The document discusses facilitating incident management response through improved situational awareness using multimedia technologies. It describes how situational awareness originally referred to a pilot's tactical awareness but now means comprehending observations through additional context. It argues that public safety systems need to integrate data in real-time to provide responders with a shared operational picture. A geospatial visualization of integrated information sources could help facilitate rapid decision making during incidents.

1. Facilitating Incident Management Response
Public Safety in a Multimedia Era
Information Draft
Jack Brown
Jan 11, 2008

2. Situational Awareness
When the first aircraft struck the World Trade Center, what were your thoughts? Did you
think about terrorists? Or, was your first thought something more like “How could that
happen?” The first crash left most people trying to figure out what human or mechanical
error could have caused the crash. However, a little over 15 minutes later – and the instant
Flight 175 came into view – we knew we were under attack. As the jet slammed into the
South Tower of the World Trade Center, our view changed and the response of police and
fire personnel to the WTC and the other incidents changed.
Our reaction changed because the additional information of the second aircraft altered our
perception of the first crash. Our perceptions moved closer to reality because more data
gave meaning to and enhanced our comprehension of what we were observing.
Situational awareness
“Situational awareness” was a term originally used to describe the tactical situation during
aerial combat . While the literal term doesn’t go back as far as World War I, the idea
surfaced then, when pilots first took to the sky in combat. At first, the term referred to the
pilot’s ability to know where he was in relation to the enemy and the other pilots of his flight.
In reality, that is only positional awareness. However, when pilots added their knowledge of
aircraft capabilities and known battle tactics with positional awareness, they were able to
interpret, comprehend and anticipate. The comprehension of observations is the essence of
situational awareness.

3. Public Safety in a Multimedia Era
Public safety agencies have made significant investments in CAD system, records-
management systems, GIS, crisis information management, and facility preplan
drawing and management systems. These are stand-alone systems and are
incapable of easily sharing data with other programs. Their proliferation has created
a series of data silos requiring service command or other response personnel to
perform “swivel chair” integration, rolling back and forth between the user interfaces
of several different systems or books to build a composite picture of the situation in
their minds.
The emergence of Internet standards for Web services and data integration now
makes it possible to weave these systems together by providing the connections and
data translations necessary to make each system's data understandable to the
others. This establishes a true information-sharing environment in which various
data sources can be brought together and woven into valuable information relevant
to the incident being responded to. New capabilities such as video surveillance, fixed
or mobile sensors, and plume modeling can be integrated easily in the future.
Another benefit is that public safety personnel can focus on being decision-makers
and not data-entry clerks.

4. Public Safety in a Multimedia Era
Public safety agencies work in a dynamic, complex and high-risk environment that
demands current and relevant situational awareness. Time is of the essence when
faced with saving lives, property and the environment. There is no time to copy
and send files, pictures, or diagrams. The best case is to have all relevant
information updated in real time to keep pace with the unfolding incident or
situation. Responders, incident commanders and emergency managers need to
be able to view the situation and collaborate in real time to communicate what is
happening at present.
With the systems tied together and the information flowing in real time, what is
needed next is to fuse the information together and present it in a visualization
environment that can be quickly understood and manipulated.

5. Public Safety in a Multimedia Era
Public safety and emergency management entities already operate in a
geospatial environment: How do I get there? Where is the incident? Where is
the fire? Where is the bad guy going? What and where are the exposures to this
fire? Where is my water supply? Where are my resources? How does our
coverage look for any other emergencies? Incident response organizations are
used to dealing with maps and locations, and thus a geospatial picture makes a
lot of sense as the primary visualization mechanism for incident data.
With a map-based operating picture that is updated in real time, the information
presented on that map can be adapted as appropriate to the roles and
responsibilities of the individual responders. This will facilitate rapid
comprehension and more effective decision-making for all disciplines that might
be required.

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15. Communication Network Trends …..Extending the IP
Network Edge
• Network-based applications are increasingly important to transit operations
More profitable, faster, safer operations is the goal
• Advances in Wireless technologies
Increased reliability, lower prices, better coverage 802.11a/b/g/n, UMTS,
GPRS, CDMA, WiMAX, Satellite
• Increased demand for Mobile Networking
Real time access to information, increased productivity and lower costs,
increased safety

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32. Appendix

36. Cisco Design Overview

37. Cisco IPICS
The Cisco IPICS portfolio of products and applications provides Communications
interoperability between push-to-talk (PTT) radio systems and devices such as
mobile phones, IP phones, public switched telephone network (PSTN) phones,
and PC clients. Based on IP standards, Cisco IPICS takes advantage of IP
networks to extend the reach of traditional communications networks and also to
provide notification using email, pager notification, and Short Message Service
(SMS).
Using Cisco IPICS, public sector agencies and enterprises can intelligently apply
resources to streamline operations and rapidly respond to routine events as well
as emergencies.
Cisco IPICS can be deployed in mobile command vehicles and included in tactical
communications kits, connecting to IP or non-IP wired, wireless, or satellite
networks.

