Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Revolutionizing the Efficiency and Safety of Rescue Workers

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 06 Nov 2002 19:39:23 -0500

http://pulse.tiaonline.org/print.cfm?id=951

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November 2002 (print version)

Standards Update : Public Safety

Revolutionizing the Efficiency and Safety of Rescue Workers

Self-Establishing, Self-Healing Wireless Systems Move a Step Closer to Reality with the Approval of Three New Documents by Project MESA

At its fifth plenary meeting, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, September 25-27, the international public safety mobile broadband standardization partnership (Project MESA) approved three new documents that represent the outcome of its latest work on mobile broadband communications. This work will help to revolutionize the efficiency of first responders and rescue squads at the scene of a disaster such as the September 11 attacks, and dramatically improve their personal safety.

Project MESA (Mobility for Emergency and Safety Applications) is working on the design of an innovative new wireless network that would be made available to rescue workers of the future. These intelligent networks would be able to establish and supplement themselves as needed, without wires, and to communicate at broadband speeds unknown to us today. Aerials in emergency and civil protection vehicles, such as ambulances, fire engines and police cars, would automatically build up an ad-hoc network as the vehicles drive to the scene of an incident. An overview of the scene would then be available directly from video cameras integrated into the helmets of the rescue workers, providing invaluable information to rescue team leaders.

At its meeting in Copenhagen, the Project MESA Steering Committee approved three documents: Project MESA Definitions, Symbols and Abbreviations; the Project MESA Statement of Requirement (SoR) Matrix; and the revised and updated SoR. The SoR, which has been defined by users themselves and is based on scenarios and analyses of real-life events such as the September 11 World Trade Center and the Pentagon attacks, outlines advanced mobile broadband scenarios and definitions of the services to be supported by broadband public safety mobile telecommunications networks. Now approved, these documents can be utilized by Project MESA’s technical specification groups and sent to the project’s organizational partners for future publication and contribution into relevant domestic and international groups.

User members of Project MESA have elaborated the requirements for future advanced wireless systems, and industry experts in wireless technology studied the first version of the user requirements document during the working sessions in Copenhagen. Approval of the revised SoR allows more comprehensive elaboration of technical specifications, based on user needs. It was decided at Copenhagen that some of the key technologies to drive these requirements should be based on fully wireless system infrastructures, which have never been realized.

The meeting in Copenhagen attracted the largest participation ever, with more than 60 delegates from 13 countries, including technical experts, researchers, representatives and end users from police, fire and ambulance services and disaster response and military peacekeeping authorities, together with organizations, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and TIA.

Steffen Ring, a member of ETSI and chairman of Project MESA, said, “Better late than never. With the devastating events of September 11, we now know that this work should have been started five years ago. At times when disasters strike and no electricity, no public telecommunications and no vital infrastructures are present, Project MESA is seeking to develop technology that will revolutionize the efficiency of the first responders and rescue squads. At the same time, it will dramatically enhance their personal safety.”

Ring was one of the founders of Project MESA. His term of office as chairman expired immediately after the Copenhagen meeting, on September 28, although he will continue to serve as vice-chairman. In thanking him for his work, the Steering Committee paid tribute to Ring for first conceiving the idea of Project MESA.

Ring’s successor, John Oblak, a TIA member, added: “The project is entering a new phase. The exciting task of making technology choices and developing standards is now upon us. We look forward to the day when Project MESA technology is a part of the arsenal of emergency responders.”

Dan Bart, senior vice president of standards and special projects at TIA, commented, “Project MESA continues to demonstrate the excellent cooperation between ETSI and TIA. The continuing support between European and North American public safety experts and the increasing participation of industry is testament to the importance and potential of all that MESA entails, for ‘users’ and our citizens alike. I am pleased to see that this meeting has approved three important documents on which future technical work can be based, and that a representative from TIA now has the honor of being Steering Committee Chair. We all owe Steffen Ring a debt of gratitude for the tireless efforts he has devoted to MESA over the last two years.”

Project MESA is a public safety partnership that represents the first international initiative to involve users and organizations from the public protection, disaster response and civil defense sectors. MESA brings together industry and users to produce truly global standards for public safety applications. For more information, visit www.projectmesa.org/ or the MESA-ETSI portal site www.etsi.org/mesa/.

For information about work on emergency telecommunications, visit www.emtel.etsi.org/.

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