Building a Statewide
Communication System,
Partnerships, AND Interoperability
from the ground up.
State of Nebraska
Office of the Chief Information Officer
Public Safety Team
What we’ll cover
How We Accomplished…
 The Project
 The Partnerships
 The Interoperability Plan
First (Expectations)
It takes a cast of many to accomplish a successful
system. It’s a big task to maintain focus and stick to the
project scope. There can only be a few leaders.
Implementing a communication system of any
size is a large undertaking!
The project: How we got started
Define the purpose and get political support:
 Improving communications for state law enforcement.
 Improve technology, coverage, capacity, reliability.
It’s not too difficult to understand the need.
Set realistic objectives:
 State agencies would be the primary users initially.
 State would manage certain aspects of the project.
 MANAGE EXPECTATIONS – This will be a constant challenge!
This gets a little trickier.
What are the stated objectives and project scope?
The project: How we got started
Know your cost factors:
 Frequencies, licensing, tower infrastructure, remediation, network,
subscriber equipment, facilities, personnel, maintenance, training,
system lifecycle, ongoing support.
 Have a timeline:
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Obtaining the needed information (consultants, RFI, user input…)
Assembling the interested parties
Framing user agency requirements
RFP process, evaluation, contract award, protests
Implementing the system
Project acceptance and final closeout
Governor support
and Legislature funded
 RFP in 2007
 Contract award to Motorola in 2008
 State and public power owned, managed, and maintained
(the partnership started coming together during the RFP requirements)
 Green light! Funded and ready to go…now what?
The project
Building a plan:
 Hiring a consultant - Consultants are for advising, not deciding.
 You need a clear idea about your system, who the system
will serve, a realistic scope, cost, timeline, and adjusting to
unexpected change.
Gathering the participants and relevant information:
 Participation by the user agencies
 Framing the RFP requirements
 Using your consultant’s input
 Coordinating with your purchasing agency
The project
Project Management: Working with multiple Project Managers (Motorola, State, NPPD)
 The Customer’s objective – a successful system and successful users
 The Vendor’s objective – win the contract, install the system, and get paid
RULE #1: These objectives are NOT the same!
(Although both want a successful outcome.)
 We divided ours and the vendor’s responsibilities and learned to coordinate.
 Business process ensures invoicing and payments are tracked.
 Technical process ensures implementation goes as planned and delays can be
minimized.
 Joint PM ensures deliverables are met on both sides.
We managed two project timelines to track progress and anticipate work flows.
The project
How we managed the process:
 Division of responsibilities and deliverables
 Avoiding the Blame Game
 Dealing with Conflicts, Negative media attention and the
Politics.
 Coverage testing and the so-called “coverage guarantee.”
 Towers, network, frequencies, and system acceptance.
 There is no one way to do a system, but there are many
common issues with all systems.
 Project closeout and tying up the loose ends
The project
 2 Master Switches: State location in Lincoln and
NPPD location in Kearney
 DSR (dynamic system resiliency)
 51 towers networked to the masters
 6 state and 2 public power dispatch centers
 VHF multi-site trunked wide area roaming
 Digital “P25” radio standard
 Mobile VHF radios, portable 700/800 MHz radios
 700 MHz DVRS extends portable coverage
 Make use of urban trunked 800 MHz systems for
portable coverage
The partnership
Interest by NPPD, the
state’s largest public power
utility in joining the state
project. They needed a new
radio system too.
Interest by the state OCIO
in partnering to share the
cost, ownership,
management, and
maintenance of the system.
The partnership
The result:
Joining the state Office of the Chief Information Officer
public safety team and Nebraska Public Power District
telecommunication team to integrate system
management.
The partnership
How we Manage the System:
 System Operating Group – Director level decisions
 System Administrative Group – System policy and
operating decisions
 System User Group – User agency representation
Partnerships are a lot of work but they work!
 The System User Group involves decision makers who
understand their agency communications operations.
The partnership
Key principles:
 System User Group is an education forum and to discuss any issues deemed important
by the users.
 Everyone takes responsibility for the issues under their control.
 No one gets to blame the process or the system or what is outside their control.
 Accountability for each agency’s responsibilities ensures everyone is getting the
correct information.
 Problems are openly acknowledged and discussed.
 Solving problems takes understanding the process, and everyone understanding that
it takes commitment, time and money.
System management
OCIO and NPPD have joint ownership and maintenance
System Operating Group (SOG):
 State Chief Information Officer and NPPD Telecom Admin
System Administrative Group (SAG):
 OCIO Public Safety and NPPD Telecom
System User Group (SUG):
 All agencies using the system (local, state, federal)
Lesson learned
1. Establish a Project leader and Coordinator.
2. Hire assistance to advise while forming the process.
3. There is no one system that fits everyone. You have
to decide a starting point, stick to your plan.
4. Develop processes for policies and to continually
improve the system and management.
5. Training and education for the users and dispatchers
is hugely important.
6. The system is dispatch oriented.
Training
Training the users and
dispatchers is THE biggest
issue for success in any
communication system.
