Update: Cisco builds system to boost emergency communications

Computerworld - Cisco Systems Inc. today announced plans for a communications system designed to allow walkie-talkies and other devices used by emergency personnel to interoperate via the Internet Protocol and Session Initiation Protocol.

The technology attempts to address a problem that many public officials believe has reached crisis proportions. For example, after hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast, state and local police were unable to communicate with each other because their systems weren't interoperable, Audwin Samuel, mayor pro tem of Beaumont, Texas, said in testimony last week before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security.

"Communications interoperability has always been a concern with first responders, going back to the first radios," said Michael Griffin, assistant chief of law enforcement for California's Office of Emergency Services. "There's a growing realization from public safety experts that we need to look at new technologies."

Cisco's new offering, called the IP Interoperability and Collaboration System (IPICS), will be rolled out globally over the next six to 12 months, according to Shah Talukder, general manager of the networking vendor's safety and security systems business unit.

With 10 to 15 years of life left in expensive handheld radios that use proprietary networks, Cisco decided to take the legacy infrastructure "and tie it all to IP, and from there to other modalities," Talukder said. He added that IPICS can be used to connect push-to-talk radios to each other and to analog, cellular and IP phones, handhelds and laptop PCs with Wi-Fi links.

Cisco demonstrated the technology at a press conference in New York, and the company said it has several trial projects under way in both the public and private sectors. Pricing has yet to be finalized, said Talukder.

Steven Rummel, vice president of IT at Maher Terminals in Port Elizabeth, N.J., said that about 500 IP telephones, 700 Nextel push-to-talk cell phones and 25 PCs with softphones -- all using IPICS -- are currently in use. The system will be especially valuable if the shipyard needs to be evacuated in an emergency, as no universal communications system was in place before, he said.

Rummel said at the news conference that he has been working with Cisco on IPICS since January, following discussions with Cisco sales reps about gaining interoperability between cell phones and other devices.

Aside from emergencies, IPICS could also allow Maher to monitor video feeds from cameras in the terminal yard, allowing workers to move inside and monitor more operations than are currently possible, he said.

The city of Honolulu conducted a test of IPICS for two weeks starting about a month ago, said the city's CIO, Gordon Bruce. The technology worked successfully, even on fire trucks.