Testimony of
Mr. Dereck Orr
Program Manager, Public Safety Communications Systems
National
Technology Administration
Before
the
The Subcommittee on Emergency
Preparedness, Science, and Technology
Committee on Homeland Security
"The State of
Thank you Chairman Reichert and Members of the Committee, I
serve as the Program Manager for Public Safety Communications Systems in the
Office of Law Enforcement Standards at the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST). NIST a non-regulatory agency within the U.S. Commerce
Department's Technology Administration serves industry, academia, and other
parts of the government by promoting
NIST's public safety communications program serves as the
technical lead for several Administration initiatives focusing on
communications, most importantly the SAFECOM Program. NIST is involved in many
of the key SAFECOM initiatives, including the Statement of Requirements, Public
Safety Architecture Framework, testing and evaluation, and standards
development. The strong partnership between SAFECOM and NIST is an excellent
example within the Administration of multi-agency coordination and collaboration,
and is something for which we at NIST are very proud. In addition, NIST relies heavily on the
world-class engineering expertise of the
I will focus the remainder of my remarks this morning on
the state of standards for public safety communications systems.
Interoperability for public safety communications is
defined as "the ability to share information via voice and data signals on
demand, in real time, when needed, and as authorized." The public safety
community expects that this level of interoperability will be available using
equipment from multiple manufacturers, that they are transparent to the user,
requiring little or no special knowledge of the system, and that they are not
dependent on common frequency assignments.
Achieving this definition of interoperability is not
possible without the existence of standards that will define how the various
components of a public safety communications system will interoperate,
regardless of manufacturer. In fact, I would venture to say that in the absence
of standards, achieving this level of interoperability would not be possible.
Public safety users have recognized this for some time.
Approximately fifteen years ago, representatives from local, state, and federal
public safety associations and agencies joined together to address the absence
of available standards. They did this for two primary purposes. First was to
ensure that interoperability could be achieved, assuming the use of equipment
from multiple manufacturers. Second, through standards, the public safety
community wanted to be able to take advantage of cost reductions associated
with a more competitive land mobile radio market.
Understanding the difficulty in specifying the complex
operations of the various components of a land mobile radio system, the public
safety community partnered with the Telecommunications Industry Association
(TIA) to serve as the standards development organization (SDO) for this effort.
Thus Project 25, or P25 as we know it today, was launched. A Memorandum of Understanding formalizing
this relationship created a Steering Committee comprised only of public safety
and government representatives and invested the committee with the sole
authority to designate a P25 standard.
A commonly misunderstood aspect of P25 is that it is
comprised of a single standard. Instead, it is a suite of standards that
specify the eight interfaces between the various components of a land mobile
radio system (hand held to hand held, hand held to mobile unit, mobile unit to
repeater, etc.):
·
Common air interface:
this interface defines the wireless access between mobile and portable radios
and between the subscriber (portable and mobile) radios and the fixed or base
station radios;
·
Subscriber data peripheral
interface: this interface characterizes the signaling for data transfer that
must take place between the subscriber radios and the data devices that may be
connected to the subscriber radio;
·
Fixed station
interface: this interface describes the signaling and messages between the RFSS
and the fixed station by defining the voice and data packets (that are sent
from/to the subscriber(s) over the common air interface) and all of the command
and control messages used to administer the fixed station as well as the
subscribers that are communicating through the fixed station;
·
Console interface:
this interface is similar to the fixed station interface but it defines all the
signaling and messages between the RFSS and the console, the position that a
dispatcher or a supervisor would occupy to provide commands and support to the
personnel in the field;
·
Network management
interface: this interface to the RFSS allows administrators to control and
monitor network fault management and network performance management.
·
Data network interface:
this interface describes the RF subsystem's connections to computers, data
networks, external data sources, etc.;
·
Telephone interconnect
interface: this interface between the RFSS and the Public Switched Telephone
Network (PSTN) allows field personnel to make connections through the public
switched telephone network by using their radios rather than using cellular
telephones;
·
Inter RF subsystem
interface: this interface permits users in one system to communicate with users
in a different system, from one jurisdiction to another, from one agency to
another, from one city to another, etc.
Until this past January, the last fifteen years had resulted in only
one of the above P25 interfaces, the Common Air Interface that deals with the
functions of the hand held units (i.e., walky-talky), being advanced to a level
where it would help satisfy one or both of the goals of P25. The remainder of
the interfaces had either remained undefined, or lacked enough specificity to
allow for a common implementation of the interface; in other words each
manufacturer’s implementation of the interface would be different and
proprietary thus resulting in systems that would not meet the
"interoperability" requirements as defined by the steering committee.