Partnering
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Cost model is a basic fee structure
Consideration given for local enhancements to system
Each partnership is taken case-by-case
Accommodating local legacy systems
Consolette radio on the local legacy console
User radios for interoperability on the system
Console upgrade to network on system
Towers/facilities that may benefit the system.
Interoperability on designated talk groups
Flexibility to add agencies, consoles, towers, talk groups,
capacity
Partnering
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Sharing a system successfully lays the groundwork for creating other partnerships.
How we are creating partnerships in the system
Joint infrastructure ownership, management, and maintenance
User Group of user representation
Federal spectrum sharing
Local access to the system
Opportunities for investment in the system that meets user needs while growing
participation in the system
System sharing is what it’s about
Evolving talk group planning
Established subscriber unit planning
Cost modeling…create a recipe for success attractive to adding new partners
It’s more than creating a fee, it’s a creating a sustainable support plan, and the
flexibility to consider what partners may be able to contribute
Shared maintenance
Maintenance of towers, generators, sites, network is all shared
between state and NPPD
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OCIO and NPPD both support their respective networks
NPPD sends the outage notifications to users agencies
OCIO maintains 75% of the towers, NPPD owns 25%
50/50 cost share of the Motorola system
Technicians can go to any site for system maintenance
 Internal vs vendor support services
 We buy software support, technical call-in, and security software
 All other needs we support internally between OCIO and NPPD
Statewide mobile coverage
Coverage
Optimistic Coverage Map 
 User perception 
Pessimistic Coverage Map 
 User perception  to 
Slightly Pessimistic Coverage Map 
 User perception 
Noise value or budget to set coverage expectation.
 12-15 dB noise not-to-exceed (issue is then vehicle not the
system)
Subscriber radios
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Creating a fleet map structure and shared talk groups
Training and ongoing support for all users and dispatchers
Dispatcher and user input
Education on radio features
Operational policies and field practice
System statistics on user operation
Education on system sharing between agencies
Fleet map revisions and ongoing subscriber planning
Assisting local agencies
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System orientation
System use planning
Explain costs
Equipment options and guidance
Ensure the plan fits the agency’s needs
Public Safety Agencies POC = OCIO
Public Utilities POC = NPPD
Cost to join the system
One-Time costs
 Purchase dispatch consoles & network connection
 Purchase user radios
 User equipment installation and programming
Recurring costs
 Service Agreement with state OCIO
 Maintenance/repair/replacement dispatch consoles and radio
equipment (radio service shop)
 Apply software patches/updates (radio service shop)
 Console network connection recurring fees (network provider)
System Users
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State Patrol
Nebraska Public Power District
Lincoln Electric System
State Fire Marshal’s Office
Game and Parks Commission
Department of Corrections
Department of Roads
Agriculture, Adult Parole, DEQ, DMV, NEMA…
Lincoln County Sheriff and Emergency Manager
FBI, US Marshal, ATF, US Fish & Wildlife
Interoperability
Interoperability is about having a plan that fits people.
 Start realistic, and simple is best.
 Don’t underestimate the time and training involved.
 Common mistakes:
1. Creating a plan for interoperability before testing it
with the users and dispatchers.
2. NOT taking into account user and dispatcher
feedback.
“Interoperability without testing and training is a myth.”
Interoperability
The “ROC” talk group plan
 Orientation, training and testing provided at no cost
 No use fee
One-Time costs
 Purchase consolette and/or user radios
 User equipment installation and programming
Recurring costs
 Maintenance/repair/replacement radio equipment (radio service
shop)
 Apply software patches/updates (radio service shop)
Interoperability
Shared talk groups
Shared frequencies
Regional Operations
Common “ROC” talk
groups.
National interoperability
frequencies “VTAC”
“UTAC” 8TAC”…
Testing other manufacturer
P25 radios
Working with multiple manufacturers to test their
radios
 Provide expanded equipment options and pricing
 Ensure manufacturer support
 WSCA contract participating addenda
 Provide state expertise in programming radios
 Ensure problems are addressed with manufacturers
Local radio shops
 Orientation for local radio shops
 Training and assistance to educate about the system
 We’re assisting radio shops and their technicians to
understand:
 How their services support the system and its users
 The state process for their involvement
 The requirements for equipment installation, programming
and testing
Don’t just go buy a bunch of radios before talking with the
OCIO about your intentions!!!
Interoperability
“ROC” Talk Groups
 Regional Operations Common
 (Based on Patrol troop areas)
Interoperability
H ROC CALL
H ROC1
H ROC2
B ROC CALL
B ROC1
B ROC2
Etc…
Interoperability
E ROC Call
ROC talk groups at local dispatch console
(In Patrol consoles and state radios also)
Interoperability
Partnerships
Thanks!!!
Mike Jeffres
Public Safety Systems Manager
Office of the CIO
501 S 14th Street
Lincoln NE 68508
402-471-3719
mike.jeffres@nebraska.gov