Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Statement of Requirements (SoR) for public safety communications and interoperability

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 22:10:15 -0400

Statement of Requirements (SoR) for public safety communications and
interoperability
The SAFECOM Program - Department of Homeland Security
Version 1.0
March 10, 2004 iv on Public Safety Wireless Communications

Inadequate and unreliable wireless communications have been issues
plaguing public safety organizations for decades. In many cases,
agencies cannot perform their mission- critical duties.  These agencies
are unable to share vital voice or data information via radio with other
jurisdictions in day-to-day operations and in emergency response to
incidents including acts of terrorism and natural disasters.

According to a report done by the National Task Force on
Interoperability (February 2003), the public safety community has
identified the following key issues that hamper public safety wireless
communications today:

• Incompatible and aging communications equipment
• Limited and fragmented budget cycles and funding
• Limited and fragmented planning and coordination
• Limited and fragmented radio spectrum
• Limited equipment standards

In short, the Nation is heavily invested in an existing infrastructure
that is largely incompatible.  The SAFECOM Program was established by
the Office of Management & Budget and approved by the President’s
Management Council to address these public safety communications issues.

The SAFECOM Program

SAFECOM’s mission is to serve as the umbrella program within the federal
government to help local, tribal, state, and federal public safety
agencies improve public safety response through more effective and
efficient interoperable wireless communications. Communications
interoperability is the ability of public safety agencies to talk across
disciplines and jurisdictions via radio communications systems,
exchanging voice and/or data with one another on demand, in real time,
when needed.

SAFECOM is the first national program designed by public safety for
public safety. As a public
safety practitioner driven program, SAFECOM is working with existing
federal communications
initiatives and key public safety stakeholders to address the need to
develop better technologies and
processes for the cross-jurisdictional and cross-disciplinary
coordination of existing systems and
future networks. SAFECOM harnesses diverse federal resources in service
of the public safety
community. The scope of this community is broad. The customer base
includes over 50,000 local
and state public safety agencies and organizations. Federal customers
include over 100 agencies
engaged in public safety disciplines, such as law enforcement,
firefighting, public health and
PSWC&I Statement of Requirements - The SAFECOM Program
The SAFECOM Program - Department of Homeland Security disaster recovery.

SAFECOM makes it possible for the public safety community to leverage
resources by promoting coordination and cooperation across all levels of
government.

SAFECOM’s Near-Term Initiatives

Develop a process to advance standards necessary to improve public
safety communications and interoperability.
Integrate coordinated grant guidance across all agencies, providing
grants for public safety communications and interoperability.
Provide training and technical assistance for public safety
communications and interoperability.
Create a one-stop shop for public safety communications and
interoperability.  Research, develop, test, and evaluate existing and
emerging technologies for improved public safety communications and
interoperability.
SAFECOM’s Long-Term Goals

• Provide policy recommendations.
• Develop a technical foundation for public safety communications and
interoperability.
• Coordinate funding assistance for public safety communications and
interoperability.
• Create and implement a national training and technical assistance
program.

The SAFECOM Program, with its partners, is assuring a safer America
through effective public safety communications.
David Boyd, Ph.D.

Director, SAFECOM Program Office
[email-masked]

- Introduction PSWC&I Statement of Requirements
The SAFECOM Program - Department of Homeland Security

Introduction

“In times of emergencies, the public looks to government, particularly
their Public Safety officials, to act swiftly and correctly and do the
things which must be done to save lives, help the injured, and restore
order. Most disasters occur without warning, but people still expect a
rapid and flawless response on the part of government. There is no room
for error. Whether a vehicle accident, crime, plane crash, special
event, or any other Public Safety activity, one of the major components
of responding to and mitigating a disaster is wireless communications.
These wireless communications systems are critical to Public Safety
agencies’ ability to protect lives and property, and the welfare of
Public Safety officials.”

