Month: April 2016

Investigation into Communications System Failure during Brussels Attacks

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March 26, 2016, A Belgian federal commissioner has called for an investigation into the outage of the communication system for security and emergency services. The system called ASTRID has malfunctioned for as many as two hours during which emergency services were forced to use Whatsapp to organize efforts to help with the aftermath of the attacks. A spokesman for police confirmed that the system did malfunction. The problem was mostly blamed on overloaded lines causing it to crash. A mobile unit was sent in to improve radio communications.

Read more here: http://www.innerspection.com/#!Investigation-into-communications-system-failure-during-Brussels-attacks/cjds/56f693b80cf26be41bda705a

 

Brussels Police Were Forced to Use WhatsApp During Attack

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Emergency services in Brussels were forced to use WhatsApp when communication systems were overwhelmed with traffic after suicide bombers attacked the city’s airport and a metro station, officials say.  Catherine De Bolle, the general commissioner of Belgium’s Federal Police, has requested a probe into the communication problems that hampered emergency services on Tuesday, according to Belgian news reports.  

“It was a helpless situation. Orders were not received and no one knew what was being done. The mobile network was down too,” one police officer told Nieuwsblad. “Fortunately, WhatsApp was still working. Without the app we wouldn’t have been able to communicate at all.”  Read article here: http://bnonews.com/news/index.php/news/id3969

Urgent Comms Reports: Officials Provide More Specifics about Mission-Critical Push-to-Talk (MCPTT) Standard for LTE, FirstNet Deployment

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Functionalities associated with the new mission-critical push-to-talk (MCPTT) standard for LTE are designed to meet or exceed the capabilities and performance benchmarks for existing land-mobile-radio (LMR) systems, but real-world testing is needed to determine whether MCPTT can overcome some physics limitations that will allow it to meet the needs of first responders, officials said during an IWCE 2016 session on the subject.

On March 11 in Sweden, 3GPP—the standards body that oversees development of the LTE standard—approved the components of MCPTT over LTE as part of LTE Release 13. With the action, vendors now are able to develop products that meet the much-anticipated MCPTT standard.

Read complete article here:http://urgentcomm.com/3gpp/officials-provide-more-specifics-about-mission-critical-push-talk-mcptt-standard-lte-firstnet-d

U.S. Military Christens Self-driving ‘Sea Hunter’ Warship

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PORTLAND, OREGON | BY PHIL STEWART

The U.S. military has christened an experimental self-driving warship designed to hunt for enemy submarines, a major advance in robotic warfare at the core of America’s strategy to counter Chinese and Russian naval investments.

The 132-foot-long (40-metre-long) unarmed prototype, dubbed Sea Hunter, is the naval equivalent of Google’s self-driving car, designed to cruise on the ocean’s surface for two or three months at a time – without a crew or anyone controlling it remotely.

That kind of endurance and autonomy could make it a highly efficient submarine stalker at a fraction of the cost of the Navy’s manned vessels.

Read complete article here: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-military-robot-ship-idUSKCN0X42I4

Markey Files Drone Privacy Amendment to FAA Reauthorization Bill

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Sen. Edward Markey (D., Mass.) said today that he and Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) introduced an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2016 that would protect individuals’ right to privacy against “unwarranted governmental intrusion” through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles by prohibiting law enforcement to use drone craft to surveil or collect evidence regarding a violation of the law without a warrant.  Exceptions to the amendment would include the patrolling of national borders, an imminent danger to life, and “high risk” of terrorist attack.

Courtesy TRDaily

 

NGA Announces Five States for Interoperability Academy

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The National Governors Association announced today that five states have been selected to participate in a policy academy on emergency communications interoperability. The states are Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Utah, and West Virginia.

“All governors share the priority of ensuring first responders are prepared and equipped for an emergency,” said Alaska Gov. Bill Walker (I.). “In Alaska’s vast and forbidding terrain, it is essential that all levels of response work together. This opportunity with NGA will help states plan for the constantly changing emergency communications landscape.” 

NGA said the interoperability policy academy “will focus on developing specific strategies designed to strengthen current statewide interoperability plans, including assessing governance structures and standard operating procedures. “An NGA policy academy is a highly interactive, team-based, multi-state process in which a number of states develop and implement a plan to address a complex public policy issue,” it added. “Participating states receive guidance and technical assistance from NGA staff and faculty experts, as well as consultants from the private sector, federal agencies, research organizations and academia.”

 Chris Essid, deputy director of the Office of Emergency Communications (OEC) at the Department of Homeland Security, observed at a recent meeting of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council that a 2006 NGA policy academy lead to the creation of OEC, the National Emergency Communications Plan, and an interoperability funding grant program (TRDaily, March 25). – Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

Courtesy TRDaily

APCO Raises Concerns with CAP Petition Filed by TIA

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The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International is raising concerns with a petition for reconsideration filed by the Telecommunications Industry Association concerning the Project 25 Compliance Assessment Program (CAP). An ex parte filing today in PS docket 13-87 reporting on an April 5 meeting at the FCC said “APCO addressed the Petition for Reconsideration filed by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) requesting that the Commission not require Project 25 Compliance Assessment Program (CAP) certification for devices ahead of submission to the FCC for type acceptance. APCO believes that CAP approval should be required prior to type acceptance as an important step toward ensuring interoperability for land mobile radios.

