Charting the Course for Tomorrow’s 9-1-1 Emergency Network

DOT turned to Booz Allen for help in defining the Next Generation 9-1-1 system’s requirements and architecture.

For more than 30 years, when individuals in an emergency needed immediate help they knew they could dial 9-1-1. But today, personal communications include text messages and photos taken by cell phones that the current system can’t recognize. Our nation’s public emergency service simply wasn’t designed for a wireless mobile society.

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) is leading research and development efforts to create the Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) to incorporate video; accommodate today’s users of voice over Internet protocol services, such as Skype; and enable text, instant messaging, automatic crash notification, and other data. As part of this initiative, DOT turned to Booz Allen for help in defining the system’s requirements and architecture.

“Booz Allen has extensive experience working with public safety programs for the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and Treasury,” says principal Tony Ioannidis. ”The Booz Allen team applied our program management and rigorous system engineering and integration capabilities to the project, enabling us to deliver on time and on budget with exceptional results.”

The team brought together representatives from academic institutions, government, nongovernmental organizations, and industry to gain consensus on a reference architecture and specification for NG9-1-1.

“The client was impressed with what we accomplished in such a short time frame and with the exceptional buy-in from stakeholders,” says Tony.

To test the NG9-1-1 proof of concept and system requirements, the Booz Allen team installed technology in laboratories at Booz Allen’s Center for Network and Systems Innovation at the firm’s One Dulles office, Texas A&M University, and Columbia University. Five sites in Minnesota, New York, Montana, Washington, and Indiana transmitted data to these laboratories for several months. Data analysis has now begun, and results will be used to complete the project’s system architecture and a nationwide transition plan.

“We’re combining our technical deliverables with a cost-benefit model and transition plan to help the client articulate the program’s benefits to government agencies and address questions from Congressional staff,” says associate Mark Dooley.

NG9-1-1 technologies will improve 9-1-1 access for the hearing impaired, receive advanced automatic crash notification data from services such as OnStar, and establish a communications standard for the over 6,000 9-1-1 call centers across the country.

story posted October 15, 2008