Cisco announces total interoperability radio interconnect

Cisco Systems, a company radio hams know best for computer system routing products, is getting into the business band and emergency communications business. This with the announcement that it has developed a new technology designed to flawlessly interconnect radio and Voice over IP communications networks.

The core of what Cisco has developed is a system that allows users of private mobile radios talk to each other even if they use different radio standards and frequencies.

Called IP-based Interoperability and Collaboration Systems or IPICS, it works by carrying all the radio traffic over an IP network controlled by a single command center. From
there it interconnects all users on an open or selective call basis as dictated by those involved in the conversation.

Shah Talukder is a Cisco general manager for Safety Systems and Security. He tells Techworld dot com that the system is not limited to radio to radio communications. He says that it could be adapted for voice-over-IP and could bring radio channels on to laptop computers. This would mean total interoperability interconnecting any voice to any other voice, whether or not a radio was involved in the circuit or not.

Talukder says that Cisco developed the system to solve the problems within emergency services. For example in those instances where the police, ambulance and hospitals are using different frequencies but need to immediately talk to one another. He admitted that there are some security
issues owing to the large numbers of people listening to emergency broadcasts through scanners, but says that the security built around IP, notably I-PSec would be enough to make the system robust.

Talukder adds that IPICS will mean sweeping changes for all of the emergency services. If adopted by radio amateurs, it could mean an instant interconnect between an emergency site and a ham radio base of operations such as ARRL Headquarters, even if the two are thousands of miles away.

Source: ARNewsline, Techworld

Other recent stories..

Other News Stories

• Get our news headlines for your website - click here
• Submit your news story - click here