LEIM Greensboro, NC Voice Applications of IP Technology Piedmont Pilot Peter Small, (Sergeant Ret.) NLECTC-NE 26 Electronic Parkway Rome, NY May, 2007

2 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program A Public/Private Partnership The Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot is the result of a partnership agreement negotiated between Cisco Systems Inc. and the City of Danville Police Department. Project supported by: NIJ CommTech NLECTC-NE - NLECTC-SE & Sheriff’s Association of Texas

3 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program Partners

4 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program Public Safety participants City of Danville, Virginia - VHF Radio System(s) Pittsylvania County, Virginia - VHF Radio System Caswell County, North Carolina - UHF Radio System North Carolina State Highway Patrol - Conventional VHF & Trunked 800MHz Radio Systems And Virginia State Police - Regional VHF Radio channel & Virginia Statewide channel. Corporate Participants Cisco Systems Inc. – Equipment and technology. Sprint Corporation – MPLS internetworking links.

5 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program –CommTech’s Role –Assist with formulating Regional Governance. –Document: Deployment & operational issues Network design & implementation issues Understand the underlying infrastructure (the “cloud”). –Act as an honest broker

6 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program –Participation in a long term multi-phase regional pilot spearheaded by Danville, VA. and Cisco, with regional MPLS links provided by Sprint. –Be an advocate for Danville Police & Adjacent towns/counties including neighbors across the state line. –A Public/Private Partnership - CommTech is not providing funding for software or equipment… just manpower.

7 CommTech Considerations: CommTech is not going to, nor are we planning to, compare IPICS features with those of other VoIP products. –Vendor-specific, or generic issues? –Product differentiators to Public Safety will reside in the product features made possible by the underlying IP technology. –Each vendor product has its own set of features and implementations that make this technology useful. –They are not all the same in content or quality, and are (typically) not interoperable between vendors at an IP level. –In this case it’s the IPICS software suite that defines how the overall product will work for Danville.

8 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program Background Lack of a common frequency to connect Virginia and North Carolina agencies During emergency situations, dispatchers relayed information via land lines –Officers drove out of radio system coverage. Technical issues –Inadequate infrastructures –Security & Reliability Administrative issues –Participating agencies lacked existing framework for interoperability –Sharing control of resources

9 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program - Goals Administrative –Establish multi-agency governance. Operational –Establish VoIP interface with existing land Mobile Radio Networks. –Direct PSAP-PSAP VoIP communications. –Frequency Sharing (cross programming) among agencies. –Remote VoIP access. Technical concerns –No direct change to radio infrastructure, or infrastructure security & reliability. –An IP overlay facilitating new communications functionality.

10 Piedmont RegionBeforeAfter (Goal) RF InteroperabilityNo common FrequencyFrequency cross- programming & VoIP gateway between systems Officer – PSAP/ Dispatch operability Officers left coverage of home system & contact with dispatch center Remote PSAP access & direct officer access to compatible neighboring systems Technical issues – RF networkInadequate infrastructures Security & Reliability No change to RF infrastructure No change to Security & Reliability Administrative & Governance issues No mechanism for in place sharing/control of RF resources Multi-Agency Gov. structure in place for sharing/control of Radio/VoIP resources

11 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program This project implementation facilitates: Dispatch Center Interoperability –Direct IP based voice communications (hotlines) between dispatch centers. –Remote Access to neighboring radio resources Direct End-User Interoperability –VHFLB/VHF/UHF & 800MHz –Many currently operate on conventional VHF frequencies. –Cross-programming/sharing of channels. –Bridging & gateway functions. –Familiar geographic bridging limitations, related to coverage, still apply for mobile users.

12 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program This project implementation facilitates (cont…): –Remote communications with home agency dispatch will be facilitated for mobile users moving out of direct range of home system coverage into a compatible system. –Remote access to radio resources from VoIP enabled workstations/IP telephones. –The Cisco IPICS application add Cisco specific features & operating environment.

