Discussing Preparation for
"ASAP to PSAP"
CommSys is presenting information to our ConnectCIC
Partners on ASAP Alarm Information Exchange Service
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
Introductions
Our goal is to provide an overview education and
insight to prepare you for when customer begin
to ask about the “ASAP to PSAP” program
Presenter:
Bob Turner – President at CommSys, Inc.
turner@commsys.com
937-425-0402
Coordinator:
Kelli Adkins – Marketing Director at CommSys, Inc.
marketing@commsys.com
937-425-0411
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
What is “ASAP to PSAP” About?
APCO and the Central Station Alarm Association
(CSAA) have been working together to improve alarm
monitoring company to Public Safety Answering Point
(PSAP) CAD communications with an innovative
offering known as the Automated Secure Alarm
Protocol (ASAP).
This effort has been a public/private partnership that
offers a better, faster and cost-effective solution to
delivering alarm based calls for service directly to the
CAD system.
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
The Alarm Problem
• Currently alarm monitor companies transfer information
to a PSAP via a “back door” phone number
• Information is verbally transferred from the alarm
company operator to the PSAP call taker
– This adds between 3 and 10 minutes per call
– In high volume situations (severe weather) calls may never get
answered handled
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
ASAP and APCO/ANSI
Alarm Exchange
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
Goals
• The goals of the Alarm Exchange are
for dispatch centers to eliminate the
following:
– Phone calls for alarms
– Errors in information transfer
– Response delays induced by re-entering
call information to the Computer Aided
Dispatch (CAD) System
– Provide real-time information to
Public Safety
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
History
• Since 2005 APCO has been involved
with improving the interface from
alarm monitoring companies primarily
represented by the Central Station
Alarm Association (CSAA)
– APCO has developed an ANSI Standard
– CSAA has developed a service to support
the delivery of ANSI standard messages
Bill Hobgood, of Richmond, VA, has been the primary advocate for APCO
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
Central Station Alarm Association
http://www.csaaul.org
• CSAA members = alarm monitoring companies
– CSAA members provide monitoring services to the
36 million alarm systems in the United States
• CSAA has worked to foster and improve
relations between its members and various
related groups:
– law enforcement and fire officials, the insurance
industry, equipment suppliers and
government/regulatory agencies
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
The Challenge
• How do you connect 600 central stations
with 6500 PSAP CAD Systems?
– Direct connects are obviously out
of the question
– What covers a majority of the PSAPs
in the country?
The CJIS networks.
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
The CJIS Solution
• Nlets became the logical choice, since
over 80% of the dispatch centers have
access to state CJIS networks
• Nlets, via the state message switches,
can be used as a conduit to deliver
messages to and from dispatch
centers
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
Nlets
Nlets
http://www.nlets.org
• Nlets is a not-for-profit corporation owned by the
state governments of the United States
– Nlets is completely separate from the United States
federal government
• Governed by an elected board of directors made up
of representatives from state criminal justice
organizations
• Nlets’ primary mission is the interconnection of state
owned Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS)
– DMV and Criminal History are transmitted through Nlets
– However they do much more
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
The Implementation
• Nlets is not prepared to deal with neither the
technical nor operational issues associated with
interconnecting with each of the individual CSAA
members or participants
– The worked with three central stations and everyone
figured out it wasn’t going to work
• Nlets entered into a strategic partnership with
CSAA
– CSAA would construct a technical environment to
aggregate and manage connections from central
stations
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
The ASAP Service
• Implemented by the CSAA using
the Nlets backbone
– Hosted in the Nlets Operations Center
in Phoenix
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
CommSys’ Involvement
• CommSys was contracted with by the
CSAA to manage the development
and implementation of the ASAP
Service technology
– System Architect
– Project Manager
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
Why CommSys?