I would like to emphasize that the Common Air Interface was
a major step forward and extremely important. It provides a level of
interoperability and competition in the hand-held market that was not available
before. But, it alone cannot satisfy the definition of interoperability that
the public safety community is calling for.
However,
over the last year, through the concerted efforts of industry, public safety
practitioners, and NIST, with the support of SAFECOM, the technical development
of standards for the critical P25 interfaces has been greatly accelerated. Industry representatives, with key
involvement by public safety practitioners, have dramatically increased the
pace and scope of their standards development activities consistent with priorities
set by Congress. As a result,
significant progress has been made through the formal P25/Telecommunications
Industry Association (TIA) standards development framework established by the
P25/TIA partnership in 1993.
Specifically, the most critical P25
radio system interfaces have all been addressed. Basic protocol standards that specify the
functionality and capability of these interfaces have now been completed and
have been, or are on the verge of being published. The adoption of P25 standards is now
occurring within a time frame acceptable to public safety users, NIST and its
Federal partners, and the manufacturers.
As of the March 2006 P25 meetings the
following has been achieved to add to the existing P25 Common Air Interface:
§
Inter-RF Subsystem Interface (ISSI): A draft ISSI standard was approved on
§
Fixed/Base Station Subsystem Interface (FSSI): A completed
FSSI standard was approved on
§
Console
Subsystem Interface (CSSI): Completion in January 2006 of a new TIA standard for
the FSSI that enables direct basic console control of fixed/base station
equipment now serves as the foundation for more comprehensive CSSI standards to
be developed in the future. Further
development of the CSSI will follow upon continued development of the ISSI and
FSSI throughout calendar year 2006. The
public safety community can expect CSSI products to be available in 2007
(within approximately six months after publication of relevant standards in
2006 consistent with deadlines established by the P25 Steering Committee).
I
can report that State and local public safety agencies are already referencing
the above standards in formal requests for proposals (RFPs)
to Industry and that manufacturers are in the process of adding these standards
to future land mobile radio product lines.
Of course, it is not only important that the various P25
interfaces are completed in a timely manner, but that a mechanism exist to
ensure that products built to the standard, meet all of the requirements of the
standard.
Over the last two years, NIST, with funds from the
Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, has tested a
number of the hand held P25 radios that claim to meet the available Common Air
Interface Standard. Using the test procedures called for in the standard, NIST
found that none of the available radios met all aspects of the standard.
As with many other standards developed through the private
sector consensus, the key to correct adoption and implementation by different
manufacturers is a strong conformity assessment program. A conformity assessment program will validate P25 standardized systems through
a set of agreed upon tests which will validate that the systems can
interoperate among themselves, thus ensuring Federal grant dollars are being
used appropriately.
NIST, with the support of SAFECOM and the P25 Steering
Committee, is developing this P25 Conformity Assessment Program. NIST is
preparing and documenting standardized test protocols for the most important
aspects of the Common Air Interface Standard. The standardized test protocols
will then be provided to NIST's National Voluntary
Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP), which can accredit laboratories
interested in offering these testing capabilities. These test protocols would
go a long way in assuring the public safety community that the equipment being
purchased meets the P25 standard.
NIST is working closely with the P25 Steering Committee and
manufacturers to ensure that the test procedures are correct and that the
results are accurate. In addition, not all aspects of the P25 common air
interface will be immediately available for testing through this program. To
begin with, NIST is focusing on some basic functional tests of the radios, which
will allow us to get the Compliance Assessment Program up and running. We will
then begin to add interoperability tests, as well as tests for more complex
radio functions.
In summation Mr. Chairman, there are positive steps being
taken by leaders within the public safety community, key federal programs, the
Congress and industry to significantly change the current environment and move
the state of standards for public safety forward. The last twelve months have
seen significant progress in the development of critical P25 standards and the
next twelve months will see even more progress made., In addition, by the end
of this year, local, state, and federal agencies procuring P25 equipment will
have a mechanism in place to ensure that the products they are purchasing truly
do what is called for in the applicable standard. In conjunction with the other
efforts mentioned by the other witnesses, I am confident that we are making
significant headway in the pursuit of communications interoperability.
NIST looks forward to working with this Committee,
Congress, our federal partners, state and local public safety officials, and
leaders in industry to make this happen. Again, I am honored to be here before
this Committee today, and I will happy to answer any questions that you may
have.