13 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program Phase I Establish IP Interoperability in City of Danville –Establish overall Project Governance –Connect City Department VHF radio systems Police, Fire, Electric, EOC- Emergency Management, Water & Gas and Public Works Existing LAN/WAN and Land Mobile Radio (LMR) Radio Systems –EOC Dispatch Console connections –Design & Deploy Internet Protocol Interoperability Collaboration System (IPICS) Hardware, Software and LMR Gateway Routers

14 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program Phase I Status (May 2007): –Governance concept established for Danville –Phase I Design & Installation - Complete 9/15/06 –Network ready for use testing (Cisco) – Pending –System Training & evaluation (NIJ & Departments) - Pending

15 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program Phase I Technical Details –Danville is utilizing city-owned fiber optic resources and in- place IP network infrastructure. –Danville is interconnecting 7 VHF municipal radio systems –Danville will house the Cisco IPICS server & router interfaces to 7 radio systems in Danville.

16 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program Phase II Pittsylvania County, VA & Caswell County, NC –Expand Governance for additional non-Danville agencies. –Pittsylvania (VA) Sheriff, Caswell (NC) Sheriff, and Phase 1 Networks. –Design & Deploy LMR gateway router additions to Phase 1 network, add IP network connection over existing fiber network and Sprint MPLS network. –Establish Inter-dispatch-center VoIP hotline connections.

17 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program Phase II Status (May 2007): –Governance includes Pittsylvania & Caswell Counties –LMR Gateway Routers: Installed & configured. –IP network connectivity - complete. –Radio Network Connections - complete –Dispatch console interconnect - complete –Network ready for use testing (Cisco) – Pending –System Training & evaluation (NIJ & Agencies) - Pending

18 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program Phase II Technical Details Caswell County Sheriff –A single router with analog interface to a UHF radio unit and dispatch console. –Commercial (Sprint) MPLS transport used for backhaul between Danville VA and Yanceyville, NC. Pittsylvania County Sheriff –A single router with analog interface to a VHF radio unit and dispatch console. –Danville owned fiber transport used for backhaul between Danville, VA and Pittsylvania, VA.

19 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program Phase III Virginia State Police & North Carolina Highway Patrol –Expand Governance. –Connect Virginia State Police (Salem), North Carolina Highway Patrol (Greensboro) to Phase 1 and Phase 2 systems. –Establish Inter-dispatch-center VoIP hotline connections –Design & Deploy LMR gateway router additions to network, add IP network connection over existing fiber network and Sprint MPLS network.

20 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program Phase III Status (May 2007): –Governance includes VSP & NCHP –LMR Gateway Routers installed but implementation issues are still unresolved (NCSHP) –Commercial (Sprint) MPLS transport used for backhaul between Danville – Salem VA and Greensboro NC. –Radio Network Connection – design issues unresolved (NCSHP). –Dispatch console interconnect – design issues unresolved (NCSHP) –Network ready for use testing (Cisco) – Pending –System Training & evaluation (NIJ & Agencies) - Pending

21 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program Phase III Technical Details North Carolina Highway Patrol –Access router installed Back-to-back routers with a T-1 (TDM) interface as a fire-break. Internet VPN will be used for IPICS control Only voice traffic will be passed through the T-1 fire Break. –Issues with existing JPS ACU-1000 IP network when network link is shared. –Issues with Non-Cisco Router base –Issues with console high-voltage DC interface to base station radio controller

22 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program Phase III Technical Details Virginia State Police – A single router with analog interface to a VHF base station via Orbacom Console. –Old DOS-based dispatch console (software and hardware). –Staffing / expertise (issue “programming”).

23 Piedmont Regional Voice over IP Pilot Program Observations: There is a disconnect in expertise between the IP world and the LMR world. End-to-end network ownership of user talk paths must be established. All stakeholder must be involved in plans –Practitioners as well as dispatchers as well as network maintainers. –Legacy system contract support – also stakeholders With IP technology, problems can be created from a distance. –Not only IP-IP issues, but with non-IP components. Make sure the vendor has a detailed plan