Dispatch Center
Nowadays, the Dispatch Center of SAMUR-Civil Protection is distributed in two physical locations: MADRID 112 Headquarters where the demand from general population is managed and the Integrated Center for Security and Emergencies, where the demand for assistance is received by institutions: Police, Fire Department, Security Services, Subway Company, Railroad Company, Airport, etc.
Notably, we have been pioneer in Europe by integrating an application of emergency resources management. This application is included in the digital trunking communication system TETRA of Madrid City Council. Thus, the messages are assigned to ambulances and operational stations through data transmission instead of voice, saving many hours of use of the radio channel. There are many features that have been added to this system ,so that, now both activations (from the Dispatch Center to the ambulances and the operational status from the ambulances to the Dispatch Center)are done via data. All this have an immediate reflection in the resource management application.
Hardware elements
Currently, part of the Dispatch Center located in MADRID 112 uses an Ethernet network segment using a large capacity server installed there that work in Cluster mode and eight posts:
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Three of the positions radius function as command and control posts.
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Four of the positions work as telephone posts.
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One position works as a system administrator.
Each station has an associated radio GIS (Geographic Information System) of the municipality of Madrid, with an alphanumeric database of the streets.
At the Madrid 112 Headquarters, to integrate communications a switching matrix and CTI are used. In CISEM, SAMUR has four operating positions dependent on a different server from MADRID 112. In this way the central communications has a real time BACK UP regardless of being able to have an operative position in the two centers. Also in CISEM a modern digital communications system called VAS is used. Both systems have a large capacity and versatility, allowing easily handle 20 phone lines and the two different communications systems available, with great simplicity and efficiency.
Between the Dispatch Center and SAMUR-Civil Protection Headquarters, there is a fiber optic link and two routers, so that, although separated in practice, the two existing networks function as a single one.
Software elements
In all positions, both telephone and radio the Intervention Management Application is charged and is called ETS (Emergency Management System). This application, very visual and intuitive, is made in Visual Basic and, is integrated with the digital radio communication network TETRA of the Madrid City Council. It has two different interfaces:
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Telephonic attention: where addresses are purified in the same way to the Municipal Police, with the alphanumeric database of the streets. Later incidents are coded through a logical tree system that has an interesting help menu.
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Resource management: allows, in a very simple way, the available resources allocation, being able to track the interventions easily and quickly.