Communications
Published: 01 April, 2007
During the last few years numerous reports have highlighted the need for improved, resilient and interoperable communications. Furthermore, with the increasing concern over homeland security and interoperability issues, communications within the fire service on an international scene is facing severe pressure.
During the last few years numerous reports have highlighted the need for improved, resilient and interoperable communications. Furthermore, with the increasing concern over homeland security and interoperability issues, communications within the fire service on an international scene is facing severe pressure.
Organisations such as APCO (in the US), PSC Europe (Public Safety Communications), BAPCO (in the UK) have all been working to bring together both the user and communications industry, highlighting the needs and requirements of interoperable yet resilient solutions.
In addition, for the fire service, the need for communications equipment which is suitable for use within hazardous areas, such as on the fireground, is of even greater importance.
The comms interface
One could argue that intrinsically safe radio systems (ATEX Approved) are already readily available and in use, yet there are potential issues for firefighters when using BA equipment.
Since some earpieces used with full facemasks create a form of barrier which firefighters hearing messages effectively, fire crews are placed in unnecessary danger.
From short duration BA sets to the very latest firefighting systems with electronic monitoring and automatic entry control capability, these issues are continuing to be addressed.
Draeger has recognised this need and introduced a range of SCBA gear that uses simple push-button controls. In addition, the SCBA gear manufacturer is working closely with a number of headset manufacturers to provide flexible communications systems which adapt to a variety of helmets and full facemasks.
Alerting your fire crews
Taking a step back and looking at how fire crews are alerted, we first turn our attention to paging systems. Worldwide there are a number of paging solutions from simple alphanumeric systems to hybrid solutions that can provide critical information in planning and emergency management.
Yet is there a future for paging? The answer has to be an emphatic yes.
For instance, paging’s inherent broadcasting capabilities are protected from traffic overload and in the event of a major incident scenario, such as seen in the UK with the Buncefield explosion and even in terrorist attacks, such as 7/7, will remain an effective and resilient form of communication.
Even with the advent of SMS messaging, paging companies such as LynxPro, believe that there will always be a need for paging, particularly in hazardous environments.
Commenting, Paul Williams, LynxPro, said: “Ownership is a fundamental reason why paging will remain a major requirement within the mission critical arena, as it ensures system reliability and performance.”
Given the fact that this view was echoed by the London Regional Resilience Report following the debrief of 7/7, paging was cited as being considered for multi agencies for alerting and mobilising.
Chris Jones, managing director, PageOne adds: “Based on narrow band broadcast technology, paging is based on a worldwide standard, and with little to go wrong, has consistently paid its way. Pagers are simple, use little energy and need very few transmitters, the technology is low cost and reliable.”
MAL, another paging system provider, is about to launch a new solution, as yet the name is unconfirmed but our sources lead us to believe it will be called Siren.
This solution has been aimed to provide fire services with the ability to monitor and record the availability of retained firefighters. The diarised information can be inputted by fire crews highlighting their availability, and held locally at each station.
Managers can thus see remotely who is available and at what location. This will be particularly useful for regional control rooms when dealing with several brigades simultaneously.
The role of digital
What we often take for granted is the ability to communicate directly with one another. The use of digital radio communications has paved the way forward for many countries.
In the UK the TETRA Airwave network currently being rolled out across the police, fire and ambulance services as well as other public safety users, will ensure that full interoperability is possible.
TETRA is, without doubt, proving a valuable asset to many public safety organisations worldwide – they are, by far, the largest market to adopt the technology.
TETRA fits In where the trend is towards the deployment of nationwide networks shared by all public safety organisations for reasons of economics (sharing), autonomy of operation for routine communications and the ability to fully interoperate with other services during emergency situations and disasters. Currently there are 1,076 contracts across 88 countries.
Using Voice over IP (VoIP)
There are alternative solutions, however, and the use of Voice over IP (VoIP) has been seen as a means to deliver interoperability across disparate radio systems.
In the US, for instance the Mercury IP system helped to tie together disparate radio solutions for the relief effort following Hurricane Katrina. Offered by Trilogy Communications, Mercury IP is based on technologies developed for international broadcasting applications and can be used to support defence and emergency management/public safety communications.
Using peer-to-peer architecture, with no central servers or single points of failure the user interfaces include a variety of virtual panels or hardware panels. These can be provided to individual users or dispatch personnel anywhere on the network.
VoIP has evolved steadily to provide truly unified communications solutions, which integrate all telecommunications services into a single network delivering voice and video services to users irrespective of their end device (IP Phone, GSM phone, Wireless IP phone, Radio handset, video terminal, PDA etc), irrespective of location and irrespective of how they connect to the single network.
This is certainly a breakthrough for most organisations and in particular within the fire service where communication and network coverage is critical. What’s more the reliability of VoIP technology has improved significantly over the last few years ensuring that solutions can now be deployed with greater confidence.
“During the Buncefield Oil Depot incident, Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service were fully utilising VoIP technology to assist with the rescue operation. Due to the nature of the incident, the speed of response and effective communications were critical. Fortek’s VISON system offered 100% system availability and played a major role in assisting with the incident response management and deployment of resources. This was one of the first major incidents where VoIP based telephony and radio control was fully deployed.” said Janice Nayler, communications and systems manager, Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service.
Harmonising the radio spectrum
Harmonising radio spectrum will also pave the way for advanced mobile satellite services, which help bridge the digital divide across Europe and the European Commission has recently announced a Commission Decision to enable just that.
The Decision will give industry the necessary confidence to invest in mobile satellite services that was previously believed uneconomical to deploy. This is a major benefit to the emergency services, since harmonising the use of radio spectrum around the 2GHz frequency will provide legal certainty for the availability of radio resources across the entire EU.
Essentially, this means that high-speed communications throughout Europe between satellites and handheld mobile terminals will be possible potentially providing radio communications, high speed internet access, fleet tracking, search and rescue and the remote monitoring or controlling of processes. The next step will be the co-ordination selection and authorisation of candidate systems for he 2GHz band by the end of 2008.
What about FireControl?
The control room has subsequently seen a great deal of focus with the need for intelligent integration of voice communication, data and video systems.
The advent of harmonised digital communications across, regions, states and brigades but also other public safety agencies, has created an endemic requirement for control centre solutions that provide improved functionality for the operator and thus aid the crews at the incident scene.
Commenting John Gurney, Managing Director, Frequentis UK said, “ICCS, C&C, CCTV, GIS, mobile platforms and many other IT systems in and around the control room provide a great deal of functionality to the operator. Much has been done in connecting these systems to enable the exchange of information and to optimise workflows.”
In the UK, FireControl reflects the change in the way technology is impacting upon how fire and rescue services will work in the future. And the recent contract award to EADS will enable the UK’s fire service to have a common national response capability for the first time.
Across the FireControl project, the 46 (current) fire control rooms, each operated by local fire brigades will become a network of nine RCCs (regional control centres), including London.
Each RCC will be networked to automatically be able to back each other up in times of increased demand or failure and be able to provide information to deploy the nearest suitable appliances, provide information on site risks and handling direct to the fire-fighter’s vehicles.
Modular and flexible in its design the EADS FireControl systems’ architecture will also cope with the unforeseen future demands or extreme disruption to elements of the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure.
The first RCCs are planned to go live in 2009 and will be fully operational before the 2012 London Olympics, which will provide unprecedented capability to respond to large-scale incidents, such as industrial accidents, terrorist attacks and environmental disasters offering greater protection to fire-fighters and the public.
All in all the advances in technology are enabling fire brigades worldwide to adopt fully interoperable and resilient communications systems dependent upon individual requirements.