“APCO noted that the CAP Advisory Panel (formerly the CAP Governing Board) has matured significantly since TIA originally filed its Petition,” the filing added. “The CAP Advisory Panel, with support from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and APCO, has established regular meetings and various conference calls, and has restructured its governance to raise the effectiveness of user input on the CAP’s features and functionality requirements. Importantly, the CAP certification process has been streamlined, resulting in more timely approval for equipment that has passed CAP testing.”

 APCO said that while it “prefers that the Commission require that equipment manufacturers obtain CAP certification prior to type acceptance, if the Commission permits devices to go through type acceptance prior to CAP certification, manufacturers should be prohibited from engaging in marketing activities, not just delivering equipment, until after CAP approval. This is critical for ensuring that the CAP program is able to fulfill its purpose of providing emergency response agencies with evidence that the communications equipment they purchase meets P25 standards for performance, conformance, and interoperability.”

 The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council also opposes the TIA petition (TRDaily, Feb. 24, 2015).

 A draft order on reconsideration that was circulated to FCC Commissioners in February would grant the TIA petition, an agency source has told TRDaily (TRDaily, Feb. 26). – Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterkluwer.com

Courtesy TRDaily

Andy Seybold’s Public Safety Advocate, April 8, 2016

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From our Friends at NPSTC: A Reminder to Honor those who also serve: “National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week (NPSTW) is April 12-18. Next week NPSTC and communities across the U.S. will recognize those who help save lives in times of personal or national crisis. The Association of Public-Safety Officials (APCO) International has established an NPSTW blog where agencies can share celebration ideas and photos of this year’s festivities. Citizens can also share thoughts of gratitude and personal stories. According to APCO, “Initially conceived in 1981 by Patricia Anderson of the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office in California, Telecommunicators Week was created to raise public awareness of the hard work and dedication of public safety telecommunicators.” Learn more about NPSTW at npstw.org.

And April is Also 9-1-1 Education Month. The National Emergency Number Associations (NENA’s) website asks, “Do you know how to make 9-1-1 work for you?” For 40 years, 9-1-1 has served as the vital link between the American public and emergency services. Public education and awareness initiatives throughout the years have contributed in large measure to the incredible and ongoing success of the emergency communications system as a whole. It is imperative that 9-1-1 professionals, teachers, government officials, media representatives, and industry leaders are equipped with the tools necessary to continue these efforts in the face of an ever-changing telecommunications landscape, and that citizens of all ages are well versed in the role they play in ensuring effective and efficient emergency response for themselves and their fellow citizens.”

FirstNet RFP Due May 13, 2016:  FirstNet reported a number of capability statements had been received from prospective bidders. This bodes well for the final responses that are due in only a few short weeks. Then the real work for FirstNet, governmental agencies, and others tasked with reviewing the RFP responses will become intense. It appears as though there will be a general review of the received responses and then sections will be distributed to experts in the various areas covered by the RFP. For example, the FirstNet CTO staff and one or more other government organizations with cybersecurity skills, and perhaps even some private sector experts might review the cybersecurity portion of the RFP. FirstNet has stated that it intends (or wants) to award the RFP before the end of the year, and while this will require an extraordinary effort from everyone involved, it probably can be done barring any legal challenges along the way or after the award is made. Once the award is made it will also take some time to complete all of the paperwork and make sure every single federal requirement is met. Then the most important part of this project will begin: building the network and putting it into operation. I suspect that if the winner is an existing network operator the network build could be accomplished faster than FirstNet has planned since most of the sites will already have that network’s equipment on them. Yes, there will be some delays due to local permitting issues, tower site wind loading, and facilities modifications but one thing the U.S. network operators and their partners know how to do is to roll out a network in a timely fashion.

While I do not have exact stats, I believe the network operators rolled out their own commercial LTE in the United States faster than they rolled out their 2G and 3G networks. If the winner is not an existing network operator but has a relationship with one or more network operator, things will still progress nicely but perhaps a little slower because of the winner having to start from scratch at a number of sites. The most telling part of the build to me will be how FirstNet and the feds handle the multitude of change orders that will naturally have to be generated and reviewed. Sites may have to be juggled, some towers may not have enough capacity, or coverage might have to shift. All of this is normal with cellular systems such as this. If these change orders can be handled in a swift and orderly fashion, as in a purely public company build, delays should be minimal. However, there are, as with any new system, many moving pieces that have to fit together in order to make the network a true network. Continue reading →

FirstNet Stresses Importance of Vehicle Systems

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The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) today stressed the importance of enabling emergency vehicles to be used as vehicle network systems (VNS) and contrasted VNS deployments with those of other systems, such as cells on light trucks (COLTs) and cells on wheels (COWs). “FirstNet is currently coordinating with organizations researching and demonstrating such platforms and working to ensure that the VNS is prioritized as appropriate to support commercial availability of this critical platform,” FirstNet’s CTO devices team said in a blog posting. “A number of vendors have already demonstrated initial offers or prototypes that meet many of the goals of a VNS.  In addition, there are relevant standards efforts within 3GPP that, in our opinion, could be relevant to the VNS concept.”

Read more here: http://www.firstnet.gov/newsroom/blog/tech-talk-updated-vehicular-network-system-vision