GIS plays critical role in US telecommunications planning & security

By Kristen Davis


The U.S. faces thousands of national security threats each year; in case of emergency, it's imperative that our wireless telecommunication systems are active and defensible. For that reason, the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, the research and engineering laboratory of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, provides propagation models essential to wireless communications planning to a number of government agencies.

ITS has been providing radio wave propagation predictions since before World War II, but times have changed. Since accurate geographic information is critical for developing accurate propagation models, ITS more recently developed propagation modeling website tools that use commercial geographic information systems to both acquire geographic data and display geographic coverage areas.

Previous propagation modeling programs required government users to have a concrete understanding of radio propagation and prediction concepts, but many of these models were ported to new programs that operate in a Windows® environment and integrate with the proprietary Esri™Geographic Information System program most commonly used by its sponsor agencies. This implementation only requires users to install licensed commercial software and have some expertise in the use of that software.

But times have changed again. The federal government has created a digital strategy, establishing, among others, the goals of making existing high value data and content available through web APIs, and using a shared platform approach to develop and deliver digital services in order to lower costs and reduce duplication. So, seven years ago, with assistance from Department of Defense sponsors, ITS began developing a new generation of web-based GIS solutions for propagation prediction. Now ITS disseminates software applications that reduce dependency on licensed software applications, allowing end users to access the models through a web interface, the Propagation Modeling Website. The PMW uses commercial GIS to both acquire geographic data and display geographic coverage areas. It covers radio frequencies from 1 MHz to 20 GHz.

The PMW login screen is shown in Figure 1. Users can log into a central server to perform propagation analysis, storage and retrieval. PMW includes the capacity to perform propagation analysis using any of the following propagation models: TIREM 3.15; Longley-Rice 1.22; COST 231 Extended Okumura-Hata; Undisturbed Field/Mobile-to-Mobile; and ICEPAC. Propagation analyses, using all five models, can be performed in either single or batch transmitter mode using a separate thread for each analysis.

Figure 1. Users log into a central server via this PMW log in screen.

Users can export propagation analyses in .kmz format as well as GIS shape or Esri layer files, for use with Google Earth or another GIS such as Esri’s ArcGIS for Desktop application. Figure 2 shows an example of field strength studies from four of the five models, exported from PMW and imported into Google Earth.

Figure 2. This field strength study uses the Longley-Rice model for a transmitter located southwest of Boulder, Colorado. The analysis was run in PMW, then imported into GoogleEarth.

In single analysis mode, users can geographically select a transmitter from an embedded interactive map display. In batch mode, users can load an Excel transmitter file and plot the desired transmitters on the map prior to running the analysis. This functionality was developed using open source products OpenStreetMap and OpenLayers.

The PMW is delivered with five zoom levels for the map, which translates roughly to a scale of 4,888 meters per pixel. The PMW is shipped with additional zoom levels up to 12, or a scale of 76 meters per pixel. OpenStreetMap provides 20 zoom levels to achieve a scale of 0.298 meters, but rendering each tile for 20 zoom levels would result in a storage requirement of 54 terabytes. Figure 3 shows the web map zoomed to level 12. The reason for packaging and shipping the geographic data with the software is that many PMW users operate in a secure environment and cannot connect to the internet to dynamically update the data.

Figure 3. The embedded web map shows the geographic location of proposed transmitters.
The PMW is currently customized to fit the needs of ITS’ sponsors, which include several DoD agencies and the National Weather Service, and is available only to U.S. government agencies. To meet the different security needs of defense and civilian agencies, the solution can be implemented either on an agency’s own secure intranet or on an ITS-hosted secure website. Because the PMW is extremely modular in design, as new sponsors join the project the PMW can grow to fit additional needs and requirements. For example, NWS uses the tools to map radio coverage to U.S. population, to ensure that its All-Hazards Emergency Messages will reach at least 95% of the population. DoD agencies might use the tool for tasks like planning the location and density of transmitters and repeaters for new or ad hocsecure communications networks.

The PMW solution integrates commercial, off-the-shelf GIS, database and web-development products in a fully customizable analysis environment that can be tailored to meet individual customer needs. The solution was designed to be cost efficient, modular and scalable. It operates in a Windows environment, using widely available tools and utilities. Users can access the models from virtually any desktop or laptop through a browser interface. Hardware used in the development of the PMW included a dual quad-core web development machinewith 32 GB of RAM. The software included: Windows Server 2008 R2, Esri ArcMap 10.1, Visual Studio 2010, SQL Server 2008, .NET 4.0 and IIS 7.5.

Due to the large selection of GIS databases available, customer agencies can choose to include terrain, satellite and aircraft imagery, ground transportation infrastructure, building data and/or population distribution. By developing PMW, ITS has provided system tools to help government agencies efficiently manage their telecommunications infrastructure through sound system planning and interference detection for national security and public safety.

The Institute for Telecommunication Sciences supports its parent agencies by performing the research and engineering that enables the U.S. government, national and international standards organizations, and many aspects of private industry to manage the radio spectrum and ensure the advancement of innovative, new technologies. ITS also serves as a principal federal resource for solving telecommunication issues for other federal agencies, and state and local government. Certain commercial products are identified in this article to adequately specify the technical aspects of the reported modeling solution. In no case does such identification imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, nor does it imply that the products identified are the best available for this purpose.

