Digital Information and Communication Technologies for Public Safety Organizations

While digital information and communication technologies are applied in wide areas of daily and professional life since many years, public safety organizations (PSO or, in German, BOS)like police and fire departments, rescue services etc. are just about to start such a development. If digital technologies are applied, as e.g. for emergency control centers, they developed into technological islands. In particular, communication technologies are underdeveloped as compared to the standard response equipment for firemen and policemen. This is true despite the fact that various analyses and studies showed the road to an improved information provisioning for action forces. Until now, large scale operations of fire and police departments are controlled via technical means unchanged since the time when our Federal Republic was founded.

Feasibility Studies and Communications Lab

MOBILE, IPSI's department for Mobile Distributed Information Systems is working on an improvement of this situation by carrying out feasibility studies and by operating its mobile communications laboratory.

In the MIKoBOS (Mobiles Informations- und Kommunikationssystem für BOS) feasibility study carried out in cooperation with CKS Systeme GmbH & Co KG, a fire brigade control center is extended by several innovative components. Information on hazardous material, sensor data, plans of burning sites as well as dispersion simulations of hazardous gas are transmitted to computers operated by the on-site operation controllers. Various terrestrial and satellite-based communication techniques are applied. In each situation, the most appropriate technique is chosen. This way, overloading of particular networks is prevented and even large bulks of information like images and video streams can be transmitted. Likewise, on-site operation controllers can upload their situation reports and even pictures showing the current scene. As compared to currently available voice communication, this generates less errors and facilitates further information processing by analysis, simulation and visualization tools to present a complete picture of the current situation. This way, MIKoBOS shows, by development and integration of mobile applications, the path to innovative IT applications for public safety organizations, to their technical feasibility and to practical suitability, and will be the base for more discussions with our customers.

Fraunhofer IPSI's new mobile communications laboratory will help to give advice to public safety organizations when choosing and installing communication networks for emergency and rescue systems. The lab comprises not only stationary and robust mobile computers, but also a collection of all communication techniques potentially relevant for public safety organizations: Wireless LAN and Bluetooth, GPRS and UMTS data adapters, satellite devices for Iridium, Thuraya, Globalstar as well as Inmarsat, devices for transmitting data via the voice channels currently used by PSOs and, finally, equipment for the upcoming PSO trunked radio communication. Satellite communication will be possible at ISDN speed even in moving vehicles. IPSI has set up cooperation with certain PSOs to use their equipment even in cases where common public access to the respective frequencies is impossible (special vehicles and data transmission techniques for 2m-/4m voice channels). Most of the lab equipment is portable and can be used at the customer site under realistic conditions.

Our offer: Develop, check, test

Feasibility studies and the mobile test lab are the foundation for services offered to our customers. In close cooperation, we carry out applied research in the field of information and communication techniques for PSOs. As an independent research institution, we also carry out investigations and studies concerning IT applications for PSOs. With the help of Fraunhofer IPSI, authorities of police, fire brigades, rescue services and other organizations are able to develop innovative ideas and to check their practical viability in the mobile test lab, both at IPSI in Darmstadt and within their own premises.