About the Multi-Band Radio Project
Effective and dependable radio communications are essential to the mission of emergency responders during day-to-day operations and coordinating response efforts. The Federal Communications Commission issues licenses to agencies on spectrum located across several radio bands. Often, agencies operate on more than one band and split the bands by discipline. For example, the police department may operate on one band, and fire and emergency medical services operate on another. This creates a potentially serious interoperability issue when the disciplines need to communicate, because today’s equipment is only capable of operating within a single radio band. Consequently, local, tribal, regional, state, and Federal agencies and support units that operate on multiple radio frequency bands often carry multiple radios or use dispatchers to relay information between emergency responders.
Multi-Band Radio Project Goals
The introduction of Multi-Band Radio (MBR) technology to the emergency response community will offer an opportunity to improve interoperability across agencies, disciplines, and jurisdictions. The project goals include:
- Advancement of MBR technology to improve key communications between local, tribal, regional, state, and Federal agencies.
- Stimulation of the marketplace by encouraging additional manufacturers to develop similar equipment that meet the mission requirements identified by the emergency response community.
- Publish a final report and case study that documents input from the laboratory testing and evaluation (T&E), short-term demonstrations, and long-term pilot projects as well as lessons learned and best practices.
Testing Methodology
This project places the equipment into the hands of the users who will report on their findings. Broken down into three test and evaluation phases with Phase I: laboratory T&E by recognized laboratories, Phase II: short-term demonstrations by local and state agencies and Phase III: extended pilot T&E. Participating agencies will submit a thorough evaluation of their findings.
Laboratory, short-term demonstrations and pilot T&E participants included:
- Boise Fire Department, Boise, ID
- National Interagency Fire Center, Boise, ID
- NIST/Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Boulder, CO
- Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
- Louisville, KY Joint Emergency Services Unit
- 41st Civil Support Team Kentucky National Guard
- Louisville, KY MetroSAFE
- Louisville, KY Metro Police Department
- Michigan Emergency Medical Services
- Fire Department of New York
- New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications
- New York City Office of Emergency Management
- New York City Police Department
- Murray State University, Murray, KY
- Carmel, IN Fire Department
- Pittsboro, IN Fire Department
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection, National Law Enforcement Communications Center (NLECC)
- Blaine, WA Police Department
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (DHS-ICE)
- City of Bellingham, WA Communications
- Whatcom County, WA Sheriff’s Office
- North Whatcom, WA Fire and Rescue
Feedback from laboratory T&E and short term demonstrations was reviewed and shared with the manufacturer for consideration of upgrades and additional features identified by the user community. Features that were included in upgraded radios were reviewed in the project’s third phase of T&E consisting of long-term pilot projects. These pilots involved a variety of local, tribal, regional, state, and Federal agencies and organizations both in the U.S. and Canada. DHS announced the preliminary pilot site selections in a July 2009 press release and the pilots are ongoing.
Lead organizations for the pilot sites include:
- 2010 Winter Olympics Affiliates (Blaine, Washington and Vancouver, BC Canada)
- Boise Fire Department, Boise, ID
- DHS Customs and Border Protection (Detroit, Michigan)
- DHS Federal Emergency Management Agency (Multiple Locations)
- Interagency Communication Interoperability System (ICIS-Los Angeles County, California)
- Michigan Emergency Medical Services (Lower Peninsula Areas)
- Murray State University and Kentucky Division of Emergency Management (Southwest Kentucky)
- Phoenix Police Department and Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs (Greater Phoenix and Yuma County)
- DOJ U.S. Marshals Service (Northeast Region)
- National Capital Region Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, District of Columbia, and AMTRAK Police.
Future of Multi-Band Radio
The development of MBR technology for the emergency response community is an exciting advancement for both practitioners and manufacturers. Compiling data and feedback from all three testing phases, OIC will produce a detailed final report on the mission impact and the improvement and enhancement of radio communications interoperability. However, this report only marks the beginning of DHS involvement with the MBR technology. By demonstrating the benefits of the MBR, DHS efforts stimulated the marketplace and encourage additional manufacturers to research, develop, design, and manufacture similar technology. As the availability and production of similar equipment by other manufacturers increases, DHS envisions that agencies will have the option of selecting multi-band radio equipment and accessories from multiple vendors with options that fit their specific missions. DHS plans to continue coordination of testing and evaluation of MBR technology to support the goal of improving communications and interoperability for emergency responders.
Documents
DHS Announces Sites for MBR Pilot Press Release - July 2009
DHS Launches Multi-Band Radio Project Press Release - February 2008
Multi-Band Radio Fact Sheet
Additional Resources
1. U.S. Department of Homeland Security