NTIA Partially Suspends Seven Public Safety BTOP Grant Projects
May 12, 2012
TRDaily reported on May 11, 2012 that seven projects awarded $380 million in BTOP (Broadband Technology Opportunities Program) grants to deploy public safety broadband systems were informed that their projects are being partially suspended to ensure funds are not wasted ahead of a regime established by the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet). The suspensions specifically focus on spending for LTE assets.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) plans to ask the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to extend the September 2013 construction deadlines for the grants. The following seven waiver recipients are affected by the partial suspensions: Adams County, CO; Charlotte, NC; Mississippi, New Jersey, and New Mexico; Los Angeles, CA; and the San Francisco Bay Area.
New Software for Flooding Protection Caption: When the levees were breached in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, the Ninth Ward was inundated. (Image Credit: U.S. Coast Guard)
Homeland Security's Science & Technology Directorate and Dams Sector partners team up to develop new software systems for fast simulation of catastrophic flooding
"…to Thomas Coleman, a retired longshoreman who died in his attic on St. Roch Avenue in New Orleans 8th Ward on or about Aug 29th, 2005. He had a can of juice and a bedspread at his side when the waters rose… There were more than a thousand like him." - Chris Rose, 1 Dead in Attic
All over the country, millions of Americans still live behind dams or levees, and if these were to fail and unleash catastrophic flooding, as some did in New Orleans in 2005, property, and of course life, might once again pay the price. "Oh, my city... in case you haven't heard, Budweiser ain't delivering," Rose grieved, with a surreal humor and poignancy only a true New Orleans survivor could muster. "Katrina changed everything."
Recruitment of First Responder Network Authority Board of Directors
May 07, 2012
NTIA announces the recruitment of the Board of Directors of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet). FirstNet is an independent authority within NTIA that will establish a single nationwide, interoperable public safety broadband network. The Board of Directors will be responsible for making strategic decisions regarding FirstNet’s operations. Expressions of interest for membership on the FirstNet Board of Directors will be accepted until May 25, 2012.
Canadian Emergency Responders to Get Dedicated Broadband Network
May 04, 2012
(Courtesy Manori Ravindran, Vancouver Sun) Lance Valcour heads an interest group that has been pushing for a broadband network for first responders. He said he expects testing to begin within the year.
"This is the largest public safety information and communications technology project in Canadian history," said Valcour, a retired Ottawa police inspector.
David John (D.J.) Atkinson, 46, passed away April 24, 2012, at Boulder (CO) Community Hospital. D.J. was involved in a non-survivable motorcycle accident the morning of April 23, 2012.
D.J.'s work on the audio quality and intelligibility of the APCO Project 25's digital two-way radios helped establish new and important quantitative set of guidelines for all future LMR products. In his effort to validate the performance of one generation of technology, he was able to identify the current generation's technology weaknesses, allowing industry to produce better products for the next generation. "While we will never know how many of the nation's emergency responders will eventually benefit from D.J.'s work," says co-worker and friend Jeff Bratcher, "those of us who worked in the process know he made a significant contribution to their safety and efficiency."
The term "brother" in the fire service is reserved for fellow fire fighters. Fire fighters rely on each other in every way. Integrity and trust within the crew is essential. You must be able to trust your fellow fire fighter; trust them to know their job and trust them to have your back. D.J. knew the early digital radios would not enable intelligible communications in the noisy environment of the fireground. He led the public safety audio quality research project that led to a shift within the industry to address issues in loud background noise environments for first responders. D.J.'s test results were formally submitted to Project 25 standards development and were adopted in updated versions of the vocoder. This work impacts the worldwide public safety market as P25 is sold on an international level. Fire fighters know that D.J.'s work has saved lives and will save lives in the future. They honor D.J. by calling him a "brother."
D.J. Atkinson was born June 1, 1965, in Lander, Wyoming. He attended the University of Wyoming, where he received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science. After college graduation, he began work at the U.S. Department of Commerce in Boulder, Colorado. D.J. Atkinson was a quiet, unassuming professional dedicated to improving the lives of others. D.J. was very active in his church and in supporting a children's orphanage in Romania through the Global Hope organization [http://www.globalhope.org/]. He traveled there numerous times to volunteer his time to the children in need. As many people have said, he was a very good man.
Seeking Comments on Priority and Quality of Service (QoS) in the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network
April 20, 2012
NPSTC's Broadband Working Group (BBWG) is working to identify public safety requirements for the nationwide public safety 700 MHz broadband network. Through various task groups, the BBWG is researching specific areas including voice, security, priority and quality of service, multimedia emergency services, and local control.
The Priority and QoS Task Group has completed a document defining the requirements for the Nationwide Priority and QoS Framework. The Priority and QoS in the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network has been issued for a 30-day comment period on April 20, 2012.
