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InterOp Command

The Multnomah County Sheriff Office recently received funding from the federal DHS under the Urban Area Security Initiative to create a regional resource for the coordination of communications on Search And Rescue events.

The Sheriff’s office is demonstrating an open system Tactical Bridge, a completely self-contained system for linking multiple radio systems. It can be ready for instantaneous use at or near the scene of an emergency.

Tactical Bridges enable first responders (and others) from different public safety agencies to communicate between themselves — even when they have incompatible radios — by linking (or “bridging”) radio transmissions.

A bridging device is set up in the field, at the scene or near the scene of an incident (usually in a command vehicle), for the duration of the incident. It is under the control of the incident commander.

Multiple agencies and organizations often respond to events. For instance, an incident near the county line may include multiple Sheriff’s offices, various city fire and police departments, and public rescue organizations. Interoperability is a challenge for these scenarios, especially since some participants may be volunteers, using a variety of radios.

Roman Kaluta, director of interoperability solutions for Raytheon JPS Communications, makes the ACU-1000 audio bridge, for Mobile Command Vehicles. Raytheon’s P25CC converts legacy analog channels to P25 functionality and offers all mandatory P25 call types and provides a full suite of features for conventional as well as single site or multi-site trunking systems.

A four-channel Incident Commanders’ Radio Interface (ICRI), manufactured by Communications-Applied Technology, allows users to plug up to four incompatible radios into a single unit and use the ICRI to automatically switch audio feeds between them.

The Nexus Hawk says it’s a gateway/router for all seasons;, linking Broadband Cellular, Wi-Fi and WAN network. The Hawk claims to be the only device on the market with 2 external air card slots providing access to 4 simultaneous WANS and GPS.

David Billstrom, CEO of National Interop, testified in the US Senate last month, that interoperable Project 25 radios (Aspen Study pdf), are just too expensive and volunteer organizations won’t have them:

In Washington State, we have an initial estimate of $600M. Our Governor in Oregon has just proposed $561M for the first phase of the system there, which is likely to run past $1B when complete. Florida already has a $900M system and New York has started on their $2B system.
The math is fairly easy – if we continue in this direction there is a $50 to $100 billion dollar funding requirement for interoperability for state agencies.
In general, local public safety agencies do not have the funds for new radios compatible with these new statewide proprietary systems. I know my fire department does not. So what we have are new statewide radio systems that most of our firefighters, EMTs, and police officers will not be able to afford to use.
The approach is upside down. We should be building public safety communication systems that first accommodate the 1.8 million local first responders, and then the 200,000 state and federal first responders, rather than the other way around.
Where proprietary, hardware-centric systems are already in place, the Committee could mandate full and open connectivity from those existing proprietary systems to the new open standards, software-based radio systems, whenever federal funds are used for public safety radio systems.
I acknowledge that two or three proprietary radio vendors may not like this, but two million plus first responders will.

Billstrom says he has a solution. His National Interop, a consulting and training firm specializing in interoperable communications, will be demonstrating software defined radios for interoperability this week in Portland’s Multnomah County — just in time for TopOff-4.

Some 236 groups related to Virginia Tech have been set up on Facebook, a sign that Internet social networks are beginning to replace e-mail and cell phones for spreading information. Other students set up a Web site, vtincident.com, as one outlet to discuss the shooting.

In other Northwest news, Oregon InnoTech kicks off next Wednesday, April 25, at the Oregon Convention Center.

InnoTech, always one of the Northwest’s most interesting conferences, features Sessions, Exhibitors and Speakers on the cutting edge of innovation. The InnoTech Expo - only on April 26 - has live demonstrations with many of Oregon’s newest and most innovative technology companies.

Another Northwest Conference, Unwire Oregon, May 1st in Corvallis (on the campus of Oregon State), brings national and international leaders together to discuss how broadband wireless will change our communities. This conference is not about how technology works but how technology changes how we work and learn.

Unwire Oregon features lots of great speakers including Ron Resnick, Chairman of WiMAX Forum, Chris Sacca, Head of Special Initiatives for Google, One Economy’s Rey Ramsey, M2Z Networks’s Jon Muleta, Tropos Network’s Ron Sege, and many others.

Simon Hill, Events Editor of Light Reading will moderate a Webinar tomorrow called Unwiring Portland: A Pioneering Muni Network Project with Logan Kleier, Muni Network Project Manager for the City of Portland. It runs about an hour, Wednesday, April 18, 2007 at 12:00 p.m. New York / 5:00 p.m. London time. Registration is free.