Dynamically integrating disparate computer-aided dispatch systems
View Patent ↗Systems and methods for dynamically integrating disparate computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems are disclosed. The systems and methods provide bi-directional interoperability between disparate CAD systems and maintain stateful ongoing interactions between interconnected CAD systems. Information objects in one CAD system are associated and bound to related objects in other CAD systems through a centralized information hub that transforms data items intelligently to facilitate communication and interaction between the CAD systems connected to the hub. The described systems and methods maintain complete and current perspectives of all relevant information for each CAD system connected to the information hub, thereby eliminating the need for point-to-point intelligence maintained by the CAD systems about the other interconnected CAD systems. As information updates are passed from CAD systems to the information hub and back out to other CAD systems, the information hub transforms and evaluates the information updates ensuring that only necessary information updates are forwarded.
1. A method for dynamically integrating disparate computer-aided dispatch systems to provide clustering and interoperability between the disparate computer-aided dispatch systems, the method comprising:
providing a common exchange information hub;
communicatively connecting a plurality of computer-aided dispatch systems to the hub;
deriving common data elements at the hub representing shared data aspects between the plurality of computer-aided dispatch systems, the shared data aspects comprising:
a public-safety resource capable of being assigned from one computer-aided dispatch system to another computer-aided dispatch system; and
data relating to a public safety situation of interest to more than one computer-aided dispatch system;
mapping data elements of each connected computer-aided dispatch system to the common data element of the hub; and
facilitating communication between the computer-aided dispatch systems through the hub by transforming information from a first computer-aided dispatch system into a format understood at a second computer-aided dispatch system using the mapping of the common data elements, comprising:
utilizing mapping of the data elements of the first computer-aided dispatch system to transform the information from the first computer-aided dispatch system into a common format utilized by the hub; and
utilizing mapping of the data elements of the second computer-aided dispatch system to transform the information from the common format utilized by the hub into the format understood at the second computer-aided dispatch system.
2. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the information that is transformed comprises a message between the first and second computer-aided dispatch systems.
3. A method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
updating information at the second computer-aided dispatch system; and
sending the updated information from the second computer-aided dispatch system to the first computer-aided dispatch system, comprising transforming the updated information from the second computer-aided dispatch system into a format understood at the first computer-aided dispatch system using the mapping of the common data elements.
4. A method as recited in claim 3 , wherein transforming the updated information comprises:
utilizing mapping of the data elements of the second computer-aided dispatch system to transform the updated information from the second computer-aided dispatch system into a common format utilized by the hub; and
utilizing mapping of the data elements of the first computer-aided dispatch system to transform the updated information from the common format utilized by the hub into the format understood at the first computer-aided dispatch system.
5. A method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
updating information at the second computer-aided dispatch system;
sending the updated information from the second computer-aided dispatch system to the hub; and
determining whether the updated information needs to be forwarded to the first computer-aided dispatch system.
6. A method as recited in claim 5 , wherein determining whether the updated information needs to be forwarded to the first computer-aided dispatch system comprises utilizing mapping of the data elements of the second computer-aided dispatch system and mapping of the data elements of the first computer-aided dispatch system to determine whether updating information at the second computer-aided dispatch system requires updating information at the first computer-aided dispatch system.
7. A method as recited in claim 6 , further comprising sending the updated information to the first computer-aided dispatch system in a format understood by the first computer-aided dispatch system when it is determined that updating information at the first computer-aided dispatch system is required.
8. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the information comprises a nature code of a computer-aided dispatch call.
9. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the information comprises a representation of a resource object owned by one of the first computer-aided dispatch system and the second computer-aided dispatch system.
10. A method as recited in claim 9 , wherein the representation of the resource object is statically bound between the first computer-aided dispatch system and the second computer-aided dispatch system.
11. A method as recited in claim 9 , wherein the representation of the resource object is dynamically bound after one of the first computer-aided dispatch system and the second computer-aided dispatch system dispatches a resource object corresponding to the representation and the other of the first computer-aided dispatch system and the second computer-aided dispatch system assigns a specific resource to the dispatched resource object.
12. A method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the information comprises a computer-aided dispatch call, the method further comprising persisting the computer-aided dispatch call at the hub until all computer-aided dispatch systems receiving the computer-aided dispatch call have closed the computer-aided dispatch call.
