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Emergency responders want to ditch antennas

Pinellas has an advanced communications network but still relies on antennas. A wireless system is scheduled to be tested next summer.

By PAUL SWIDER
Published October 16, 2005

Hurricane Katrina wrought havoc on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, but rescue and recovery were made worse because officials couldn't communicate with each other, something Pinellas County is trying, with federal help, to prevent.

"Most of the things that happened to them we were up on, but we learned a few things too," said Dick Williams, the county's director of emergency communications, who is advising a national testing project.

Williams said that Pinellas would be in a better position regarding flooding, but that its communications antennas might have been similarly harmed by strong winds.

He also said some communications equipment that survived Katrina later failed because backup generators were fueled by natural gas supplies that got cut off. All but one of Pinellas' facilities are backed up with diesel generators and supplemental tanks, he said.

Ironically, these and other elements of emergency communications were under examination in Pinellas in July as part of its role as a national testing site for new "self-healing" communications networks, said Jim Failor with Concurrent Technologies Corp., a nonprofit group conducting research under a $3.7-million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense.

"This is a system that doesn't need infrastructure, like towers," Failor said of his study. "It's a mobile ad hoc network."

The effort stems from the disastrous communications failure that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when fire, police and other first responders found they couldn't communicate because of different technologies.

The Federal Communications Commission subsequently set aside bandwidth strictly for emergency communications but had no standards on how to use it. Failor's work is an effort to develop a national standard to use that bandwidth.

Williams said Pinellas is the lead "user representative" in defining that standard because of its advanced stages of communications networking. "We're a special case," he said, referring to the fact that all fire, police and other first responders in the county have had interoperable communications for voice and some data transmissions since 1995. "We're really proud of it."

Still, Williams' system is mostly for voice communications and is based on antennas, which a hurricane can destroy. The new system being designed, Failor said, would make each first responder vehicle its own antenna for sending and receiving so the network would be powered by vehicle engines and would move and flow around the county as needed.

The system would be augmented by connections to small, easily deployed Internet connection points that could be set up after a disaster to rapidly re-create a disrupted network.

"You could put these antennas into boats, cars, even UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)," Failor said, "and immediately tie back into all first responders."

All told, the new system would operate like powerful broadband Internet access, Failor said, pushing data at 15 megabytes per second or more so rescuers could have instant access to streaming video, building blueprints, detailed maps and other rich media that could help in an emergency.

Volunteer groups set up such wireless networks on public frequencies after Katrina and proved they can quickly alter the response system and save lives.

Failor's company is also working with transportation officials to incorporate Intelligent Transportation Systems that can track everyday traffic and help drivers avoid congestion.

The data networks for ITS would operate on a secure dedicated frequency, as would the public safety applications, but the two could be built out together to share costs. Eventually, these systems would be integrated with those of the National Guard, Coast Guard and other agencies, and down the road with all homeland security functions.

Failor said his group, working out of the Young-Rainey Star Center, will use off-the-shelf data networking equipment but try to configure it in a way that can make such emergency networks both possible and practical.

By the end of next year, he said, he will have taken the specifications Williams provided along with lab and field tests conducted in the county and designed a network other jurisdictions can then build for themselves. The result would be an open standard that could enhance communications within a city or county but also allow other levels of government to step in and connect with compatible communications systems.

"We can make it work, but we're not sure yet if it will be economically feasible," Failor said of the network he expects to field test in Pinellas next summer. "Nobody's ever done this before."

Failor said it is too early to estimate what such a system could cost. Williams said Pinellas' network could be funded by various federal grants for homeland security and transportation, but the county and cities would still have to pay for hardware for each first-responder vehicle, of which there are thousands.

Williams also said it's possible the network could add a public component that could make wireless Internet access available throughout the county.

[Last modified October 16, 2005, 01:31:12]