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Improving Emergency Response
Georgetown Leads Internet2 VoIP Disaster Recovery Working Group
A university located in the nation's capital faces a special urgency to keep its community secure. Technology plays a large role in that challenge; in emergencies, keeping people connected is essential to keeping people safe.
Georgetown has used Verizon's Centrex service as the primary backup telephone service since 1986, when the university deployed its PBX (Private Branch Exchange) telephone system from Avaya (formerly AT&T and Lucent). PBXs enable intercom dialing, private numbers and are typically far less expensive for large organizations like Georgetown than using a local telephone carrier to provide thousands of telephone lines (like Centrex). Fortunately, Georgetown's backup Centrex service has rarely been used and is still perfectly functional. Recent advancements in technology, however, have engendered more robust and economical solutions for backup and disaster recovery telephone systems. Additionally, cellular phones have become a de facto emergency communications tool that augments the University phone system for all faculty, staff and students.
Georgetown University is leading the nationwide Internet2 VoIP Disaster Recovery Working Group, an initiative to build a telephone network that will stay operational and secure in virtually any circumstance provided there is an uninterruptible power source. The goal of the Working Group is to complete and demonstrate a campus-wide backup and disaster recovery telephone system by the spring of 2004. The successful completion of the project will furnish Georgetown University with a next-generation system while serving as a blueprint for other universities and large-scale organizations.
At the time Georgetown first deployed its PBX system, Centrex analog telephones were installed as part of the backup and disaster recovery system. Now that University Information Services no longer supports Georgetown University Hospital's telephone services, the number of Centrex emergency telephones within its purview has dropped sharply, decreasing approximately from 150 to 30. A few Centrex phones still remain in key University locations accessible to administrators designated by the Emergency Response Team. (The emergency call boxes located around campus, which are managed by the Department of Public Safety, are a completely different system altogether.) As part of the Internet2 initiative, the Centrex telephones will soon be replaced by digital telephones that use the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to establish telephone calls.
"SIP phones use VoIP to route calls via the Internet", explains Quentin Thomas, UIS network engineer and lead technician on the university's Centrex Upgrade and Conversion Project. VoIP, Voice over Internet Protocol, is a method for using data networks to conduct telephone calls. Georgetown's SIP phones will conduct calls over the university's Internet connection instead of over dedicated telephone circuits.
One reason that VoIP technology is being utilized for this next-generation system is that the campus maintains redundant Internet equipment to guard against system failure. However, the key advantage is that the phones are, as Thomas says, "totally independent of our campus PBX." In the event that the Georgetown University's PBX system or Verizon telephone network should fail, designated university administrators will use the SIP phone system to communicate.
The SIP phone system takes advantage of the redundant equipment built into the university data network to provide service if the primary equipment fails. For further redundancy, the system is also connected to the Internet2 high-bandwidth Abilene network housed at Indiana University. In addition, the SIP system works on data network equipment that is connected to generators to supply electricity in case of a power failure.
Another advantage is that SIP phones are completely mobile. A university administrator could carry the SIP phone anywhere, attach it to any working Internet port, and use it immediately. The phones can connect to the Georgetown University directory for easy access to contact information and can store several telephone numbers. And unlike the Centrex PBX phones, the SIP phones will interface with the campus phone network to enable five-digit dialing.
The SIP initiative will save the university money by utilizing the campus's existing network infrastructure. The university will pay only a one-time equipment fee for SIP phones, versus paying a monthly service charge for the Centrex service. Further reducing costs are donations of server equipment from Broadsoft and dialtone services from PaeTec.
Implementation of the SIP system will be included as part of a review of the university's emergency safety procedures, as UIS works with the Emergency Response Team to determine the best locations for the phones. SIP phones have already been deployed in a few on-campus locations, the UIS Network Operations Center and the UIS Help Desk among them.
UIS will soon deploy a SIP phone demo lab in St. Mary's Hall open to any interested Georgetown University students, faculty, and staff. Please contact Quintin Thomas at (202) 687-8334 or thomasq@georgetown.edu for information or to schedule a demonstration. |
