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Local researchers are using wireless technology to bridge the frequency gap between different communications systems used by police, firefighters and other first responders.
At Worcester Polytechnic Institute, assistant professor Alexander Wyglinski and his team of student researchers are developing cognitive radio applications to help first responders communicate without worrying about clogged frequencies at emergency sites crowded with multiple agencies.
“It’s like a Tower of Babel situation,” he said. “You have police, fire, Coast Guard — all with different wireless standards,” he said.
A software radio device based on cognitive radio could determine which piece of the wireless spectrum — the frequencies occupied by mobile phones, radio, broadcast television or wi-fi devices, among others — is the best one for efficient emergency communications. If radio frequencies are jammed, it could reconfigure to the cellular band. If a police officer has a cell phone and a firefighter has a walkie-talkie, it could bridge the gap — without the user even knowing, Wyglinski said.
Wyglinski and his students are working on artificial intelligence algorithms using cognitive radio platforms, including a software radio beacon to allow first responders to announce their presence, and the ability to break messages into components, transmit them over several frequencies, and reconstitute them at the other end.
In a report released last November, ABI Research estimates the market for wireless terminals used by emergency first responders will grow from more than $1 billion last year to more than $3.6 billion by 2013. The report says increasing standardization will fuel the market, and that over time, more federal funds will flow to companies.
One of those companies, BAE Systems Inc. in Hudson, N.H., has developed a wi-fi-based interoperability system that has spread to first responder units outside New England and could soon expand beyond voice transmission.
BAE’s First Intercomm is a device stored in a police cruiser or fire truck that lets the agencies communicate with on another regardless of what kind of communications equipment they use. The system uses an ad-hoc mesh network, similar to a household wi-fi network, to bridge the gap among different communications systems.
Mike Greene, BAE’s director for homeland security solutions, said the First Intercomm has moved from trial runs in Maine and New Hampshire in late 2007 to being deployed in those states as well as Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Georgia and Oklahoma. Of those, Connecticut, Georgia, New York and New Jersey are paying customers, while the others are conducting trials.
Feedback from New Hampshire and Connecticut led to recent tweaks, Greene said. Users can now see which municipalities have arrived at an emergency scene and what equipment they have brought. They also are able to track the arrivals and departures of police or fire departments. BAE is developing transmission of video and other data besides voice. First responders from different groups could use the system to instant message, video chat, or share maps, arrest records, chemical data sheets, property violations and infrared camera footage, Greene said.
“Some people say, ‘That’s like the TV show ‘24,’ ” he said.
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