Project overview

Firelink is a vital investment in the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) radio communications system.

Firelink is a fundamental aspect of Government plans to modernise and build resilience and interoperability in the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS).

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• Introduction
• History
• The Firelink solution
• What Firelink will bring
• Firelink features
• The core benefits of Firelink
• Project stakeholders
• Project timescales
• Support for the FRS
• Health and Safety
• Training

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The project has worked closely with the FRS to identify their core requirements for a single wide area radio communications capability in England, Scotland and Wales. Firelink is the solution that will bring new capabilities to the service, resulting in a number of benefits for all involved.

England, Scotland and Wales will see the Firelink project deliver:

• a radio network and regional switching sites, similar to telephone exchanges
• installation of radio, Mobile Data Terminal (MDT),  global positioning receiver and associated hardware in fire and rescue service appliances: including New Dimension vehicles and Officer cars.

Scotland and Wales will additionally see the project deliver:

• integration of Firelink equipment with legacy control room mobilising systems and Incident Command and Control Systems (ICCS). 

England will also see the project deliver:

• bespoke interim installations for existing control rooms to enable the fit of Firelink for voice communications into vehicles, prior to FiReControl rollout
• the link to nine new FiReControl Regional Control Centres: fixed radio communications installation to enable voice and data exchange with appliances or Officer cars.

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The approach adopted in the past for replacing existing fire and rescue service systems was based on procurements made by collaborative groups within the FRS.  The World Trade Centre terrorist attack on September 2001 caused this approach to be reviewed because of Government concerns regarding interoperability both within and between the UK emergency services.  The outcome of the review was announced in May 2002: a new competition for the procurement of a single wide area communications system for England and Wales, named Firelink.  Scotland subsequently joined the project in November 2002.

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Firelink will support the FRS in working with the police and ambulance service

The specification of Firelink user requirements was based on the operational needs of the FRS and not on any specific technology. This enabled the competition for a Firelink supplier to be opened up as widely as possible, in order to secure the best possible system and value for the national purse.

Frelink is a solution that:

• can be sustained into the medium to long term without significant threat of obsolescence
• delivers the level of service now demanded in terms of operational resilience
• provides a greater capability for the emergency services to work together.

The project team is overseeing the delivery of the technical solution by the Firelink supplier Airwave, with the support of stakeholders mentioned in the section below titled ‘Firelink Stakeholders’.

The features of Firelink are based on user requirements specified by the FRS. The new wide area communications system will bring a number of benefits to the fire safety community, which are expanded upon further in this section.

Representatives of the FRS have been actively involved in defining the operational standards and associated technical parameters for Firelink, as well as participating in the subsequent wwEvaluation of proposals. From this involvement in the project, the Firelink solution has been developed to fulfil the needs of the FRS and the following features are at the core of the solution:

Network coverage

The solution will provide national coverage from a single system that is equivalent or better than the current combined geographical coverage, with some incidental coverage out to sea. Transparent national roaming will enable fire and rescue service vehicles to be deployed anywhere in the country.

System availability

The standard service target availability level is 99.86%, as defined in the contract that will be measured on a monthly and regional basis. This figure excludes outage due to planned preventative maintenance and system functionality upgrades.

If a fault is detected in the system, Airwave is required to respond within the timescales outlined below:

• Major System Incident (MSI) – 4 hours to repair anything on the infrastructure that affects more than one user terminal on the network 
• General System Incident (GSI) – 24 hours to repair any single user terminal fault on the network

Resilience and security

The Firelink solution has been designed with built-in resilience to system failure, such as single points of failure, to ensure continuing service to the user.  The system also prevents unauthorised eavesdropping of communications and will stop false messages being entered onto the system. 

Interoperability

Firelink will provide technology to support the FRS with communications at a local, regional and national level, as well as with the police and ambulance service at silver command level. The system can be set up to allow direct communications between nominated individuals without needing to be connected via the control room, either across fire and rescue service boundaries or with members of other emergency services.

Voice communication

More efficient call handling will be possible using Firelink, with clearer voice quality than the existing analogue systems. There will be the ability to set up a wide range and variety of talkgroups, benefiting from quick user connection.

Data communication

TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio), although designed around voice communications, does support multiple data channels as well.

In Scotland, Wales and London this capability will be achieved through additional integration with legacy Incident Command and Control Systems (ICCS) and mobile systems.

In the rest of England, the data capability will be made available as part of Firelink once FiReControl is rolled out. Fire and rescue services may opt to retain their legacy solutions in the interim.

Automatic vehicle location

Firelink will enable the effective management of fleet vehicles, such as appliances and officer vehicles, especially in areas where there are many resources and prioritisation will be necessary for effective deployment by control staff.

Greater flexibility will be provided when handling the mobilisation and resource management functions at a regional level, which in turn will support the achievement of the FRS modernisation and resilience objectives through FiReControl.

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Firelink will connect with command and control functions

The benefits of Firelink will be realised in four areas:

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The Firelink project is sponsored by Communities and Local Government, the Scottish Executive and the Welsh Assembly Government.  

Firelink will be rolled out to: the 46 fire and rescue services in England, 8 in Scotland, 3 in Wales, and the Scottish fire service college. The direct involvement of each fire and rescue service is critical to support the delivery of Firelink. 

Fire and Rescue Authorities have a statutory duty to organise, oversee and manage the delivery for fire and rescue services and as such have an integral part in the rollout of the project. 

A number of project boards and working groups have been set up to facilitate the rollout of Firelink, consisting of advisors selected from a range of stakeholder for their specialist knowledge and positions of influence. 

A stakeholder group, comprising members of representative bodies and the Firelink Project Board, has been established.  The aim is to both inform representative bodies and provide them with an opportunity to bring their interests to bear. The representative bodies that provide a fundamental contribution to the successful delivery of the project include: 

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For the purposes of rolling out Firelink, fire and rescue services have been grouped into regions: England is split into nine regions broadly reflecting the Government Office boundaries; Scotland and Wales are each being treated as individual regions.

Rollout will be delivered on a phased basis across these regions. The order was developed following consultation with the FRS and, in England, coordination with the FiReControl project.

In Scotland and Wales, the sequence of capability delivered within a region will be:

• Phase A - the network infrastructure is installed throughout the region, the control room equipped with Firelink including integration with legacy mobilising systems and Incident Command and Control Systems (ICCS), and the regional solution tested
• Phase B – Firelink radios and MDTs installed in all vehicles, providing full Firelink voice and data capability.

In England, the sequence of capability delivered within a region will be:

• Phase A - the network infrastructure is installed throughout the region, the legacy control room equipped with Firelink radios, and the regional solution tested
• Phase B (Interim solution) - vehicles are fitted with Firelink radios for voice functionality
• Phase C – within each region Firelink is migrated across to the new Regional Control Centre and is activated there for both voice and data (Mobile Data Terminals running FiReControl supplied applications); and vehicles are fitted with data functionality.

For England, the rollout schedule for the project includes an ‘interim solution’. This will provide the initial equipment and functionality that will be rolled out into legacy control rooms and appliances, prior to the cutover of fire and rescue services to the new Regional Control Centres (RCCs). The interim period between the initial fit-out of current FRS control rooms and the subsequent migration to RCCs was planned to be between 12–18 months. The new planned cut-over dates for each FRS show that the interim solution will now be in operation for periods between 24 and 48 months, depending on the position in the rollout schedule for each FRS.

With funding from central government, an Interim Solutions Task Force has been formed to work with FiReControl in order to identify suitable enhancements to the basic interim solution for the extended period. The Task Force has already visited many fire and rescue services in England to understand the key enhancements that each FRS requires, augmenting the basic solution to support essential operations. From these visits, a prioritised list of enhancements can be developed for pricing and approval by Communities and Local Government. Once this stage is complete, individual fire and rescue services will be approached to discuss the options and timings for any enhancement. Each bespoke interim solution will be subject to a rigorous testing and assurance process to ensure that it meets operational standards.

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The three countries involved in the project have been segmented into project regions to facilitate the rollout of Firelink, each including a number of fire and rescue services. Each FRS has been allocated its own Firelink delivery team comprising a Regional Delivery Manager and at least one Regional Coordination Manager, who is a seconded FRS officer.  Their responsibilities include:

• Guiding and supporting the fire and rescue services in planning the rollout of Firelink in their services and region
• Identifying and managing risks and issues
• Local project resource planning
• Liasing with the regional Airwave Project Manager
• Within Scotland there is an additional responsibility to the Chair of the Regional Rollout Board, who is a Scottish Executive nominee.

These dedicated individuals are the main points of contact for the fire and rescue services and they have already made themselves known to key representatives in the FRS.

Contact names for each of the regions can be found on the Contact Us page by following the link on the menu bar at the top of this page.

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FRS personnel will be aware that the Police already use TETRA radios.  Studies to date suggest that the TETRA technology poses a similarly low level of risk to health than the use of standard mobile phones. The only effect on the body for which there is any good evidence is the heating effect. Exposure limits have been set by international standards bodies to provide adequate control of known effects. The placing of radios in vehicles (as opposed to wearing handsets) and the lower frequency of use mean that FRS personnel are likely to have significantly lower exposure levels than the Police.

