First Line Supervisor Training

Review of training opportunities for newly appointed leaders in the field of Public Safety Communications revealed a gap in current training opportunities for newly appointed 9-1-1 leaders. This Leadership Application Project addresses the need for new supervisors to gain both an educational understanding of the leadership skills necessary for success well as address some of the technical knowledge which is unique to public safety dispatching. The project is designed in short blocks which can be presented in a breakfast or lunch seminar type setting . Each topic is designed to introduce the new supervisor to a specific aspect of leadership. The goal is two fold: to present the basic information to develop strong leadership skills and to develop a support system for new supervisors. The project addresses the leadership topics: leadership styles, ethics/integrity, team building, mentoring, and performance management. The technical aspects of media relations, telematics, and voice over the internet protocol are also addressed due to their current critical impact on the 9-1-1 community. These topics were identified by current supervisors as key elements in the development of the next generation of public safety communication leaders. Upon completion of the training session, the new supervisors will have developed their own support system and the understanding of the elements necessary for successful leadership

A Unified Mobility Management Architecture for Interworked Heterogeneous Mobile Networks

The buzzword of this decade has been convergence: the convergence of telecommunications, Internet, entertainment, and information technologies for the seamless provisioning of multimedia services across different network types. Thus the future Next Generation Mobile Network (NGMN) can be envisioned as a group of co-existing heterogeneous mobile data networking technologies sharing a common Internet Protocol (IP) based backbone. In such all-IP based heterogeneous networking environments, ongoing sessions from roaming users are subjected to frequent vertical handoffs across network boundaries. Therefore, ensuring uninterrupted service continuity during session handoffs requires successful mobility and session management mechanisms to be implemented in these participating access networks. Therefore, it is essential for a common interworking framework to be in place for ensuring seamless service continuity over dissimilar networks to enable a potential user to freely roam from one network to another. For the best of our knowledge, the need for a suitable unified mobility and session management framework for the NGMN has not been successfully addressed as yet. This can be seen as the primary motivation of this research. Therefore, the key objectives of this thesis can be stated as: To propose a mobility-aware novel architecture for interworking between heterogeneous mobile data networks To propose a framework for facilitating unified real-time session management (inclusive of session establishment and seamless session handoff) across these different networks. In order to achieve the above goals, an interworking architecture is designed by incorporating the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as the coupling mediator between dissipate mobile data networking technologies. Subsequently, two different mobility management frameworks are proposed and implemented over the initial interworking architectural design. The first mobility management framework is fully handled by the IMS at the Application Layer. This framework is primarily dependant on the IMS’s default session management protocol, which is the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). The second framework is a combined method based on SIP and the Mobile IP (MIP) protocols, which is essentially operated at the Network Layer. An analytical model is derived for evaluating the proposed scheme for analyzing the network Quality of Service (QoS) metrics and measures involved in session mobility management for the proposed mobility management frameworks. More precisely, these analyzed QoS metrics include vertical handoff delay, transient packet loss, jitter, and signaling overhead/cost. The results of the QoS analysis indicates that a MIP-SIP based mobility management framework performs better than its predecessor, the Pure-SIP based mobility management method. Also, the analysis results indicate that the QoS performances for the investigated parameters are within acceptable levels for real-time VoIP conversations. An OPNET based simulation platform is also used for modeling the proposed mobility management frameworks. All simulated scenarios prove to be capable of performing successful VoIP session handoffs between dissimilar networks whilst maintaining acceptable QoS levels. Lastly, based on the findings, the contributions made by this thesis can be summarized as: The development of a novel framework for interworked heterogeneous mobile data networks in a NGMN environment. The final design conveniently enables 3G cellular technologies (such as the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS) or Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA2000) type systems), Wireless Local Area Networking (WLAN) technologies, and Wireless Metropolitan Area Networking (WMAN) technologies (e.g., Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) systems such as WiMAX) to interwork under a common signaling platform. The introduction of a novel unified/centralized mobility and session management platform by exploiting the IMS as a universal coupling mediator for real-time session negotiation and management. This enables a roaming user to seamlessly handoff sessions between different heterogeneous networks. As secondary outcomes of this thesis, an analytical framework and an OPNET simulation framework are developed for analyzing vertical handoff performance. This OPNET simulation platform is suitable for commercial use

Supporting Internet Access and Quality of Service in Distributed Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

In this era of wireless hysteria, with continuous technological advances in wireless communication and new wireless technologies becoming standardized at a fast rate, we can expect an increased interest for wireless networks, such as ad hoc and mesh networks. These networks operate in a distributed manner, independent of any centralized device. In order to realize the practical benefits of ad hoc networks, two challenges (among others) need to be considered: distributed QoS guarantees and multi-hop Internet access. In this thesis we present conceivable solutions to both of these problems. An autonomous, stand-alone ad hoc network is useful in many cases, such as search and rescue operations and meetings where participants wish to quickly share information. However, an ad hoc network connected to the Internet is even more desirable. This is because Internet plays an important role in the daily life of many people by offering a broad range of services. In this thesis we present AODV+, which is our solution to achieve this network interconnection between a wireless ad hoc network and the wired Internet. Providing QoS in distributed wireless networks is another challenging, but yet important, task mainly because there is no central device controlling the medium access. In this thesis we propose EDCA with Resource Reservation (EDCA/RR), which is a fully distributed MAC scheme that provides QoS guarantees by allowing applications with strict QoS requirements to reserve transmission time for contention-free medium access. Our scheme is compatible with existing standards and provides both parameterized and prioritized QoS. In addition, we present the Distributed Deterministic Channel Access (DDCA) scheme, which is a multi-hop extension of EDCA/RR and can be used in wireless mesh networks. Finally, we have complemented our simulation studies with real-world ad hoc and mesh network experiments. With the experience from these experiments, we obtained a clear insight into the limitations of wireless channels. We could conclude that a wise design of the network architecture that limits the number of consecutive wireless hops may result in a wireless mesh network that is able to satisfy users’ needs. Moreover, by using QoS mechanisms like EDCA/RR or DDCA we are able to provide different priorities to traffic flows and reserve resources for the most time-critical applications

The impact of implementation of VOIP in call centres : A Western Australia perspective

By fostering the finalization of open standards and the convergence of voice, video and data, the internet protocol provides an ideal driver for the definition of the infrastructure of new multimedia and advanced communications applications (Adams & Bhalla, 2005). The key advantages of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoiP) for enterprises have been the promise of lower costs, infrastructure consolidation and increased flexibility. Carriers are also positioning VoiP as a cost-saving business solution. It is an application which seemed like a godsend to business and people alike who rely on telephony services (Blood, 2005). The aim of this study was to investigate what factors may influence the adoption of VoiP as a technology as a West Australia context. Specifically the research undertook a case study using an establish call centre in a government agency, City of Melville. The company is a provider of wide range of services including recreation centres, aquatic centres, libraries, creches, pre-school centres, community centres, food inspection services, citizenships, recycling, planning and building services, maintenance, streetscapes, landscaping disability services, immunisation clinics, cultural and educational centres, environmental preservation and management. This study analysed the steps through to adoption of VoiP and IP telephony from the original technology for the Melville City Council call centre. Also, the procedures towards acquisition and installation of the supporting framework that eases the implementation and day to day running are depicted. The main impacts on the company as a result of the implementation in terms of cost reduction and implications, staff satisfaction and benefits, ease of business operations has been reported in this study. Statistics of the business functions and operations based on VoiP solutions were critically analyzed. Results from the research suggested further research needs to be undertaken on factor affecting the adoption of VoiP in a Western Australia context