The Inaugural Next Generation 9-1-1 Industry Collaboration Event was held in College Station, Texas at the Texas A&M campus and was organized by the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). microDATA was one of 16 leading suppliers of NG9-1-1 components participating in the event. The tests were based on draft and final standards developed by NENA’s Technical Committees, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and other standards development organizations. No proprietary vendor solutions were tested; only standardized or open interfaces were allowed.

“The first NENA ICE interoperability testing event provided participating vendors the opportunity for significant insight into product designs necessary to achieve interoperability, both between NG9-1-1 components and between multiple NG9-1-1 systems, “commented Roger Hixson, NENA Technical Issues Director. “I’m glad to say this event was successful in moving those objectives forward.”

microDATA’s organization of and participation in this non-proprietary event underlines its commitment to ensuring that their 9-1-1 industry products are engineered to NENA and IETF standards. The use of open standards improves interoperability among multiple vendor systems and enables the use of Common-Off-The-Shelf equipment with considerable cost savings. A standards-based IP platform will enable receipt of emergency calls and subsequent sharing of information from various modern communications technologies such as native VoIP, video, pictures, Automatic Collision Notifications and SMS text among networked public safety agencies.

Nate Wilcox, ICE Steering Committee Chair stated, “It was good to see so much hard work, dedication and commitment come to fruition. This event holds quite a few firsts for the 9-1-1 industry. It was the first time within 9-1-1 that competing vendors have come together in a lab testing environment for a common goal. Additionally, it is the first time ever that location information delivery as described in a variety of IETF and NENA standards has been rigorously tested on and between disparate vendor platforms.”

microDATA successfully tested three products: xT911™ –  for Next Generation 9-1-1 call taking/CPE, xSwitch™ – a load balanced call handling soft-switch,  xSR™ – IPSR for selective routing calls to PSAP over mD’s ESInet to multiple endpoints, and xLoST Server™ – location-based call routing for delivering calls to the appropriate emergency service agency or PSAP (Spatial Routing™).

For more information on microDATA’s Next Generation 9-1-1 suite of products visit www.md-911.com or call 800.722.6663 ext. 890

More information about Next Generation 9-1-1 and Industry Collaboration Events may be found at www.nena.org.

About microDATA

Since 1983, microDATA has become a leading provider of innovative Next Generation 9-1-1 software solutions. Built with GIS and IP at the core, microDATA offers a seamless suite of map-centric™, i3 aligned public safety solutions. This consists of IP-based call handling, ESInet solutions (including LoST Server, Selective Router, etc.), an ALI database management system, a GIS database management system and a dynamic mapped-ALI display. All solutions are integrated, enabling the fluid distribution of 9-1-1 data to the call takers.  microDATA strives to empower our customers to save lives, reduce response times and lower public safety infrastructure costs by using microDATA’s powerful Next Generation 9-1-1 X-Solution™. We Know NG9-1-1.