Five years ago no one used the term homeland security.
Five years ago, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 had yet to happen. Five years ago, Katrina was just a girl’s name-not a deadly hurricane.
Today, all that has changed. Five years after the 9/11 attacks and one year after Katrina, several companies have built business models on the term homeland security, often tying communications-public-safety interoperability and emergency alerts-to homeland security.
Before Sept. 11, no one paid much attention when public-safety officers complained about interoperability problems. Oh sure, there was the outrage that runners had to be used at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., at the federal building in Oklahoma City, and even when an airplane crashed into a bridge in the nation’s capital, but real action was still years away.
After Sept. 11, 2001, there was outrage at the possibility that firefighters died because they didn’t hear a command given to other first responders to evacuate.
But as Hurricane Katrina demonstrated again last year, progress toward interoperability has been slow.
Today, the state of public-safety communications in New York City and Washington, D.C., both targets of terrorist attacks, is a case of haves and have-nots.
While Washington has come a long way toward interoperable communications with various projects touted as the silver bullet, New York City and New York state went in opposite directions, deploying separate communications systems.
New York City said in 2004 that it would utilize the newly available spectrum at 4.9 GHz; New York state said it would build a statewide system utilizing both 800 and 700 MHz spectrum.
M/A-Com Inc., which won the state contract, also sells 4.9 GHz solutions, but the 4.9 GHz gear is not part of the contract.
“In regard to 4.9 in New York-it is a broadband capability that our VIDA solution in New York will support, but at this time it is not a contract deliverable with the state,” said M/A-Com spokesman David Hutcheson.
The 50 megahertz of spectrum allocated for public safety in the 4.9 GHz band (4940-4990 MHz) was one of the earliest responses to the 9/11 attacks. Within the first year, the spectrum had been reserved for public safety.
It is thought the 4.9 GHz band will be ideal to transmit video and other bandwidth-hogging applications envisioned by the public-safety community. Today, mesh networks are being developed linking the 4.9 GHz band with unlicensed Wi-Fi at 2.4 GHz. But actual 4.9 GHz equipment has been slow to his the market, although several companies have received experimental licenses.
A year after allocating the 4.9 GHz band to public safety, the Federal Communications Commission said the spectrum could be shared with commercial systems in pursuit of homeland-security objectives, such as critical-infrastructure protection. Former FCC Chairman Michael Powell led the effort, noting that the flexibility would lead to give commercial businesses developing equipment and delivering applications.
D.C. connecting
Meanwhile, the picture has been brighter in Washington, D.C., where the Capital Wireless Integrated Network has been deployed.
“The CapWin network lets law-enforcement agencies and others do three things: communicate with one another over a secure instant-messaging network; search multiple databases; and permit better coordination between multiple criminal justice, transportation, and hazardous-material agencies responding to an emergency,” touts Jabber Inc., which developed the instant messaging using the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol.
“Since 9/11, it is accepted fact that military and intelligence assets, first responders, and other law-enforcement personnel and agencies must not operate as information silos, especially in crises,” said Paul Guerin, chief executive officer of Jabber.
