
Highest
Highest

• Local agencies are primarily concerned with
  communications within their own agency, but must
  work with other surrounding agencies
• The local public safety communitys
  responsibilities range from
• Stabilizing the situation to
• Establishing initial communications links
• Local and state agencies own more than 90 percent
  of the existing public safety communications
  infrastructure
• A survey indicates that nearly one-third of local
  public safety agencies cite interoperability as
  inadequate

Agency-Specific

• Vehicular pursuit
• Automobile accident
• Day-to-day fire operations

Inter-Agency
Frequency

• Airplane crash
• Bombing
• Forest fire

Priority
State and Federal

• Extended recovery operations

Lowest
Lowest
Lowest
6
SAFECOM Accomplishments to Date

• Completed Version 1.0 of the first ever
  comprehensive Public Safety Statement of
  Requirements for Communications and
  Interoperability
• Released Request for Information about cutting
  edge technologies related to public safety
  communications and interoperability and received
  150 responses
• Completed Version 1.0 of a clearinghouse for
  communications grant information
• Established a Federal Interagency Coordination
  Council (FICC) to coordinate funding, technical
  assistance, and standards development across the
  federal government for communications and
  interoperability
• Initiated an effort to accelerate the development
  of critical standards for public safety
  communications and interoperability, including
  the Project 25 standards

7
SAFECOM Accomplishments to Date (cont.)

• Gained the support of local and state public
  safety, as demonstrated in a letter of support
  from the nations major practitioner and policy
  making associations related to public safety
  communications and interoperability
• Finalized Governance structure
• Created a coordinated Grant Guidance which was
  incorporated in the FY03 COPS and FEMA awards
• Held Strategic Planning Session to outline the
  programs activities with input from local,
  state, and federal public safety stakeholders
• Represented local and state public safety through
  participation in the White House Spectrum Policy
  Task Force

With the advent of the SAFECOM Program public
safety, state and local government finally have
both a voice in public safety discussions at the
federal level and confidence that the federal
government is coordinating its resources.
8
SAFECOM Stakeholder Expectations
The following initiatives were developed by the
Public Safety Community at the San Diego Planning
Session in December

• Create a baseline of public safety communications
  and interoperability
• Complete the comprehensive Public Safety
  Statement of Requirements (SoR)
• Create a one-stop shop for public safety
  communications and interoperability
• Integrate coordinated grant guidance across all
  grant making agencies
• Develop a process to advance standards
• Provide technical assistance for public safety
  communications and interoperability
• Develop tools to help jurisdictions build a
  business case to improve interoperability
• Research, develop, test evaluate (RDTE)
  existing emerging technologies for improved
  public safety communications and interoperability

9
SAFECOM Activities
SAFECOM is currently performing work in three
focus areas to achieve its goals

• Architecture
• Statement of Requirements (SoR)
• Develop Technical Architectural Framework
• Technical gap analysis
• Research and Development (RD)
• Testing and Evaluation (TE)
• Vendor Days Process
• National Interoperability Baseline Methodology
• Standards
• P25 acceleration
• Project MESA support
• Standards gap analysis
• Standards process

• Federal Coordination
• Virginia Strategic Planning Project
• Clearinghouse of Interoperability Program
  Information
• Grant Guidance
• Governance Organizations
• Executive Committee (EC)
• Advisor Committee (AC)
• Federal Interagency Coordination Council (FICC)
• Federal Funding Partners (FFP)

10
SAFECOM advocates the creation of a System of
Systems architecture solution for
interoperability.
The System of Systems involves interaction
between the

• Personal Area Network (PAN)
• Incident Area Network (IAN)
• Jurisdiction Area Network (JAN)
• Extended Area Network (EAN)

System Capabilities

• Practitioners seamlessly move between
  Jurisdictional Area Networks
• Practitioners join and leave networks as needed
• Allows for the creation and Growth of Temporary
  Networks
• System can recognize, register, authorize, and
  grant interoperable communications with the new
  resources

The System of Systems architecture builds from
Personal Networks to Extended networks, and puts
an emphasis on the individual public safety
practitioner Different communications systems
seamlessly integrate to form the various networks
11
The Purpose and Applications of the Public Safety
Communications Statement of Requirements

• The purpose of this SoR is to identify a basic
  set of operational and functional communication
  requirements for public safety first responders
  to communicate and share information.
• Focus is initially on public safety first
  responders, i.e. Law Enforcement, Fire, EMS.
• Future versions will engage other stakeholders,
  i.e. Tribal, Federal, supplemental responders,
  and other agencies

Applications

• Consolidate Public Service vision for
  policymakers and the public
• Drive Federal Assistance programs
• Prioritize RD investment strategies
• Identify priorities for Field Test and Evaluation
  Plans.
• Identify priorities for Standards Development
• Creates the framework for discussion of
  operational issues

Basis

• Functional needs of public safety first
  responders
• Intended to be blue sky in nature, not limited
  to current implementations or technologies
• Leverage current state-of-the-art technology
• Not keyed to the issue of spectrum allocation
• Not tied to specific technology

12
The Content of the Public Safety Communications
Statement of Requirements

• Defines public safety roles and functions,
  including First Responders and Supplemental
  Responders
• Defines the required communications services for
  the first responders, i.e. voice, data, video
• Provides real-world implementation scenarios with
  a focus on future-looking communications
• Includes operationally focused scenarios.
• Contains Operational Requirements for each
  discipline and Functional Requirements of the
  technology

Operational Requirements
Modes of Operation
Operational Uses
Modes of Communication

• Day-to-Day/Routine
• Task Force
• Mutual Aid

• With Whom?
• For What Purpose?
• Special Constraints

• Interactive
• Non-Interactive

Functional Requirements
Required Features
Performance Requirements

• Mobility
• Scalability
• COTS-based
• Backward Compatibility
• Open standards-based design
• Migration path for legacy systems
• Extensibility

Services

• Voice
• Data

• QoS
• Availability
• Reliability
• Survivability.

13
The Statement of Requirements will continue to
evolve.
The SoR is a living document, and will be
updated regularly to include up-to-date
requirements and involve additional public safety
stakeholders.
Many vendors have already begun to map their
technologies to the SoR.
14

• Questions ???

15
Contact Information
Or visit the SAFECOM website www.safecomprogra
m.gov