Subject: [NEXTEL-1] MARC: Emergency Communications Interoperability Report December, 2003

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 09:51:49 -0500

MARC: Emergency Communications Interoperability Report December, 2003
Public Safety Communications Interoperability In the MARC Region (Kansas City
Metro Area)

Status Report & Options Analysis

Section 1 – Executive Summary

GeoComm was commissioned in September, 2003 to conduct an assessment of and
provide an analysis of the options for improvements to the Public
Safety/Emergency Communications Interoperability capabilities in the MARC
region. The principle underlying intent was to examine existing and proposed
voice and data radio communications systems to determine where opportunities
exist to improve and broaden the scope of interoperable public safety
communications within the 8 county MARC region.
Ultimately the goal of the combined public safety agencies within the Kansas
City Metropolitan (area as represented by the MARC Regional Interoperability
Committee) is to implement communications interoperability solutions that;

1. Enhance day-to-day public safety mutual aid communications for minor
emergency situations
2. Enhance major disaster public safety communications focused in a particular
geographic area and;
3. Enhance Public safety communications during major region-wide situations.

Project Methodology
\
The project was initiated via a project kick-off meeting during which members of
the GeoComm research team met with the MARC Regional Interoperability Committee
to establish the precise parameters of the study and to provide a general
understanding of the technical issues to be explored. This initial meeting gave
way to a comprehensive on-site analysis of the region’s public safety
communications facilities to acquire a detailed understanding of the existing
technical capabilities as well as to establish the financial, operational and
political environment within which they currently exist and function.

The preliminary data acquired via this comprehensive process, along with
responses from a data collection survey instrument returned by 55 communications
entities was then analyzed by the project team and incompatibilities and
commonalities and were noted. The incompatibilities were thereby established as
the underlying existing impediments to interoperability between the public
safety communications systems in the greater Kansas City Area. To achieve the
goals as established by the Regional Interoperability Committee as alluded to
above, these incompatibilities would have to be eliminated or overcome. The
commonalities which remained were, by extension, then established as a baseline
foundation upon which all subsequent technical options would be developed.
Simultaneous to this winnowing process, the GeoComm researchers examined other
metropolitan regions wherein similar public safety communications challenges
have been identified and, in some fashion, addressed. These other systems would
then be compared to the common foundation identified with the MARC region to
determine what, if any, of the myriad solutions implemented by these other
communities might serve in part to address the ultimate goal of the MARC
Regional Interoperability Committee to enhance and improve public safety radio
interoperability within the MARC region.
Finally, GeoComm met with local professional radio system service and equipment
providers involved in the day-to-day management and servicing of public safety
radio infrastructures identified during our research. The purpose of these
meetings was to avail ourselves of their years of technical experience
concerning the progressive technical evolution of public safety radio systems
within the MARC region and to discuss the practical aspects of the preliminary
options identified to this point in the study.  These meetings lent a
much-needed practical aspect to the various technical options required if our
final recommendations were to be offered in a manner consistent with their
potential implementation.

http://www.marc.org/emergency/interoperabilityreport120803.pdf
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