Working Wirelessly and Wisely

A man suffers chest pains after a game of tennis, and his relatives call 9-1-1. The dispatch center notifies an ambulance and digitally sends to it the patient's name and address, which are displayed on a monitor in the ambulance along with a map to the house and an on-board signaling system that adjusts the traffic-light sequence to enable the ambulance to arrive faster. That system also automatically interrogates local transportation systems to make sure there are no road closures or slow traffic conditions on the way. This scenario is presented in a new Statement of Requirements (SoR) issued by the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate that focuses on the communication needs--in particular, wireless interoperability--of first responders. The SoR, developed under the SAFECOM program that oversees public safety communications and interoperability projects, doesn't look at specific technical details such as spectrum allocation, but rather focuses "on public safety requirements from a broader perspective." Read the SAFECOM program's full SoR, and download a presentation on IWN