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Maharashtra police will use an advanced wireless technology to monitor the ground situation during the coming parliamentary elections.
The State Police Chief will use Radio over Internet Protocol (RoIP) to interact directly with officers on the field.
RoIP, a two-way radio communications technology, can connect across other frequencies unlike the present communication systems that work on a single frequency. At present, though the police force has seven wireless ranges, intercommunication between them is not possible.
“RoIP facilitates supervisory intervention by the State Police Chief in real time. It’s like the Big Brother watching, listening and, in a crisis, instruct what to do,” said Akshay Mishra, Chief Technology Officer at DSP Works, which is providing the technology solution to the State police.
During the 2011 Mumbai bomb blasts, the Chief Minister and senior police officers could not communicate over the jammed telephone networks, because of the excess load on them. This prompted the State police to look for alternatives.
“The answer was RoIP, which does not require heavy investments,” Mishra said, adding this technology is usually used by ham radio operators.
Given the ROIP reach, the police chief need not use mobile or landline phones to talk to his men. In a crisis situation, even the Chief Minister or other Ministers can intervene directly and take control of the situation through ROIP.
The State Police already has a virtual private network (VPN), which connects a private network to the secured public network. This VPN interlinks all district police headquarters with the DGP’s office.
The RoIP will ride on this existing VPN, which would use a multi-protocol label switching mechanism (a high performance and secure telecommunications network).
According to Mishra, RoIP provides control as it is not dependent on the regular wireline phones, mobiles and Internet phones for carrying out communication.
A senior police officer in the wireless wing of the Mumbai Police said the technology was in the testing phase during August-December 2013. It went live this year, following approvals from State Home Minister RR Patil and other senior officers.
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