DHS plans enhanced interoperability standard — Federal Computer Week
The Homeland Security Department expects to complete an enhanced version of its Bridging Systems Interface technical standard in the this summer to better enable interoperability among emergency response agencies, a senior official said at the GovSec conference today.
The enhanced standard will allow for better connections between systems that link disparate radio systems, said Luke Berndt, chief technical officer for DHS’ Office of Interoperability and Compatibility. It also will provide for better linkages with different types of first responder radio systems.
The office and its partners developed the bridging system interface during the past two years to enable more effective use of Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) digital radio systems. In theory, those systems could be easily patched together. However, depending on how the systems were configured, they often were not working together effectively as a result of different manufacturers and different linkages.
