Interesting reports are coming in from Sunday’s tests of a new wireless system for first responders at the site of New York City’s WorldTradeCenter.Interesting reports are coming in from Sunday’s tests of a new wireless system for first responders at the site of the WorldTradeCenter.
The tests took place on the upper floors of 7 World Trade, just north of Ground Zero and included mock drills for a high-rise fire, elevator and scaffold rescues, injuries and communications break-downs. Police, firefighters, and officials from the Port Authority which owns the WTC and Office of Emergency Management were involved.
Reports from the Associated Press and Newsday are a little sketchy on details (as they probably should be for security reasons) about the network, the technology being used and its location. It would be instructive for other municipal officials planning emergency response networks if this group shared some of the issues involved in planning the network and advised other cities about critical concerns.
Communications were, you may recall, one of the critical points of failure targeted by the 9/11 Commission in its investigation of the response to the September 11 attack. The WorldTradeCenter, with antennas and satellite dishes atop the massive towers, was wiped out as a central point of communications for lower Manhattan when the towers fell. Former employees of Metricom volunteered to resurrect the troubled company’s Ricochet networkto enable communications in the recovery effort. The situation demonstrated the critical need for a mesh that can effectively distribute communications, rather than concentrate them at a key but vulnerable center.
Click here to read the wire report.
Click here to read Newsday’s story.
Northrop Grumman is using TD-CDMA gear by IP Wireless.
IP Wireless is being acquired by NextWave Wireless.
Girish