A national alliance of emergency responders under the name Comcare, is calling for use of radio over Internet Protocol (RoIP) to solve network interoperability issues. The group says that RoIP is a cost-effective solution to solving communications issues, citing the U.S. military's use of the protocol.
"RoIP means that we no longer have to buy an expensive new radio system for every organization to get interoperability," RoxAnn Brown, director of Nashville, Tenn., Emergency Communications Center and Comcare director, said in a statement. "We have a fast, flexible interoperability solution for all organizations involved in emergency response, separate from the critical, but more complicated and expensive, issues of delivering new radio systems to first responders."
Comcare says that RoIP solutions convert over-the-air and wired communications protocols into voice over IP, dynamically managing connections and call groups. The group, with more than 100 members, has urged the federal government to get behind the technology with grant money. The departments of Commerce and Homeland Security already have plans to spend $1 billion on interoperability. Comcare hopes part of those funds will be used to deploy RoIP solutions.
Comare sited a group in Washington State called the Olympic Public Safety Communications Alliance Network (Opscan) who use RoIP to join 42 different federal, state, local, tribal, transit and utility agencies. Opscan deployed the solution when a deputy lost his life because he could not call for backup. Opscan has also been named by the Department of Homeland Security as "the best example of a rural interoperability solution capable of connecting local agencies in an affordable manner."