Transcript Voice Applications of IP Technology: Piedmont Pilot

LEIM Greensboro, NC
Voice Applications of IP
Technology
Piedmont Pilot
Peter Small, (Sergeant Ret.)
NLECTC-NE
26 Electronic Parkway Rome, NY 13440
May, 2007
Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
A Public/Private Partnership
The Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot is the result of a
partnership agreement negotiated between Cisco Systems Inc.
and the City of Danville Police Department.
Project supported by:
NIJ CommTech
NLECTC-NE - NLECTC-SE & Sheriff’s Association of Texas
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program Partners
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
Public Safety participants
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City of Danville, Virginia - VHF Radio System(s)
Pittsylvania County, Virginia - VHF Radio System
Caswell County, North Carolina - UHF Radio System
North Carolina State Highway Patrol - Conventional VHF & Trunked 800MHz
Radio Systems
And Virginia State Police - Regional VHF Radio channel & Virginia Statewide
channel.
Corporate Participants
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Cisco Systems Inc. – Equipment and technology.
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Sprint Corporation – MPLS internetworking links.
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
– CommTech’s Role
– Assist with formulating Regional Governance.
– Document:
• Deployment & operational issues
• Network design & implementation issues
• Understand the underlying infrastructure (the “cloud”).
– Act as an honest broker
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
– Participation in a long term multi-phase regional pilot
spearheaded by Danville, VA. and Cisco, with regional MPLS
links provided by Sprint.
– Be an advocate for Danville Police & Adjacent towns/counties
including neighbors across the state line.
– A Public/Private Partnership - CommTech is not providing
funding for software or equipment… just manpower.
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CommTech Considerations:
• CommTech is not going to, nor are we planning to, compare IPICS
features with those of other VoIP products.
– Vendor-specific, or generic issues?
– Product differentiators to Public Safety will reside in the product
features made possible by the underlying IP technology.
– Each vendor product has its own set of features and
implementations that make this technology useful.
– They are not all the same in content or quality, and are (typically)
not interoperable between vendors at an IP level.
– In this case it’s the IPICS software suite that defines how the
overall product will work for Danville.
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
Background
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Lack of a common frequency to connect Virginia and North Carolina
agencies
During emergency situations, dispatchers relayed information via land
lines
– Officers drove out of radio system coverage.
Technical issues
– Inadequate infrastructures
– Security & Reliability
Administrative issues
– Participating agencies lacked existing framework for
interoperability
– Sharing control of resources
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program - Goals
• Administrative
– Establish multi-agency governance.
• Operational
– Establish VoIP interface with existing land Mobile Radio
Networks.
– Direct PSAP-PSAP VoIP communications.
– Frequency Sharing (cross programming) among agencies.
– Remote VoIP access.
• Technical concerns
– No direct change to radio infrastructure, or infrastructure
security & reliability.
– An IP overlay facilitating new communications functionality.
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Piedmont Region
Before
After (Goal)
RF Interoperability
No common Frequency
Frequency crossprogramming & VoIP gateway
between systems
Officer – PSAP/ Dispatch
operability
Officers left coverage of
home system & contact with
dispatch center
Remote PSAP access & direct
officer access to compatible
neighboring systems
Technical issues – RF network
•Inadequate infrastructures
•Security & Reliability
•No change to RF
infrastructure
•No change to Security &
Reliability
Administrative & Governance
issues
No mechanism for in place
sharing/control of RF
resources
Multi-Agency Gov. structure
in place for sharing/control of
Radio/VoIP resources
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
This project implementation facilitates:
• Dispatch Center Interoperability
– Direct IP based voice communications (hotlines) between
dispatch centers.
– Remote Access to neighboring radio resources
• Direct End-User Interoperability
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VHFLB/VHF/UHF & 800MHz
Many currently operate on conventional VHF frequencies.
Cross-programming/sharing of channels.
Bridging & gateway functions.
Familiar geographic bridging limitations, related to
coverage, still apply for mobile users.
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
This project implementation facilitates (cont…):
– Remote communications with home agency dispatch will be
facilitated for mobile users moving out of direct range of
home system coverage into a compatible system.
– Remote access to radio resources from VoIP enabled
workstations/IP telephones.
– The Cisco IPICS application add Cisco specific features &
operating environment.