This statement comes from the highly regarded Public Safety Wireless
Advisory Committee (PSWAC) Final Report, presented to the Chairman of
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Administrator of the
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in
September 19961. The PSWAC Final Report defined and documented critical
public safety wireless communication needs in 1996, and projected
anticipated needs through the year 2010. The report focused on the
requirements for communications resources and the radio frequency
spectrum to support those requirements. While the report mentioned the
crucial need to promote interoperability, its emphasis was clearly on
the necessity of taking immediate measures to alleviate spectrum
shortfalls. Fortunately, for public safety, and for the benefit of all
Americans, the report spurred the allocation of precious spectrum for
use by public safety practitioners.  Unfortunately, the communication
challenges for those working on the front lines in public safety have
not been eliminated. In fact, at a time when more attention is being
paid to interoperability among different disciplines and jurisdictions
within the community, there still exists fundamental communication
deficiencies within disciplines and jurisdictions as practitioners
strive to perform the most routine and basic elements of their job
functions. Agencies must be “operable,” meaning they must have
sufficient wireless communications to meet their everyday internal
requirements before they place value on being “interoperable,” meaning
being able to work with other agencies.  This document, the Statement of
Requirements (SoR) for Public Safety Wireless Communications and
Interoperability, is the natural follow-on to the PSWAC Final Report,
but differs in three ways.  First, this SoR is not keyed to the issue of
spectrum allocation, but focused on public safety requirements from a
broader perspective. Operational and functional requirements delineated
in this SoR are not based on a particular approach or technology.

1. In 1994, the FCC and NTIA established PSWAC to evaluate the wireless
communications needs of local, tribal, state, and federal public safety
agencies through the year 2010, identify problems, and recommend
possible solutions.

PSWC&I Statement of Requirements - Introduction

Second, this SoR was developed 8 years after the PSWAC Final Report was
published. While the Final Report did not explicitly identify specific
technological approaches along with the stated requirements, it is
important to realize that advances in technology have helped to fashion
the way practitioners think about their jobs over the years. Because
users expect more from technology today, their needs and desires have
been affected, sometimes subtly, by industry advances and solutions that
exist in today’s commercial and consumer world. Additionally, current
technological advances promote futuristic thinking about what the user
may be able to expect 15 years from now.  That said, the methodologies
used, and the general projections made in the PSWAC Final Report remain
as valid today as when they were first published. Based on the rapid
changes and potential of technology, this SoR addresses current
requirements for 2004 and future requirements through 2019.
Third, this SoR emphasizes the “information” aspects of communications,
that is, the need for the wireless exchange of data, video, and other
non-voice mediums. The need for voice communications was clearly made in
the PSWAC Final Report as well as the need for additional bandwidth for
other data resources. This SoR defines the information requirements of
public safety practitioners more explicitly to guide how practitioners
will use information resources in the field in mission-critical
situations.

Scope

In general, this SoR is focused on the functional needs of public safety
first responders—

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel, firefighters, and law
enforcement officers—to communicate and share information as authorized
when it is needed, where it is needed, and in a mode or form that allows
the practitioners to effectively use it. The communications mode may be
voice, data, image, video, or multimedia that includes multiple forms of
information.  Because the emphasis of this document is on functional
requirements, there has been a conscious effort to avoid specifying not
only technologies but business models as well (i.e., whether
requirements should be addressed through owned products and systems or
via commercial services). Similarly infrastructure is not specified,
except to note that consistent with first responder operations, it is
assumed that terminal links to and from users are wireless unless stated
otherwise.

This SoR has been written to address a number of complementary
objectives. First and most importantly, it is rooted in the goal of
improving the ability of public safety personnel to communicate among
themselves, with the non-public safety agencies and organizations with
whom they work, and with the public that they serve. In addition, this
document can assist the telecommunication interoperability and
information-sharing efforts by and among local, tribal, state, and
federal government agencies, and regional entities, by delineating the
critical operational functions and interfaces within public safety
communications that would benefit from research and development
investment and standardization.
This SoR can assist federal programs that work with public safety
practitioners to facilitate wireless interoperability at all government
levels to develop a comprehensive vision for public safety
communications that satisfies the defined needs. This vision would be
reinforced by developing federal grant programs that promote government
research and development, as well as investment in communications
equipment and systems, in a manner consistent with the SoR.
- Introduction PSWC&I Statement of Requirements

This SoR provides information that can assist the communications
industry to prioritize its research and development investment and
product and service development strategies so that they are aligned with
public safety communications needs.
Finally, this SoR can be used to clearly identify public safety
operational issues so that discussions regarding existing and proposed
regulations and laws can be dealt with expeditiously by regulatory and
legislative bodies.

http://www.safecomprogram.gov/admin/librarydocs13/PSCI_Statement_of_Requirements_v1_0.pdf

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