Communication Technologies for Remote Regions
Winfred L. Battig, Ronald G. Nishinaga, and Leonard L. Domenic
The Aerospace Corporation is applying satellite communication technologies to improve the communication capabilities of the Federal Interagency Communications Center and the four federal agencies it serves to provide an effective communication system for the safety of personnel in remote regions in Southern California.
In Southern California, where terrain in remote regions includes expansive desert and rugged mountains, brush and chaparral, and both deciduous and evergreen forests, several hundred rangers and firefighters from four federal agencies work to combat fires and protect natural and cultural resources and the public from natural and human-caused incidents. Because the terrain may be rough and personnel may be spread over large areas—more than 125,000 square kilometers in Southern California—guardians of these regions frequently work in isolation. What if they need backup resources when dealing with critical incidents?
Those faced with such a crisis call a dispatcher, other rangers and firefighters, or interagency personnel, if they can do so using conventional terrestrial radio or cellular telephone communications. But what if their VHF (very high frequency) radio is out of coverage and they can't connect to a cell site? What happens when the dispatcher can't talk to rangers or firefighters and doesn't know their locations? The Aerospace Corporation's answer is to better design and integrate communication networks, including satellite communications, to serve these workers in remote areas.
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A BLM ranger uses his new satellite phone while Aerospace program manager Wynn Battig looks on. The vehicle-mounted laptop displays GPS positions and map references. (Photo by Mike Morales) |
Dispatchers in the FICC Dispatch Center use satellite phones and a wireless data link to communicate with rangers and firefighters, whose positions dispatchers can now identify. (Photo by Mike Morales) |
Aerospace provides technical solutions to such communication problems to assist the Federal Interagency Communications Center (FICC) in better serving rangers and firefighters from four federal agencies in Southern California. FICC is a dispatch center that provides command, control, and communication functions to fire-management and law-enforcement personnel from the four federal agencies, which include the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Forest Service, National Park Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Aerospace has been working during the past year and a half to improve the FICC communications system. Aerospace works directly for the BLM in an environment characterized by a very high level of interagency coordination and contribution. It has assisted the FICC agencies not only in determining requirements, but also in designing, implementing, installing, and integrating a number of communications enhancements, for example, to the terrestrial repeaters and base stations that make up the FICC radio system. The bureau and the other FICC agencies have noted dramatic improvements to their existing VHF radio system.
Communications architecture established for the FICC pilot system and anticipated for the future completed system. The pilot system installed improvements in only nine vehicles, while the completed system is planned for well over 100. |
A Pilot System
Beyond improving existing communications, Aerospace has recommended new kinds of equipment and services to make workers in these remote regions more self-sufficient and, at the same time, tie them more closely to the dispatchers and to each other. With the approval of the FICC agencies, Aerospace has implemented these recommendations in a pilot system for nine vehicles and the dispatch center. It includes satellite telephones, laptop computers, Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers for vehicle location reporting, and access to the AT&T Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) network for data communications.
Prior to the installation of the pilot system, VHF radios equipped with the usual push-to-talk (PTT) microphones provided the only means of communication between rangers, firefighters, and dispatchers, except for ordinary cell phones. Now, vehicles in the pilot system are equipped with satellite telephones for improved coverage. Two types of satellite phones are being installed: one uses the Motient system, which includes only a geosynchronous satellite; the other uses the Globalstar system, which works with a constellation of 48 low Earth orbit satellites. Because Globalstar satellites are in constant motion relative to the user, the satellite system automatically selects the satellite that's best for the user.
Each satellite telephone system has its own advantages. The Globalstar device includes cell-phone capability and can be used either in the vehicle or remotely. The Motient system phone can extend the range of PTT radio functionality for the user. It provides a satellite bounce to connect to the dispatch center as if it were the VHF radio system. Thus, even when rangers and firefighters are outside normal VHF radio range, using the satellite bounce they can still connect to dispatch with PTT microphone functionality. Dispatchers can hear and talk to them with the efficiency of direct VHF radio, except for the slight delay introduced by the satellite bounce. The pilot system evaluation period will allow users to determine the value of these features in real situations.
Coverage patterns of a single VHF radio repeater site in Southern California before and after improvements recommended by Aerospace. Each color represents a 10-decibel step, moving from yellow (maximum gain) to blue (fringe coverage). |
A "ruggedized" laptop computer—one that is strengthened for resistance to wear and stress—is installed in each vehicle but removable for work in the field outside the vehicle or in an office. Two types of laptops are being installed, each with slightly different features for evaluation. What makes them especially helpful to the rangers and firefighters is that they are interconnected via a wireless CDPD network, which allows access to the Internet and gives instant-messaging capability to remote personnel and FICC dispatchers. They can send emergency messages to summon help without a microphone. This feature, along with the rest of the pilot system, enables those responsible for protecting remote regions to pass critical data more reliably.
Vehicles are also equipped with GPS receivers and software on the laptops to display positions of all pilot-system vehicles on detailed roadmaps. The pilot system provides better communication coverage and allows greater precision for the FICC dispatchers and rangers and firefighters in locating each other.
For rangers with law-enforcement responsibility, the pilot system provides direct access to the California Law Enforcement Telecommunication System database. Rangers can run license-plate checks, personal-identity checks, and gun-registration checks directly from their own laptops, rather than relaying such requests through dispatch. Besides increasing ranger effectiveness and safety, this feature automates a responsibility of dispatch personnel who handle more than 10,000 incidents from rangers each year, helping to reduce the dispatch center's intense peak- load requirements.
Future Communication Improvements
The results of a formal evaluation, currently under way, will guide the expansion of the pilot system into a completed system serving approximately 300 law-enforcement rangers and firefighters in Southern California. The offices of a number of other remote regions in the United States are expressing interest in similarly improving their capabilities. Many who are part of the pilot effort regularly express their satisfaction with the system and their hopes to see it extended throughout the country. The Aerospace pilot system may well become a model for integrating satellite and terrestrial communication technologies to improve communications for workers in national remote regions.
To Winter 20001/2002 Table of Contents
