City's communication system marks industry first

  The Yuma Regional Communication System, already internationally acclaimed, achieved an industry first recently with the successful testing of a new radio interface.

  The interface allows Yuma-area public safety agencies' radio system to directly connect to and use another agency's radio system.

  The test of a prototype Motorola Inter-RF Subsystem Interface (ISSI) gateway represents a breakthrough in interconnectivity between systems, said Greg Wilkinson, the city of Yuma's assistant information technology services director for telecommunications.

  "This ISSI has been in development for several years, but this first-ever field test on two live systems represents a breakthrough in communications technology by linking two major regional radio systems together."

  When the city's wireless administrator, Eddie Carrera, successfully connected the Yuma system with the Arizona Department of Public Safety's main dispatch center in Phoenix recently, it marked the first time that ISSI gateways connected between live radio systems using Project 25 networks, the common operational standard for radios, Wilkinson said.

  By installing the Motorola ISSI prototype gateway and by connecting the two networks with digital microwaves, users on ISSI talk groups can roam from one network to the other while maintaining radio connections back to their own system and dispatch centers.

  Carrera and other field technicians have been working behind the scenes on behalf of the Yuma Regional Communication System members and in conjunction with Arizona Department of Public Safety and the Phoenix Regional Wireless Cooperative, all which are part of the integrated system, said Wilkinson.

  The test was part of the Arizona Public Safety Communications Commission Statewide Radio System Demonstration Project. The Motorola system "performed without a hitch from the first push of the transmit button," a reward for months of collaboration and work from YRCS, Phoenix Regional Wireless Cooperative, Arizona Department of Public Safety personnel and significant development work from Motorola technicians from the development lab in Schaumburg, Ill.

  The YRCS, a city-led multi-agency project to improve radio communications and coordinate emergency responses across the region, was initiated approximately four years ago by the city's Department of Information Technology Services.

  Along with the Yuma County Sheriff's Office and other agencies within the county, the joint YRCS and its governing council were created using intergovernmental agreements.

  The implementation of the radio system significantly advanced radio coverage within Yuma County and also gave first responders long-needed interoperable communications throughout the state of Arizona and into California and Mexico.

  "The radio system will provide coverage to the majority of the 5,522 square miles of Yuma County and is currently funded to expand beyond the county into other adjoining areas and into Mexico," Wilkinson noted.

  An interface also is in the works between YRCS and Sonora, Mexico's C4 radio system. In addition, the YRCS is establishing a direct interface with Arizona DPS District  No. 4 operating in Yuma and La Paz counties, setting up a direct connect to California to establish a "River Zone" for public safety agencies in Arizona and Southern California working along the Colorado River, and extending the coverage of the system into La Paz County.

  "For the future, a working group from the Federal Department of Homeland Security Office of Emergency Communications is looking at providing equipment to tie other federal agencies into the YRCS system for interoperability," Wilkinson said.

  The regional communications project not only improves first responders' protect-and-serve capability, but also saves taxpayer dollars by grouping funds together to build one system instead of several separate systems in use by different agencies. At one point there were approximately 30 radio systems in use in and around the Yuma area.

  Plus, the project has taken advantage of grant money offered only to joint agencies.

  The system currently has 1,200 radio users and continues to grow as other agencies join.