Peter F. Small (Sergeant Retired – Syracuse Police Department) Public Safety Communications Technology Specialist NLECTC-NE 26 Electronics Parkway Rome, NY Voice Applications of IP Technology

2 Piedmont Region VoIP Pilot Project Emerging technologies from leading manufacturers of data communications products offer another tool for Interoperability in Public Safety Communications

3 Piedmont Region VoIP Pilot Project A Different Approach Public/Private Partnership -The project is a long term multi-phase regional pilot spearheaded by the City of Danville, VA. and Cisco Systems Inc. with regional MPLS links provided by Sprint/Nextel -Additional technology provided by Raytheon (JPS Communications)

4 Piedmont Region VoIP Pilot Project Regional Public Safety Partners -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 800 MHz Radio Systems -Virginia State Police - Regional VHF Radio channel & Virginia Statewide channel

5 Piedmont Region VoIP Pilot Project Problem -The City of Danville is located on the border with North Carolina -Crime committed on the Virginia side of the border often results in the pursuit of offenders into North Carolina Communications Problem -Disparate radio systems negatively impact: Officer-to-Officer Communications Officer-to-Dispatch Communications Command and Control

6 Piedmont Region VoIP Pilot Project

7 Solution -Danville Police Department and their technology partner established a Voice over Internet Protocol interoperability solution using a dedicated IP network and an emerging VoIP software solution Capabilities -Officer-to-Officer Communications Disparate Radio Systems interconnected via IP network -Dispatch-to-Dispatch Integration of console equipment to IP network resulted in a VoIP “Intercom” -Command and Control Remote access from any voice enabled IP device (PC or Phone)

8 Piedmont Region VoIP Pilot Project

9 Implementation Challenges -Equipment Old technology (DC control, independent voter equipment, consoles) -Personnel Loss of trained personnel Radio technicians unfamiliarity with IP networks – AND- IP technicians unfamiliarity with land mobile radio equipment

10 Piedmont Region VoIP Pilot Project Partnerships provide solutions Donation of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) standard compliant equipment Cooperation among two major technology manufacturers to deploy the SIP based equipment Establish an IP-to-IP connection between disparate land mobile radio systems

11 Piedmont Region VoIP Pilot Project VoIP Standards for Public Safety -Department of Homeland Security – SAFECOM Roundtable on Public Safety Interoperability and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Manufacturers Participating in the Standards Process – But More Importantly – Manufacturers building standards compliant equipment and employing standards based solutions in the field Meeting this week in Boulder, CO – VoIP technology provider “bakeoff”

12 Piedmont Region VoIP Pilot Project Project Status -Installation of equipment complete – but not without challenges -System training by the technology partner underway NIJ CommTech Role -Provide assistance w/governance -Provide “honest broker” technology assistance -Observe and Document: Implementation Process & Operational Exercise and Evaluation of technology

13 Piedmont Region VoIP Pilot Project Contact Information Peter F. Small – NLECTC-NE Office: