June 08, 2007

By Jenny Carless, News@Cisco

"It's about helping people quickly and safely."

According to Steve Cooper, chief information officer of the American Red Cross, that is why disaster relief organizations large and small around the world rely on networking and communications technology as a fundamental pillar of effective emergency response and emergency management.

"Staying on the cutting edge of technology is what has allowed us to keep our very high recovery rate (currently about 96.3 percent)," explains Steven Gelfound, IT director of the United States-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). "Our network has to be the best of the best."

From organization-wide Internet Protocol (IP)-based networks to "networks in a box" for disaster situations, NCMEC, NetHope, the American Red Cross and Cisco are representative of how organizations today depend on technology to maintain security in a day-to-day environment and provide relief in times of disaster.

NetHope

NetHope is a nonprofit consortium of 18 leading international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) including Save the Children, Oxfam, Mercy Corps, World Vision and The Nature Conservancy. It relies on networking technology and Internet-based applications to help its members improve collaboration, coordination and knowledge-sharing in emergency response and humanitarian development scenarios in more than 100 developing countries. In particular, the technology has dramatically improved coordination among workers in the field.

"When we were formed (more than six years ago) to crack the code on connectivity in the developing world, there was a clear need to help groups install better communications capabilities for these kinds of emergency field operations," explains Bill Brindley, NetHope's chief executive officer.

Consortium members use a Network Relief Kit (NRK), a lightweight, self-contained mobile satellite communications platform developed with Cisco that can be used for voice and high-speed data connectivity in remote locations. Both the first-generation "network in a box" and its newest incarnation, NRK2 (also called the "Pick and Go" because it is even smaller and more lightweight), are designed for deployment in emergencies.

The NRKs are used in places where connectivity has been destroyed or degraded or is generally inadequate. NetHope members have relied on them and other connectivity technologies to help during recent disasters such as the floods in Mozambique, the tsunami in Indonesia and the earthquake in Pakistan.

"Where there are no capabilities at all, our NRK provides an instant communication resource," Brindley explains. "It can be used with a car battery, a generator or even solar power."

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

In the United States, NCMEC deals with a different kind of disaster, yet its reliance on the latest communications technology is just as strong.

NCMEC assists in the search and recovery of missing children, serves as a resource for the reporting and investigation of sexual exploitation of children, and provides communities with safety education and prevention resources related to these issues. Since its establishment in 1984, NCMEC has assisted law enforcement with the recovery of more than 112,900 children.

"We're dealing with children's lives," Gelfound emphasizes. "Speed and reliability are critical. We need to receive and disseminate information as quickly as possible, and we must be sure that all the tools our analysts/researchers use are up and running all the time."

A fast, reliable network is crucial to many of the services NCMEC provides:

• Law enforcement organizations access NCMEC data through a virtual private network (VPN).
• NCMEC is a secondary dispersal unit for Amber Alerts (an early-warning system to help find abducted children). It disseminates the alerts nationally to subscribers through list servers, e-mails (that include digital images) and cell phone messages.
• Its CyberTipline website allows the public and Internet service providers to report incidents of child sexual exploitation. A new site also helps law enforcement track credit cards that purchase child pornography.

"A prime example of our success was our effort right after Hurricane Katrina," Gelfound recalls. "We were faced with more than 5,000 cases of children who had become separated from their families - and we solved every one.

"We set up 25 Voice over IP phones and a couple of wireless access points, and within 24 hours we were up and running," he continues. "We took digital pictures of the children, uploaded them to our case files and immediately disseminated them to all the different housing units in the area to help reunite the families."

American Red Cross

The American Red Cross responds to emergencies large and small - from hurricanes to single-home fires. In 2006, Red Crossers responded to more than 74,000 disasters, of which nearly 69,000 were home fires.

It is the organization's goal that a Red Cross employee or volunteer show up at every event. (A designated representative is typically notified by fire dispatch or a similar group.)

As part of its process to help victims receive food, clothing and a safe place to stay, the Red Cross has standard forms to gather information. For larger fires, the data may be gathered on a laptop computer and then transferred to a central database.

"Obviously, with 69,000 fires, we don't have enough laptops," Cooper explains. "So we rely on cell phones; either the volunteer or the victim provides information over the phone to a central call center, where the information is added immediately to the database. This reduces errors and speeds up the process so assistance can be issued much more quickly."

In large-scale disasters that cause infrastructure damage (power outages, disabled cell phone and land phone capabilities), the Red Cross needs to establish networks as quickly as possible. So the organization relies on 'fly-away kits' similar to NetHope's NRKs.

"We use the kits to establish a communications infrastructure for our service areas and shelters," Cooper says. "We have satellite capabilities (receivers and translators) so we can use a satellite link to transfer information back to our operations centers."

The Red Cross also takes advantage of technology to assist in fundraising efforts. The Wireless Foundation and participating wireless carriers partnered with the Red Cross to create a text-messaging service with which, during large disasters, wireless subscribers can donate US$5 to Red Cross domestic disaster relief efforts simply by text-messaging the keyword "GIVE" to the short code "2HELP" (24357).

Cisco

Networking technologies also play an important role in the emergency preparedness plans of corporations and organizations. To manage and maintain a physically secure environment for the protection of its employees and assets, Cisco relies on an enterprise-wide IP-based access control and digital video system.

"Through our Enterprise Security System Architecture, every single building at Cisco, owned or leased, has a standardized access control and digital video system along with centralized information management of those systems across the network," explains Bill Jacobs, senior manager of Risk Technologies. "This way, an alert from anywhere - anything from a forced door to a building receptionist's duress alarm - travels immediately across the network to our operations center."

Cisco's global real estate encompasses more than 400 buildings, 17 million square feet (1.579 million square meters) of office space, 6,600+ card readers, nearly 3,000 closed circuit cameras and up to 80,000 individuals (including employees and contractors).

An important tool in securing instant global information transfer is Cisco's IP Interoperability Communications System (IPICS), which takes the signals from any push-to-talk radio device, converts them to IP and then converts them again at the other end to the appropriate signal.

IPICS was born out of Cisco's experience and learnings from September 11th.

"One of the challenges facing emergency responders (e.g., police, fire, medical teams, security) was that many of them operated distinct radio systems (VHF, HF or UHF) and so couldn't communicate together," Jacobs explains. "Cisco manufactured a product that can help connect radio networks to a secure, converged IP network."

As a result, agencies using different radio frequencies and individuals located anywhere in the world who have an IP-enabled device (such as a cell phone, IP telephone or PC) can all communicate on the same network. And Cisco uses IPICS across its campuses where different communications devices are employed.

Solutions are under development that allow IPICS to be programmed with a set of rules to provide automatic company-wide warning systems (to IP phones, cell phones and other designated devices) in the case of an earthquake or other emergency.

"And we're even taking that one step further," Jacobs says. "Not only will we be able to send messages to phones, we'll also be pushing them out to digital signage throughout our campuses. So, where today we have fire evacuation maps on the wall, soon there may also be a digital sign that provides instructions - such as to evacuate or to stay in place, depending on the emergency.

"All this will take place automatically," he adds. "Our speed of response to emergencies is fully automated, and we can do this across the network and provide the data to all our operations centers."

Different emergency scenarios call for different action. But in every situation, fast, reliable communication is critical.

Organizations of any size can learn from the experience of NetHope, the American Red Cross, NCMEC and Cisco and implement appropriate disaster preparedness and emergency response infrastructures.

"We're always testing new connectivity technologies for our members," Brindley says. "And our experience helps the United Nations, Doctors without Borders/Médecins sans Frontières and many others."

By sharing best practices in advanced networking and communications strategies, organizations everywhere can be better prepared to provide emergency assistance - more quickly and safely - when the next disaster strikes.

Jenny Carless is a freelance writer based in Santa Cruz, CA.