Law Enforcement Software
Law Enforcement Software
The Crimestar MDC workstation is designed to communicate with the MDC Controller over RF using either a dedicated Radio Modems operated by the law enforcement agency or via commercial carrier systems such as GPRS. These services provide the user with an IP connection to either the Internet or a VPN (Virtual Private Network). These commercial services are typically provided by cellular phone carriers for a monthly fee. Similar to Cellular telephone service, fees vary widely from carrier to carrier. Some companies offer discounted pricing to government entities or in conjunction with annual contracts etc. While this type of commercial service is constantly expanding it is not available in all areas. You should consult with your local carrier to determine if this type of service is available to you and the fees charged for the service. Additionally private IP based radio systems can be purchased from various suppliers.
By running the MDC controller on a machine that is connected to or exposed to either the Internet or your VPN (For security reasons a VPN is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) with a fixed IP address, each MDC workstation can connect to and communicate with the controller via either the TCP or UDP protocol. When running in TCP mode a persistent connection is established between the MDC controller and its workstations. While this technology is highly reliable using fixed desktop machines with dedicated connections, use of this communication protocol can be problematic in mobile environment. Since (like cellular telephones) signals can drop when an MDC unit moves into a "dead-spot", the MDC software has error detection capabilities that will sense TCP disconnects and automatically attempt to reconnect when a sufficient signal is again present.
Configuring the Crimestar Mobile Digital Communicator to communicate over your chosen infrastructure requires the system to be configured properly. The configuration settings that control how the MDC software behaves are located in the Crimestar.INI file.