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A Bold New World of GIS Assessment

By Diana S. Sinton


The world of geospatial credentials and certifications continues to grow in depth and breadth. As it develops, the notion of competencies figures largely in this discussion. At a basic level, competency simply suggests a skill or ability to do something, but high competence has connotations of knowledge and skills applied in a manner that is effective, successful, proper, efficient, and maybe even with a little bit of flair. Who wouldn’t want to be regarded as highly competent? No wonder that the world of competency-based learning has been receiving much attention, though not without significant apprehension from the realm of traditional higher education, as it threatens to disrupt certain conventional notions of structured teaching and learning.

Such matters are central to GIS&T training and education. Last month Esri announced an addition to its technical certification suite, an exam designed for newer users of its software. The Desktop Entry Certification will particularly appeal to recent college graduates entering the job market and interested in documenting the technical proficiency they acquired during their education. As Esri notes in their marketing information, a degree “validates an individual’s academic accomplishment,” but this additional technical certification shows potential employers that a person can actually sit down at the computer and use the software, at least in the specific areas that Esri will be measuring.

It remains to be seen what impact the availability of this certification will have on GIS courses and curricula. For every instructor who resists someone else’s opinions about what they should cover within their GIS course, or who is passionately committed to teaching only on FOSS platforms, there will be two who carefully consider the content of the exam in designing or updating their own classes, or even who use this ArcGIS Desktop Certification exam as a proxy for their own end of term assessment.

Another geospatial credential is on the horizon, the Universal GEOINT Certification. This program is being targeted broadly, for individuals engaged with the geospatial intelligence field from diverse industries, academia or levels of government, and of course for the military as well. As Darryl Murdock, the vice president for professional development at United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation explained, “The Universal GEOINT Certification is designed to be both transparent – meaning all requirements are published and made available to aspiring professionals, including to those who are teaching geospatial intelligence related courses, and transportable – meaning it has been built by contributors from many industries and designed to be inclusive of all practitioners globally so the credential will have meaning within all industries and government positions where geospatial analytical thinking is valued.”

This GEOINT Certification is, however, not to be confused with the more specific NSG Certification Program, a newly emerging collection of tests that are designed specifically for personnel working in GEOINT analyst designated jobs within the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Defense Intelligence Agency and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. NGA, as the functional manager for GEOINT for the National System for Geospatial-Intelligence, has created a set of certifications for ten different GEOINT designated jobs at Proficiency Level 2, or “full-performance.” An entry-level PL-1 exam is also required for all GEOINT analysts leading up to the job-specific PL-2 exams. There are also plans being considered for PL-3, “Advanced” and even PL-4, “Expert.” However, it is yet to be determined if and how PL-3 and PL-4 will be built, and whether experts in the field will be expected to demonstrate certain upper level proficiencies in their ability to conduct their specific GEOINT jobs, such as the essential, but more difficult to teach and measure, abilities to communicate and negotiate. Interestingly, these soft skills comprise the lower tiers of the Geospatial Technology Competency Model. In the GTCM, Personal Effectiveness, together with Academic and Workplace competencies, are perceived as being fundamentals that support the more specific geospatial industry and occupational demands. When recent updates to the GTCM were undertaken, it was in these more detailed, industry- and occupation-specific higher tier areas where changes took place.

Whether these certifications and models are undergoing initial construction or revision, one of the sources they recognize as contributing to their content is the original GIS&T Body of Knowledge. That document, developed under the auspices of the University Consortium of Geographic Information Science and published by the Association of American Geographers, is widely recognized as the first effort to document the field of geospatial knowledge. Since its 2006 publication, the GIS&T BoK has served as an important and authoritative reference book for countless curricula and initiatives. The BoK is also one source of information for an exam, which is still under development, that will be part of the GIS Certification Institutes’ revised GIS Professional Certification process.

Now, the GIS&T BoK itself is undergoing revision, a necessary step given how much has changed in the geospatial field over the last decade. Not only will the next iteration incorporate new and initially absent areas of relevant content, but the outcome of this community-driven revision process is expected to be an open-access, citable digital product.

Elsewhere, other geospatial bodies of knowledge are also in stages of development and distribution. A large network of European scholars is working on the Geographic Information: Need to Know project to generate a reference document with an eye towards specific European workforce needs.

USGIF has also just published its GEOINT Essential Body of Knowledge , a resource intended to support their aforementioned new Universal GEOINT Certification. According to Murdock, designers of the EBK relied on existing authoritative sources, such as the GIS&T BoK and the GTCM, but also had its content heavily informed by input from the active GEOINT community itself. Its four primary competency areas — GIS & Analysis Tools, Remote Sensing & Imagery Analysis, Geospatial Data Management and Data Visualization — were designed to encompass the “key job tasks and essential knowledge, skills and ability required for a [GEOINT] professional to be successful.” These are coupled with cross-functional competencies in the areas of Synthesis, Reporting and Collaboration, again reflecting the type of soft skills that are widely recognized as critical complements to skills and abilities themselves.

There is no shortage of opportunities for individuals aspiring, or required, to document their geospatial knowledge. More problematic is deciding which, when and why. To date, the various entities offering certificates and credentials are demonstrating the goodwill to coordinate, for example, through formal recognitions of “understanding” and “agreement,” as well as a cooperative research and development agreement between the USGIF and NGA intended to ensure that their respective programs are complementary. NGA and USGIF have openly stated their joint goal of designing reciprocity between both programs.

Wanted: individuals who are certified, credentialed and degreed, across all possible levels of competency, to have demonstrable skills and abilities across diverse and constantly developing bodies of knowledge in the practice and domain of the geospatial sciences and technologies. Proficiency in communication, organization, leadership and teamwork assumed. Very strong preference will be given to anyone who can accurately and comprehensively describe this important area of professional development. Everyone else, please join the large queue forming in the back of the room for those with ongoing questions about where this all will lead.

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