The Firelink system will be installed to comply, as a minimum, with all relevant national and international standards.  Work is in progress to review the information available on TETRA systems, to determine whether the Firelink project needs to commission any FRS-specific investigations.

The Firelink system will also be the subject of an appropriate risk assessment complying with relevant legal requirements.

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The Firelink contract with Airwave is a complete end-to-end service including the provision of preparatory training. Airwave is contracted to provide ‘Train the Trainer’ packages and direct training to the fire and rescue services to prepare users accordingly. The Firelink project team will coordinate and monitor the delivery of the training package. Additional consideration is also being given to the ongoing training needs of FRS personnel. Training materials and aids are being supplied where appropriate and advice and support provided for long term requirements.

During Firelink rollout a review of the training plan will be carried out in each local Fire and Rescue Authority (FRA) area and will be modified to suit the local FRA requirements. The training plan will describe the:

• optimum methods of training
• course content
• quality assurance
• identifies the actual location, time of day and duration for each course*

*taking into account the availability of the users for attending training courses

Airwave, via its appointed training provider will work with Firelink and each region to map out in detail the regional training requirements.  

Phase A Training 

England, excluding London

During Phase A for England, excluding London there is no formal requirement for Control Room User training for the transitional Incident Command and Control System (ICCS) installations.  The rationale for this decision is that during Phase A there is no operational requirement for use of the transitional ICCS operational functionality. It has been recognised that a training need exists for FRS personnel to facilitate the testing and acceptance of the Firelink system during phase 'A'.

Some fire and rescue services may elect to fit their vehicles with single Firelink fit or a dual fit with legacy systems retained during this phase. In this situation individual fire and rescue services may wish to receive the appropriate training courses.

Fire and rescue services may request during Phase A the alteration to any Phase B generic courses, to reflect different ICCS deployed as part of the Firelink system.

Scotland, Wales and London 

There is a provision of training courses in phase 'A' for new, upgrade and replacement ICCS courses for Scotland, Wales and London.

Varied training will be required during this phase for these regions. For new ICCS, upgrade ICCS or ICCS replacement systems the maximum course duration will be eight days. The appropriate course content will be mapped out during training discussions with the respective regions.

Phase B Training

England, excluding London

Training will be on the entire functionality of the Firelink system with the exception of Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs).

Scotland, Wales and London

Similar to England, excluding London the training programme will cover the entire functionality of the Firelink system, with the additional inclusion of MDTs.

Phase C Training 

This phase involves the integration of Firelink into Regional Control Centres in England and the rollout of MDTs with FiReControl application software.

FRS user categories

Outline of Firelink learning units

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The learning units cover all of the users’ core competency training requirements identified from research carried out in the FRS as part of the Training Needs Analysis (TNA). The unit flexibility will allow training to be tailored to each fire and rescue service’s individual requirements.

Airwave overview

Information about the Airwave network as a whole with an introduction to the underlying technology, terminology and key concepts.  

Firelink system functionality

Different modes of communication available to Firelink including: the concepts and operational requirements of Fleetmapping, as well as an overview of health and safety and security topics. 

Radio user

Radio system equipment outline: describing its role, basic functions, and fundamental terms that apply.

Radio Maintenance

Maintenance and replacement requirements of radio equipment following the implementation of the Firelink system. This is not full first line maintenance training.

Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) maintenance

Maintenance and replacement requirements for appliance based MDTs’ hardware.

Control Room radio interface

Appropriate talkgroup selection for making or receiving a radio call with an appliance(s) or specific radio.

Airwave system fallback

Guidance on: the purpose of the back up systems, the implementation of back up procedures, continuation of operational service, the restoration of service to normal, and the testing of back up systems. 

Mobile data user

An outline to the: physical aspects and operational usage of MDTs; construction and elements of the equipment; transmission from the control room and fire appliances; and the receipt of messages, error messages and faults.

Service management use

An outline of the principles of the service management system associated with Firelink, covering: the local terminals used to access the system; the functions of the system; its ability to support the identification, reporting and management of faults; the acquisition of local data; and, the request of performance related data from the Firelink system.

Fleetmap build and management

Plan local requirements of the Airwave system fleetmap and manage the fleetmap according to local and Airwave requirements.

Fault reporting procedures 

Identify faults and proceed through the correct chain of the repair process in order to return the relevant equipment back to full service capability.

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