Public safety presents a number of unprecedented prioritization challenges for the nationwide public safety broadband network. The public safety network will be simultaneously shared by many different types of agencies (e.g. police, fire, EMS, etc.) and these various agency types have, in many cases, overlapping jurisdictional areas (e.g. state, county, local). All types of applications (e.g. voice, data, video) now share a common packet‐based network. Public safety operations are dynamic and it is difficult to assign a single priority to a responder that will meet all their operational needs. These challenges necessitated a disciplined and rigorous approach to the definition of a Priority and QoS Framework suitable for nationwide interoperability and public safety.
Please send your comments on this important public safety document to comments@npstc.org by May 21, 2012.
(PS Docket No. 12-94) NPSTC submits comments in response to the Commission Public Notice, DA 12-555, released April 6, 2012, "PSHSB Seeking Comment on Transition Process for 700 MHz Public Safety Broadband Waiver Recipients". In these comments, NPSTC encourages the Commission to take appropriate steps consistent with the legislation to provide a continued opportunity for at least the current BTOP-related waiver jurisdictions and waiver jurisdictions that have expended other funds to move forward with early build-out of an interoperable broadband network to meet the needs of public safety. The experience gained through waiver deployments can assist FirstNet in developing and implementing its plan to deploy a nationwide interoperable public safety broadband network.
NEW!! Directory Provides Links to Needed Public Safety Broadband Information
April 16, 2012
A nationwide public safety broadband network is moving closer to reality with the passage of legislation giving public safety both the spectrum and funding needed to build the network.
What does it mean for your agency? Who will manage the new network and what type of local control and priority service will your agency have? How does the broadband network affect voice over Land Mobile Radio? What are the requirements for the network? What kinds of standards are being developed? How will the federal government interact with state and local organizations? What is the history of the effort to create a broadband network for public safety?
Now available: The Public Safety Broadband Directory has links to a wide range of current information on the nationwide efforts to bring broadband to public safety. The directory categorizes all resource links both by activities in broadband:
Advocacy
Governance
Policy
Requirements
Standards
Testbeds
Training
New Information
And, by the organizations integrally involved in the nationwide public safety broadband network:
Federal, state, local, and regional governments
National public safety organizations
Standards-setting organizations
We are seeking your input to make this public safety broadband directory as useful as possible. Please send any recommended submissions, changes, and/or additions to directory_input@npstc.org.
CMAS RDT&E Forum Report Released
April 04, 2012
Dear Colleague:
On behalf of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate, thank you for participating in the Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation (RDT&E) Forum. Your participation provided my team with timely information that is being used to inform many of our RDT&E activities. Attached please find the meeting report for the CMAS RDT&E Forum, held in Las Vegas on February 21, 2012.
With your guidance and partnership, our current and future state planning is targeted to help alert originators craft effective messages that elicit the intended public response, and help develop the technology that targets messages. Our dialogue acknowledged challenges, reconfirmed previous commitments, and set expectations about the roles and responsibilities of local, state, and Federal stakeholders, industry, and the research community.
Through the Forum, we have emerged with a collective focus to make alerts and warnings capabilities more effective across the country.
Thank you for your continued support of CMAS RDT&E. I look forward to working with you again and invite you to contact CMAS_Forum@sra.com with any questions or further input.
Warm Regards,
Denis
Denis A. Gusty, PMP™ Program Manager Homeland Security Enterprise and First Responder Group U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology
OEC Makes Available New Narrowband Status Reporting Tool
March 23, 2012
As the January 1, 2013 narrowbanding deadline rapidly approaches, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Emergency Communications (OEC) is pleased to announce that a new Narrowband Status Reporting Tool is available for your use.
NPSTC's Broadband Working Group Publishes Local Control in the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network
March 19, 2012
As the long-awaited public safety broadband network moves closer to reality with the passage of legislation last month, NPSTC's Broadband Working Group (BBWG) has been working to identify public safety requirements for the nationwide public safety 700 MHz broadband network. Through the work of task groups, the BBWG is researching specific areas including voice, security, priority and quality of service, multimedia emergency services, and local control.
The Local Control Task Group focused on the amount of control local agencies should have in a national public safety broadband network. Because the actual definition of local control varies widely, the Task Group developed standard definitions. On February 27, 2012, the BBWG released, Local Control in the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network, for peer review, which has since been approved and published.
The document outlines a User Entity's needs and expectations for its control of a nationwide public safety broadband network. For the purposes of this document, a "User Entity" is defined to be a public safety organization, federal, state, or local, that makes use of communications services from a "Broadband Network Operator."
Caption: When the levees were breached in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, the Ninth Ward was inundated. (Image Credit: U.S. Coast Guard)