13. A method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising synchronizing updates of the information between interested computer-aided dispatch systems, wherein each updated so synchronized is provided to the interested computer-aided dispatch systems in formats understood by the interested computer-aided dispatch systems.
14. A method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising resolving a disconnect of one of the computer-aided dispatch systems and selectively synchronizing updated information with the disconnected computer-aided dispatch system.
15. A system for integrating disparate computer-aided dispatch systems to provide clustering and interoperability between the disparate computer-aided dispatch systems, the system comprising:
a central hub;
a plurality of disparate computer-aided dispatch systems communicatively connected to the central hub; and
a plurality of intelligent data connections each configured to transform information between one of the computer-aided dispatch systems and the hub and between the hub and the computer-aided dispatch system, the plurality of intelligent data connections transforming information between formats used by the disparate computer-aided dispatch systems and a common format used by the hub, the common format comprising aspects relating to:
a public-safety resource capable of being assigned from one computer-aided dispatch system to another computer-aided dispatch system; and
data relating to a public safety situation of interest to more than one computer-aided dispatch system;
mapping data elements of each connected computer-aided dispatch system to the common data element of the hub; and
facilitating communication between the computer-aided dispatch systems through the hub by transforming information from a first computer-aided dispatch system into a format understand at a second computer-aided dispatch system using the mapping of the common data elements;
wherein the plurality of intelligent data connections transform information between formats by:
utilizing mapping of data elements of a first computer-aided dispatch system to transform the information from the first computer-aided dispatch system into a common format utilized by the hub; and
utilizing mapping of data elements of a second computer-aided dispatch system to transform the information from the common format utilized by the hub into a format understood at the second computer-aided dispatch system.
16. A system as recited in claim 15 , further comprising an adaptive interface environment configured to present the central hub with a consistent functional computer-aided-dispatch-to-computer-aided-dispatch interface, comprising an adapter and translator for compensating for deficiencies in interfaces of one of the computer-aided dispatch systems.
17. A system as recited in claim 15 , further comprising information persisted and shared across multiple computer-aided dispatch systems and the hub, wherein updates of the information made at one of the multiple computer-aided dispatch systems is shared with the hub and with the other computer-aided dispatch systems of the multiple computer-aided dispatch systems.
18. A method for dynamically integrating disparate computer-aided dispatch systems to provide clustering and interoperability between the disparate computer-aided dispatch systems, the method comprising:
providing a common exchange information hub;
communicatively connecting a plurality of computer-aided dispatch systems to the hub; and
facilitating communication between the computer-aided dispatch systems through the hub by transforming information from a first computer-aided dispatch system into a format understood at a second computer-aided dispatch system, whereby information to be shared and updated between the first computer-aided dispatch system and the second computer-aided dispatch system is forwarded to the hub by the first computer-aided dispatch system and is transformed by the hub so as to be understood by a second computer-aided dispatch system, using data aspects comprising:
a public-safety resource capable of being assigned from one computer-aided dispatch system to another computer-aided dispatch system; and
data relating to a public safety situation of interest to more than one computer-aided dispatch system;
wherein the information to be shared and updated between the first computer-aided dispatch system and the second computer-aided dispatch system is transformed by:
utilizing mapping of the data aspects of the first computer-aided dispatch system to transform the information from the first computer-aided dispatch system into a common format utilized by the hub; and
utilizing mapping of the data aspects of the second computer-aided dispatch system to transform the information from the common format utilized by the hub into the format understood at the second computer-aided dispatch system.
19. A method as recited in claim 18 , wherein the information is one of a representation of a resource object owned by one of the first computer-aided dispatch system and the second computer-aided dispatch system and a status update of the resource object.
20. A method as recited in claim 19 , wherein the representation of the resource object is bound between the first computer-aided dispatch system and the second computer-aided dispatch system in a manner selected from the group of:
statically bound between the first computer-aided dispatch system and the second computer-aided dispatch system; and
dynamically bound after one of the first computer-aided dispatch system and the second computer-aided dispatch system dispatches a resource object corresponding to the representation and the other of the first computer-aided dispatch system and the second computer-aided dispatch system assigns a specific resource to the dispatched resource object.