E911 outages are also shockingly common. Redundancy is built in but there is only so much you can build in. There was a large outage a few months ago. https://www.zdnet.com/article/911-services-down-in-multiple-us-states/ The fact is that the more these systems become dependent on centralized infrastructure and software, both of which are designed to save cost, the ways they will fail will also increase. The good news is that it is easier to build in multiple levels of redundancy. The bad news is that cascading failures can hit even harder as a result. Ria N2RJ On Mon, Dec 28, 2020 at 3:47 PM Bob Famiglio, K3RF via arrl-odv < arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> wrote:
Yep. Ed is right.
In the Philly area, AT&T, which has a tower on site at the Volunteer Fire Company I serve and pays us rent, has been trying to lure us away from Verizon wireless for our trucks and firefighter phone accounts. Our 5 vehicles remain with Verizon for mission critical data. Most of our members’ cell phones, including mine as Captain of the company stay with more reliable and better coverage Verizon. That may change of course, and First Net may be a decent idea, but Verizon is going to mission critical PTT and full priority now for their first responders’ service. First Net claims to have PTT but hell if I can get a demo and I am in charge of radio ops for the company. First Net piggybacks on the same tower sites and equipment as its public switched service. It may be temporary for say 5 years or so, but a completely separate system (redundant to the public access sites) build out is promised. I don’t see it yet.
*Bob Famiglio, K3RF*
*Vice Director - ARRL Atlantic Division*
*610-359-7300*
www.QRZ.com/db/K3RF
*From:* arrl-odv *On Behalf Of *ebhudgens@comcast.net *Sent:* Monday, December 28, 2020 3:00 PM *To:* 'Mickey Baker' <fishflorida@gmail.com>; w3tom@verizon.net *Cc:* 'arrl-odv' <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org>; hopengarten@post.harvard.edu *Subject:* [arrl-odv:31543] Re: Anthony Quinn Warner NOT a Ham
Mickey
I hate to tell you this, but most of the FirstNet phones in our area were offline just like all of the other ATT phones. Many got back online earlier than the run of the mill ATT phone, but all were off for several days.
Ed B. Hudgens, P. E., Ret.
Emergency Coordinator – Williamson County – WCARES
Vice Director, Delta Division ARRL
Net Manager - ARRL Delta Div. Emergency Net
1441 Wexford Downs Lane
Nashville, TN, 37211
C – 615-630-2753
*From:* arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> *On Behalf Of *Mickey Baker *Sent:* Monday, December 28, 2020 1:21 PM *To:* w3tom@verizon.net *Cc:* arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org>; hopengarten@post.harvard.edu *Subject:* [arrl-odv:31542] Re: Anthony Quinn Warner NOT a Ham
I’ve designed several E911 systems. The old “three leg” ATT E911 system was designed around the Tandem compute infrastructure from 1990 or so. Unfortunately, some small municipalities can’t/won’t update.
Modern E911 systems replicate continuously, with a map of all resources, states, GIS info, audio and video feeds and a quality judgment of each. In most cases, remote devices will automatically connect to the most reliable-recent data (ms apart!) If a dispatch facility goes offline, there are others who have “up to the moment” data that is automatically arbitrated as authoritative.
Practice drills or a complete failure would be uneventful as C&C is automatically transferred.
I don’t know exactly how this is done in Nashville, but a complete Central Office or NOC failure would have to go several layers deep to affect National Command Infrastructure, including PD dispatch.
You can rest assured that the FIrstNet system survived this incident, as it will the next.
Mickey
On Mon, Dec 28, 2020 at 10:28 AM w3tom--- via arrl-odv < arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> wrote:
Anthony Quinn Warner, the Nashville bomber, had a specialty in alarm/security systems.
From a Public Safety perspective, it is interesting to note that in addition to taking down the Central Office (CO), that in turn took down the Nashville 911 System where the RV was parked, the lost of the Central Office also took out several other 911 Systems in near by jurisdictions. Redundancy in all phases of Public Safety Communications is a paramount design concept, including Radio/Data and 911 systems. With the failure of multiple 911 Systems from one act, I would think that the after-action report for this event would make for some interesting reading. What has not been made public is the potential loss of radio communications that may have occurred due to the Public Safety trunked radio system back-hauls on fiber routes through the Central Office near the event.
73, Tom – W3TOM
*From:* arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> *On Behalf Of * hopengarten@post.harvard.edu *Sent:* Monday, December 28, 2020 9:33 AM *To:* arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> *Subject:* [arrl-odv:31536] Anthony Quinn Warner NOT a Ham
Anthony Quinn Warner, the Nashville bomber, described by the Washington Post as “into phones and electronics,” does NOT appear in a search by name in the QRZ.com database.
Whew,
-Fred K1VR
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