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
Phase I
• Establish IP Interoperability in City of
Danville
– Establish overall Project Governance
– Connect City Department VHF radio systems
• Police, Fire, Electric, EOC- Emergency Management, Water &
Gas and Public Works
• Existing LAN/WAN and Land Mobile Radio (LMR) Radio
Systems
– EOC Dispatch Console connections
– Design & Deploy Internet Protocol Interoperability
Collaboration System (IPICS) Hardware, Software and LMR
Gateway Routers
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
Phase I Status (May 2007):
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Governance concept established for Danville
Phase I Design & Installation - Complete 9/15/06
Network ready for use testing (Cisco) – Pending
System Training & evaluation (NIJ & Departments) - Pending
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
Phase I Technical Details
– Danville is utilizing city-owned fiber optic resources and inplace IP network infrastructure.
– Danville is interconnecting 7 VHF municipal radio systems
– Danville will house the Cisco IPICS server & router
interfaces to 7 radio systems in Danville.
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
Phase II
• Pittsylvania County, VA & Caswell County, NC
– Expand Governance for additional non-Danville agencies.
– Pittsylvania (VA) Sheriff, Caswell (NC) Sheriff, and Phase 1
Networks.
– Design & Deploy LMR gateway router additions to Phase 1 network,
add IP network connection over existing fiber network and Sprint
MPLS network.
– Establish Inter-dispatch-center VoIP hotline connections.
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
Phase II Status (May 2007):
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Governance includes Pittsylvania & Caswell Counties
LMR Gateway Routers: Installed & configured.
IP network connectivity - complete.
Radio Network Connections - complete
Dispatch console interconnect - complete
Network ready for use testing (Cisco) – Pending
System Training & evaluation (NIJ & Agencies) Pending
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
Phase II Technical Details
• Caswell County Sheriff
– A single router with analog interface to a UHF radio unit and
dispatch console.
– Commercial (Sprint) MPLS transport used for backhaul
between Danville VA and Yanceyville, NC.
• Pittsylvania County Sheriff
– A single router with analog interface to a VHF radio unit and
dispatch console.
– Danville owned fiber transport used for backhaul between
Danville, VA and Pittsylvania, VA.
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
Phase III
Virginia State Police & North Carolina Highway Patrol
– Expand Governance.
– Connect Virginia State Police (Salem), North Carolina Highway
Patrol (Greensboro) to Phase 1 and Phase 2 systems.
– Establish Inter-dispatch-center VoIP hotline connections
– Design & Deploy LMR gateway router additions to network, add IP
network connection over existing fiber network and Sprint MPLS
network.
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
Phase III Status (May 2007):
– Governance includes VSP & NCHP
– LMR Gateway Routers installed but implementation issues are still
unresolved (NCSHP)
– Commercial (Sprint) MPLS transport used for backhaul between
Danville – Salem VA and Greensboro NC.
– Radio Network Connection – design issues unresolved (NCSHP).
– Dispatch console interconnect – design issues unresolved
(NCSHP)
– Network ready for use testing (Cisco) – Pending
– System Training & evaluation (NIJ & Agencies) - Pending
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
Phase III Technical Details
• North Carolina Highway Patrol
– Access router installed
• Back-to-back routers with a T-1 (TDM) interface as a fire-break.
• Internet VPN will be used for IPICS control
• Only voice traffic will be passed through the T-1 fire Break.
– Issues with existing JPS ACU-1000 IP network when network link
is shared.
– Issues with Non-Cisco Router base
– Issues with console high-voltage DC interface to base station radio
controller
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
Phase III Technical Details
Virginia State Police
– A single router with analog interface to a VHF base station
via Orbacom Console.
– Old DOS-based dispatch console (software and hardware).
– Staffing / expertise (issue “programming”).
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Piedmont Regional Voice over IP
Pilot Program
Observations:
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There is a disconnect in expertise between the IP world and the LMR
world.
End-to-end network ownership of user talk paths must be established.
All stakeholder must be involved in plans
– Practitioners as well as dispatchers as well as network
maintainers.
– Legacy system contract support – also stakeholders
With IP technology, problems can be created from a distance.
– Not only IP-IP issues, but with non-IP components.
Make sure the vendor has a detailed plan
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