dailywireless.org » Topoff 4 Begins in Portland

Topoff 4 Begins in Portland

Topoff 4, the largest counterterrorism exercise in U.S. history, is underway in Portland, Oregon (FAQ).

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will be in town to personally oversee the exercise, with the help of Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Mayor Tom Potter.

In all, more than 15,000 people from 275 organizations will be involved. Every emergency agency in the Portland area, along with 14 hospitals and David Douglas High School, will play parts in the simulated event.

Dailywireless visited three sites, one near the airport, one at the Double Tree hotel and at their main staging area at Portland International Raceway to try and find out more on the communications angle — but found very little information was available to the public.

Organizations like PersonalTelco, which operates several hundred “free” nodes, were not included in the event, although in a real emergency, such as a 9.0 earthquake, they could be. Part of the reason is security, of course.

Topoff 4 will be coordinated with a Department of Defense exercise called Vigilant Shield (pdf). VIGILANT SHIELD is a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff designated, NORAD, and U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) sponsored, and U.S. Joint Forces Command supported Defense exercise for homeland defense and defense support of civil authorities. Presumably that will also involve aerospace assets and DOD gear.

Ogilvy Public Relations has been contracted to create a Virtual News Network (VNN), modeled after CNN, which will produce fake news for beaming to NORAD then distributed to other agencies, internally.

During the TOPOFF 2 exercise, Ogilvy PR staffed its network with a team of nearly 60 writers, producers, studio crewmembers, anchors, field reporters, and exercise coordination specialists who provided 31 hours of live TV broadcast. Ogilvy PR also helped top officials hone their media skills.

Cisco announced its support of the public safety Project 25 radios in collaboration with EADS and Raytheon JPS. The Cisco IP Interoperability and Collaboration System (IPICS) can be deployed in mobile command vehicles, connecting to wired, wireless, or satellite networks, IP or non-IP. Cisco IPICS provides interoperable communications between disparate P25 and non-P25 radio networks using IP technology and can connect to any authorized client device that supports voice. Here’s Voice Interoperability In Action (Cisco video).

Opinions differ over the usefulness of the exercise. It seems worthwhile to me.

Portland WILL get a 9.0+ subduction zone earthquake at some point in the near future. Too bad most lessons learned from TopOff 4 will not be shared.

Could Web 2.0 technologies and talented individuals be marshaled as a force, utilizing cellphones, Mobile WiMAX and user generated content? Of course. Clickable maps, bulletin boards, chat rooms, live cameras and other life saving technologies can now be fully realized and crowdsourced. It will happen on its own. Inevitably.

But there is a strain between grass roots response and top-down DHS and DOD bosses. They could shut down access to the communications network.

Governmental organizations may take over communications via the Wireless Priority Service (for cellular networks), and Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (for phone networks). In a major disaster, the government itself could effectively shut down access to public communications.

The Oak Ridge Nationa Lab is developing SensorPedia will link to near-real-time data, and provide streaming of data. SensorPedia will support interactive “mashups” of information; and only approved personnel will be authorized to write to the SensorPedia Web site.

But generally speaking the feds are top down. Closed loop. Despite everyone’s best intentions, “top down” plans go awry.

The $10B Integrated Wireless Network, a case in point. IWN is an ambitious, multibillion-dollar, 15-year program — set to build a nationwide interoperable 700MHz network intended primarily for federal law enforcement agencies. But it doesn’t do much for LOCAL first responders. The feds (and local responders) may never get the funds to build their dedicated, $15B network using pricey 700MHz P-25 radios. It may be more of an exercise in bringing disparate groups together.

At Topoff, they’ll probably use a a JPS-Raytheon ACU-1000 cross band repeater for interoperability between UHF, 700/800 MHz, and SATCOM systems. Big deal. Try sending a map or photo.

The Washington Post reports the 700 MHz public service radio network, designed to deliver interoperability for the nation’s law enforcement agencies, is at “high risk of failure,” according to the Justice Department’s Inspector General (pdf report). DHS has distributed $2.15 billion since 9/11, encouraging state and local agencies to use the federal funding to purchase Project 25 radios for interoperability, the GAO said. But the effectiveness of those standards in making systems more interoperable has not been proven, according to the GAO.

“Ambiguities in the standards have led to incompatibilities among products made by different vendors, and no compliance testing has been conducted to determine if those products are interoperable,” the GAO said.

Meanwhile mobile applications are providing real utility. For everyone.

Traffic congestion maps produce a graphical, realtime or near-realtime representation of traffic flow. Traffic maps on cell phones are available through Yahoo! Traffic Maps, Google Mobile Maps, Windows Live as well as Rand McNally. Most Java-enabled cellphones use 3rd party software such as Mobile GMaps (right).

Traffic.com also offers service to mobile phones and PDAs. Traffic.com also offers text alerts — go to mobi.traffic.com on your mobile web browser, then text your city code.

Tele Atlas, a Boston-based company that provides digital maps and navigational content, has integrated street congestion into its maps so that drivers can see congestion maps at any hour, says Technology Review.

The software was developed by Inrix, a startup based in Kirkland, WA, that provides real-time and predictive traffic information. JamCast has real-time traffic video in 30 metropolitan areas across the U.S.. JamCast features patented Jam Factor roadway traffic measurements that allow commuters to easily understand the relative congestion level with a number on a scale from 1 to 10.

ODOT has finalized an agreement with TrafficLand.com.

Now live streaming video will be available on www.TripCheck.com.

Google launched Streetside View using ImmersiveMedia to create a 360 degree view. Microsoft bought Vexcel, and their multi-spectral camera, the UltraCam D used for aerial photography. It then applies an algorithm to extract 3D information, more or less automatically. Microsoft has been able to create exact replicas of more than 50 cities and announced 3-D cityscapes.

In a real emergency (like an earthquake), sprinkling around a few hundred solar powered Merakis (with a dozen Hughes or WildBlue satellite hubs) would seem to make a lot of sense. Currently, bureaucrats prefer their obsolete, voice-only, P-25 radio network. They will make command and control decisions based on sketchy information.

Isolating first responders from the public is the last thing anyone needs. Wi-Fi and WiMAX are no panacea — but they’re cheap insurance. And they’re available now.

Companies like Widsets, Bluepulse, mFoundry, Bling, Opera, Google and Yahoo have developed a bucket load of useful widgets. The Google News Application for Facebook enables users to create custom news feeds.

The National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza might be played out at the Tom Harkin Global Communications Center (below), at the CDC in Altanta, which provides continuous delivery of information to the public in case of emergency. Some 200 separate stations face a gigantic video screen with 16 separate feeds, from broadcasters (CNN, Fox) to the national aircraft grid to worldwide incidence levels of Avian Flu. Nothing for the blogesphere, though. Same O, same O.