38. Cisco IPICS

39. Cisco IPICS

40. Cisco IPICS
Solutions components include the following:
Cisco IPICS Server: The core foundation for the Cisco IPICS solution, the
Cisco IPICS Server is a security-enhanced, Linux-based platform that provides
an administration console and resource management and hosts the optional
Cisco IPICS Policy Engine and Operational Views applications.
Cisco IPICS IP Phone Client: The Cisco IPICS IP Phone Client enables
personnel to use their Cisco Unified IP phones to collaborate with other
personnel on PTT channels.
Cisco IPICS PMC: The Cisco IPICS PMC is a Windows-based PC client
software package that enables personnel to use their PCs to collaborate with
other personnel on PTT channels.
Cisco IPICS Operational Views: Cisco IPICS Operational Views allows different
organizations to manage and share resources across ownership and
organizational boundaries.

41. Cisco IPICS
Cisco IPICS Policy Engine: The Cisco IPICS Policy Engine enables one-click
activation of predefined policies for notification and talk-group establishment, and
includes the ability to dial in and dial out to the PSTN.
Intelligent Networking
Cisco IPICS takes advantage of the Cisco Service-Oriented Network Architecture
(SONA), an architectural framework that enables organizations to maximize the
value of their network services and resources. The Cisco SONA framework makes
it possible to centrally manage all radio systems, other voice systems, and data
over a common, unified platform, increasing efficiency and the value of the
agency’s network assets while lowering capital and management costs.

42. Cisco Unified Contact Center
Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise uses an IP infrastructure to deliver skills-
based contact routing, voice self-service, computer telephony integration (CTI),
and multichannel contact management. By combining multichannel automatic-call-
distributor (ACD) functions with IP telephony in a unified solution, Cisco Unified
Contact Center helps deploy a distributed voice-over-IP (VoIP) contact center
infrastructure.
The Unified Contact Center segments customers, monitors resource availability,
and delivers each contact to the appropriate resource anywhere in the enterprise.
The software profiles each customer contact using related data such as dialed
number and calling line ID, caller entered digits, data submitted on a Web form,
and information obtained from a customer database lookup. Simultaneously, the
system monitors the resources available in the contact center including agent
skills and availability, interactive-voice-response (IVR) status, and queue lengths.

43. Cisco Unified Communications Manager
Unified Communications Solutions unify voice, video, data, and mobile applications on
fixed and mobile networks, delivering a media-rich collaboration experience across
business, government agency, and institutional workspaces. These applications use
the network as the platform to enhance comparative advantage by accelerating
decision time and reducing transaction time. The security, resilience, and scalability of
the network enable users in any workspace to connect anywhere, anytime, and
anyplace, using any media, device, or operating system.
A Unified Communications is part of a solution that includes network infrastructure,
security, wireless, management applications, lifecycle services, flexible deployment and
outsourced management options, and third-party applications.
The Cisco Unified Communications Manager (formerly known as Cisco Unified
CallManager) is the call-processing component of the Cisco Unified Communications
system.

44. Cisco Unified Communications Manager

45. Cisco Unified Communications Manager
IP voice call setup is initiated between the IP phone, IP videophone or gateway, and Cisco
Unified CallManager. Cisco Unified CallManager classifies a call based on parameters
such as application (voice or video) and Multilevel Precedence and Preemption (MLPP),
and signals to the Cisco RSVP Agent in the access router. Bandwidth pools are
preconfigured in the router on a per-application and per-interface basis. Using the
classification provided by Cisco Unified CallManager, the Cisco RSVP Agent attempts to
set up a call within the appropriate bandwidth pool and across the WAN to a far-end Cisco
RSVP Agent for the receiving party.
If RSVP bandwidth is secured, the Cisco RSVP Agent signals back to Cisco Unified
CallManager. Cisco Unified CallManager in turn signals to the IP phone, IP videophone, or
gateway and the call proceeds. The Cisco RSVP Agent can apply differentiated services
code point (DSCP) marking to media packets based on instruction from the Cisco Unified
CallManager. DSCP packet marking may be applied to place the RSVP secured media
stream into the router priority queue. If RSVP bandwidth cannot be secured, the Cisco
RSVP Agent signals back to Cisco Unified CallManager, which administers policies. The
call is either disallowed or allowed to proceed with a lower-priority DSCP packet marking
applied by the Cisco RSVP Agent as instructed by the Cisco Unified CallManager.

46. Cisco Unified Communications Manager
Mid-call policies may also be applied for handling of changes to the media stream such as
transfers during a call. Network design using the Cisco RSVP Agent allows voice and video
calls to proceed as part of a single unified network together with data. This setup allows for
support of meshed designs, multitiered designs, adjustment to dynamic link changes, and
redundant links. This single design helps reduce the costs for both infrastructure and
management. Because CAC is managed and secured and QoS is applied as a network
component, there is no reliance on end-user devices.
Cisco RSVP Agent functions independently of the call-signaling protocol, and hence, Session
Initiation Protocol (SIP), Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP), H.323, and Media Gateway
Control Protocol (MGCP) are all supported. Figure 2 shows how the Cisco Unified CallManager
and Cisco RSVP Agent in the router work together to optimize the voice quality across the IP
network.