Annual Report 2007

Crafting a Robust Interoperable Network W orking with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) Homeland Security, GTRI engineers are helping develop a statewide system that will connect existing radio communications systems in each Georgia county – along with selected state agencies and the city of Atlanta – to an Internet-Protocol (IP)-based network. When the network is complete, Georgia public safety personnel will be able to contact colleagues in other counties almost instantly using their own native radio systems. The network will link the radios of different counties regardless of their technology, which could be VHF, UHF, 800 megahertz, iDEN or others. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, through the Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program (LETPP), the Statewide Gateway Interoperability Project will also reach into the neighboring states of Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee. As part of a team that includes GEMA, the Georgia State Patrol, Motorola, the Georgia Technology Authority, AT&T and SpaceNet, GTRI engineers have been supplying technical project management, organizational design and testing services to the venture since it began in 2005. “By the time we finish Phase Four in mid-2009, our GTRI team will have met and worked with nearly all of Georgia’s 159 counties in one way or another,” said Douglas Cobb, a GTRI principal research engineer who leads the Georgia Tech team. While communication between neighboring locales is usually the most vital, Cobb explains, a major emergency could demand extensive conferencing among field and headquarters personnel in various counties. For example, police and fire/rescue personnel along an interstate hurricane-evacuation route should be able to talk to their counterparts to check conditions, set up detours or call in aid. The Georgia-based system doesn’t upgrade existing public safety communications. Rather, it’s an add-on that connects existing radio equipment to an adaptable IP backbone statewide. Using Microsoft Windows-based custom software, county and municipal dispatchers will employ a familiar interface to seamlessly connect wide-ranging wired and wireless users whenever needed. GTRI is serving as the technical systems integrator for the Gateway Interoperability Project. GTRI’s job includes major responsibilities in site, network and satellite communication design; simulation and testing; facilitating meetings and information exchange, and extensive system trouble-shooting. The federal government is paying most of the system’s installation cost. The state is currently paying for the recurring connectivity and maintenance costs for the network, and the completed system will be managed by the Georgia State Patrol. GTRI researchers are helping develop a network connecting all Georgia public-safety radio systems via a wired Internet-protocol backbone. www.gtri.gatech.edu 1 http://www.gtri.gatech.edu

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Annual Report 2007

Annual Report 2007 Contents From the Director Research at GTRI Defense and Security Health and Human Systems Energy and Environment Manufacturing Technologies Information and Communication Technologies GTRI Around the World Interdisciplinary Research Centers The Laboratories of GTRI Georgia Tech Ireland GTRI by the Numbers GTRI and Georgia Tech Supporting Breakthrough Research GTRI Professional Education The People of GTRI

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.