IPv6 boosters target emergency nets

IPv6 has potential in networks used by first responders

Proponents of IPv6, a long anticipated upgrade to the Internet’s main communications protocol, see potential for the technology in networks used by police, fire and other government officials in response to emergencies such as natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

Most first responders use radio-based communications systems based on proprietary protocols. Standards, including IP, are just starting to be rolled out in first responder networks nationwide. Some jurisdictions, particularly the Washington D.C. area, are using Internet-based data applications to provide additional means of communication such as e-mail and incident-based chat rooms.

As federal, state and local government agencies develop plans to upgrade first responder networks, IPv6 backers see an opportunity for this next-generation technology.

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Proponents of IPv6, a long anticipated upgrade to the Internet’s main communications protocol, see potential for the technology in networks used by police, fire and other government officials in response to emergencies such as natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

Most first responders use radio-based communications systems based on proprietary protocols. Standards, including IP, are just starting to be rolled out in first responder networks nationwide. Some jurisdictions, particularly the Washington D.C. area, are using Internet-based data applications to provide additional means of communication such as e-mail and incident-based chat rooms.

As federal, state and local government agencies develop plans to upgrade first responder networks, IPv6 backers see an opportunity for this next-generation technology.

"Most first responder networks are radio based, without a lot of open standards or interoperability," says Jim Bound, chairman of the North American IPv6 Task Force and a Hewlett Packard Fellow. "As long as everyone is using equipment from the same vendor and the same frequency, everyone can communicate with voice. The problem is that the police and firemen can’t communicate if they bought radios from different vendors or radios that operate on different frequencies."

Bound says first responder networks must move to IP for interoperability as well as new services, with the ability to transmit images such as photos and architectural drawings as well as streaming video. First responder networks "have to converge to TCP/IP," he says.

Bound and other IPv6 proponents say IPv6 offers advantages for first responder networks over the current version of IP, known as IPv4. These include:

* Stateless auto-configuration, a feature of IPv6 that speeds up the time it takes network operators to configure an emergency communications system. With IPv6, network operators do not have to worry about acquiring address space prior to setting up a network.

* Seamless network mobility, which refers to neighbor discovery and routing optimization in the mobile version of IPv6 that isn’t available with IPv4. IPv6 backers say the upgraded protocol will support a network that has end points moving around in a much better way than IPv4.

"First responders will have to build complex network management systems to support mobile networks with IPv4," says George Usi, a member of the California IPv6 Task Force. "If you have IPv6, it just works."

IPv6 also offers benefits for emergency communications because its design supports end-to-end communications instead of communications through gateways and middle boxes such as network address translators.

"If you have people coming around to help in an emergency…you can’t do it without having gateways for people to talk to each other," says Yanick Pouffary, technical director with the IPv6 North American Task Force and a distinguished technologist with Hewlett Packard. "If the network is self addressing and self sensing like with IPv6, you can have communication immediately."