http://www.commsys.com
• Our knowledge of CJIS, CAD
systems and building systems
• The existing architecture within
our ConnectCIC Solution
• Legacy knowledge of the program
and the intent for innovation
We expect to be responsible for managing and
operating the service for the CSAA
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
ASAP Status
• CSAA ASAP Service is in production
– One Central Station and One PSAP
• Vector Security
• City of Richmond
• Four more Central Stations are prepared
for production
• Four other PSAPs are in various stages
of ‘go live’
– Houston is on the older protocol version
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
Technical Overview
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
Definition and Wiring Diagram
The ASAP Service is a method of delivering ANSI Alarm Exchange XML
between central stations and PSAP via the state message switch
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
Technical Details
• ALQ/ALR Messages
– NLETS has designated two message keys to
support the delivery and transmission of
message to and from the dispatch centers
These are the ALQ/ALR messages:
The ALQ is unidirectional messages from the alarm monitoring
company to the dispatch center
Addressed to CAD system by an ORI designated to the CAD
system
The ALR messages is the reverse direction, from the dispatch center to
the alarm monitoring company
Messages are sent to the Message Broker via ORI and CSID
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
ANSI Alarm Exchange XML
• In both cases, the ANSI Alarm Exchange
XML is treated as an opaque data
payload
– The CJIS systems never look at the contents
– Only the alarm monitoring companies and the dispatch
centers interpret or construct the XML messages
• Documented in CSAA-APCO ANSI
2.101.1-2008
– Beware: it is already out of date
– Schema 3.3 is required for ASAP
(ANSI was Schema 3.1)
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
Typical Workflow
• Alarm Company sends initial alarm to PSAP
• PSAP Accepts or Rejects
• PSAP Dispatch sends “chat” or update
message to alarm company
• Alarm company replies via update
• PSAP automatically report dispatch
and close-out
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
ASAP Impact
“Big Picture”
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
Removing the Call Taking Step
• ASAP removes
PSAP call taking step
– The Call for Service goes
directly to the dispatch queue
• The Central Station is now
charged with the call taking
actions
– They where already doing this
– However they have even a
greater responsibility
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
How will this impact CAD vendors?
• This is not E911 ALI
– Though there are related issues – more later
– It is more complex
• This is a workflow system with a two-way
conversation
• PSAP dispatchers can communicate with alarm
company operators
– Chat function
• CAD system needs to provide updates
(high-level) to alarm company
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
CSAA Members have value
• Some question: what is the value
of the alarm company?
To name a few …
– False Alarm suppression
– Equipment diagnosis, maintenance
and repair
– Eventually address validation
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
Challenges with ASAP
• CAD System
– You need to have a CAD to CAD
oriented interface
– Essentially an alarm company
has a CAD system
– This is a complex
interface
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
Challenges with ASAP
• Address verification
– It is like E911 all over again, except the
PSAP has the geobase
• This will need to be bumped against the alarm
monitoring company for them to correct
– We believe this will be the greatest
impediment to quick implementation
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
How can CommSys help you?
• Testing tools with ConnectCIC
• New Features to ConnectCIC
to support ASAP
– There will be a charge
• Future training and education
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
ConnectCIC Alarm Exchange Option
• A set of features licensed in
ConnectCIC to make implementing
Alarm Exchange Easier
• Licensed on a per CAD system
basis via ORI
• Availability will be 3rd Qtr 2012
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
Alarm Exchange Option Features
• Message Routing to alternate
ConnectCIC API connection
– Accept ASAP messages to a different
connection than your normal ConnectCIC
– External to normal ConnectCIC
messages
• No ‘XML in XML’ problems
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
- continued -
Alarm Exchange Option Features
• Message Flow Control
– ConnectCIC can be told to reject ASAP
messages rather than handing them off
• Needed in high demand situations
• Aged Message Rejection
– Messages that are too old are
automatically Rejected at the
ConnectCIC
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
- continued -
Alarm Exchange Option Features
• Separate Logging
– Separate messages from normal
CJIS flow
• Embedded URL management
– For video camera feeds
– Can’t get to the Internet on most
CAD workstations
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
Expectations for your Customers
• This is not a “flip the switch”
offering
– Development work to do
– Testing
• Your customer will need to work
with central stations to resolve
addressing issues
• I would expect from the time
your PSAP make contact with a
central station it will take a year
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
Thank You
Presenter:
Bob Turner – President at CommSys, Inc.
turner@commsys.com
937-425-0402
Coordinator:
Kelli Adkins – Marketing Director at CommSys, Inc.
marketing@commsys.com
937-425-0411
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
Questions/Answers
www.commsys.com
© CommSys, Inc. ~ May 2012
800-842-5225
info@commsys.com