T-MOBILE COMPLETES FIRST PHASE OF D.C. WIRELESS PRIORITY ACCESS
T-Mobile finished deploying wireless priority access (WPA) technology Mon. in Washington for National Communications System (NCS), latest phase in broader project to give network-access priority to national security personnel and first responders nationwide. This stage of Capital-area deployment of WPA is significant, but is only beginning of eventual end-to-end national capability that will include Internet priority access, NCS Technology & Programs Div. Chief Peter Fonash said at E-Gov Homeland Security 2002 conference in Washington.
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Fonash said in panel discussion on information sharing and secure wireless approaches for homeland security that T- Mobile’s installation of WPA equipment in D.C. was short-term solution proposed in response to Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In event of national emergency or catastrophe, privileged users now have priority access to cell towers in Washington metropolitan region, he said.
That capability is considered short term since it doesn’t yet give those users end-to-end WPA across country or between networks when there’s tower congestion, he said. However, NCS expects to have long-term solution in place by Dec. 2003, extending WPA to mobile switches and to interexchange carrier networks, he said: “Then you'll get priority all the way.”
Cooperative agreements with industry have made deployment of WPA possible, while also resolving private sector concerns that commercial subscribers would be bumped off network during emergencies, he said. It doesn’t cause dropped calls among civilian wireless customers, he said: “It’s queuing. It’s not preemption. This is a commercial network. [WPA] does not preempt anyone.” He said FCC had raised issue of unnecessary WPA interference with general public. NCS responded by installing special algorithms to ensure wireless channels were reserved for public use, thereby eliminating potential problem of blocking emergency calls by citizens, he said: “If they make a 9-1-1 call, they'll get through.”
NCS is working closely with standards-setting organizations such as Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to take priority access beyond current wireline and wireless applications and into circuit-switched environment, he said. Fonash said voice-over-Internet protocol would play large part in accomplishing this task, but declined to elaborate. He said completion of WPA currently was at top of govt.’s list of priorities, and that subject of VoIP and Internet priority access was worthy of separate panel discussion.
NCS formally will migrate under umbrella of recently formed Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) as early as March, he said. Agency will fall under jurisdiction of DHS’ Infrastructure Protection & Information Analysis Div., he said. NCS currently is independent agency that’s funded by and reports to Dept. of Defense and White House, respectively.