NEMA to Develop Standard for Homeland Security Systems

July 31, 2006

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) began to develop a standard for homeland security systems that would help protect U.S. ports and borders and eventually help shape a market for scanning, detection and security-related products.

NEMA is creating a new standards development committee to tie together a number of technologies that NEMA member companies already make, including equipment for scanning, physical access control and intrusion and explosives detection.

While the component technologies already exist, a standard that allows devices from different manufacturers to communicate with one another does not. According to NEMA, providing a common language and a means of transmitting it to other locations is vital to U.S. national security interests.

NEMA will use the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standard developed for medical imaging equipment manufacturers as a model for the new security standard. DICOM has a number of virtues that would benefit a homeland security standard:

• It is an open source system that can be used in Windows and Linux environments and conforms to interconnection standards set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
• It enables network and component integration when sending and receiving digital images and related information.
• It covers most image formats.

According to NEMA, using DICOM as a model in developing a homeland security systems communications standard will save time and minimize start-up costs.

"NEMA has asked the Department of Homeland Security to lend its support to this project, and we expect that it will be forthcoming," said NEMA President Evan Gaddis. "In the meantime, it is imperative to move forward. Our experience with the DICOM standard shows that if we can occupy the space first, the world will follow."

Source: National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA).