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VoIP becoming safe choice for emergencies

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Commerce Department officials realized the agency’s emergency warning system didn’t work. Largely dependent on an antiquated and unreliable public address system, agency officials couldn’t reach their staff quickly enough to keep everyone safe.

By Alan Joch, Federal Computer Week

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-07-19-voip-act-2_x.htm

"It was a bad situation [in] that we couldn’t communicate with employees," said Karen Hogan, Commerce’s deputy chief information officer.

During the past three years, Commerce officials have worked to solve the problem. If an emergency were to threaten people at headquarters today, staff members would hear special alerts delivered via their phones.

Thanks to a new software application that runs in conjunction with the agency’s voice-over-IP (VoIP) network, IP speaker phones emit emergency broadcasts. Since the application’s introduction two years ago, Commerce officials have not had to use it for an emergency. Nevertheless, it’s paying off in peace of mind, Hogan said.

The application, from Berbee Information Networks, is one of a number of new tools that are helping take VoIP to a new level. Federal, state and local agencies are routinely adopting the new technology, which merges voice and data through a single IP network.

VoIP followers are discovering a new world of second-generation applications that surpass anything POTS — plain old telephone service — could offer. "This technology is ready for prime time — it’s not just for geeks anymore," Hogan said. "Users are delighted because they’re seeing some real productivity enhancers."

New tools

Years of documented best practices and technology improvements make it easier than ever to build the proper IP network infrastructures to handle time-sensitive voice traffic, which opens the door for new applications. According to officials at Forrester Research, a technology analyst firm, next-generation IP applications promise greater collaboration and more choices for communication.

"There are many possibilities: unified messaging [which integrates voice mail and e-mail], IP videoconferencing, IP contact centers," said Lisa Pierce, a Forrester vice president. "IP gives government agents the ability to interact with customers in new ways."

Thus, for example, some VoIP proponents envision a network that could send a question concerning a particular ZIP code to a postal carrier delivering mail in that area. Or if a public safety issue arises, such as the anthrax scare of 2001, government employees can work from home after setting up the IP network to forward calls to their residences.

Using Session Initiation Protocol, a set of communications protocols, IP phones incorporate instant messaging and buddy lists that indicate when someone signs on to the service or is too busy to take a call.

"You can set it to take a call from your boss but send calls from everyone else off to voice mail," said Joel Brunson, vice president for the public sector at Avaya Inc.

Avaya is co-developing a campus communications system with wireless networking equipment vendor Proxim Corp. and wireless phone maker Motorola Inc. that will let people talk via cellular and Wi-Fi local-area networks. If the person steps out of the Wi-Fi network, calls would jump to the cellular network. Once the user returns to the Wi-Fi sphere, new calls would again travel through that platform to save wireless phone plan minutes. The technology is set for release this fall.

Next-generation applications are already having an impact. "Users notice features they didn’t have before," said Andy Kuykendall, information technology director for Campbell County, Ky., which introduced VOIP technology last fall using 3Com equipment.

"Some of our people don’t stay chained to a desk," Kuykendall said. "Their jobs have them traveling throughout the county. They like [the] ability to change settings themselves, so they don’t have to wait for someone else to reprogram speed dials or forward calls to cell phones."

Savings are an added bonus. Kuykendall estimates that the county saves $100,000 per year by consolidating telephone business lines and eliminating service fees associated with adding or moving phone lines. He expects to have a full return on his VOIP investment in less than 18 months.

Cook County, Ill., officials are using IP telephony equipment from Avaya to send medical data to doctors at the new John H. Stroger Hospital in Chicago.

"Our doctors are not tied to desks so we put in VoIP so doctors can get data via their phones," said Catherine Maras O’Leary, the county’s CIO.

Physicians in the emergency room receive calls to their wireless IP phones and will soon be able to see text messages when lab results, X-rays and medical records are ready for review.

"This allows them to triage patients faster, to decide which patients need to be seen first," O’Leary said. Emergency room doctors "said in a matter of days [the phones] really improved patient flow and moved people out of [the] waiting room more quickly."

But for all of VoIP’s potential, the system’s security remains a concern, especially for public-sector organizations that support military, police and health care operations.

"In many cases, VoIP isn’t safe enough for commercial organizations, let alone [high-security] health care applications," Pierce said. "The issues are profoundly different and another order of magnitude greater than those for either traditional voice or data security."

Early warning system

Officials at several public organizations believe they’ve built IP networks secure enough to make VOIP viable. Commerce officials leapfrogged to VOIP’s second generation immediately after the 2001 terrorist attacks to bolster the agency’s internal communications.

By combining curiosity with research, Hogan said Commerce officials discovered that Berbee was developing an IP-based emergency broadcast application that could address their communications concerns. "We already had a network that was sized for data, voice and video," she said. "All we had to do was plug in the phones."

While Berbee officials completed the application, Commerce officials defined quality-of-service levels with their network contractor, Computer and Hi-tech Management Inc.

The emergency system premiered in the department’s headquarters in late 2002. A similar system is being implemented at the U.S. Census Bureau.

If Commerce officials need to use the emergency alert system, they have two ways of broadcasting messages. An authorized official can log in to a secure phone to transmit a warning to each phone at headquarters. Alternately, agency officials can prerecord more than a dozen messages, including building evacuation orders, that can be multicast. Authorized staff members don’t even have to be near their phones to send these broadcasts; they can send them via a PC or laptop connected to the network.

Grass-roots alerts

Officials in Herndon, Va., are using VoIP in other safety applications. The PhoneTop Amber Alerts program, created by AAC Inc., broadcasts notices about child abductions to any phone or computer connected to the town’s IP network, which is based on products from Cisco Systems Inc. This capability expands the reach of the previous system, which relied on messages posted at the Amber Alerts Web site or faxes sent to police or local TV and radio stations.

"We thought it natural to move to phones vs. using computers that might not always be turned on," said Bill Ashton, director of information services for the town.

The application sends alerts targeted to Herndon-area ZIP codes. Audible alerts sound on phones. Information about victims and possible abductees appears on phone LCDs and remains until the subscriber acknowledges the alert. Any municipal employee can receive the messages, including field personnel, which provides greater awareness of an abduction among officials.

"We have five to six times more field personnel than [we do] police, [personnel] who are out in the area collecting trash, working on road crews or doing building inspections," Ashton said. "If we didn’t have VoIP, we probably would not be distributing alerts" to employees who are not law enforcement officials.

Operational since last October, the application hasn’t been called into action. "We hope it never goes off," he said. "Nevertheless, it’s a wonderful insurance policy." Ashton said he hopes to expand the town’s alert system so public workers can receive weather warnings or news about crimes in progress. In a variety of ways, VoIP is becoming a safe technology choice.

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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