Dublin Fire Brigade CCS Partner Connector Framework

Overview#

A fire brigade and emergency communications centre should be able to connect Argus to its entire Command and Control System (CCS) partner ecosystem through one consistent adapter contract, not twelve bespoke point integrations each with its own quirks. The Dublin Fire Brigade CCS Partner Connector Framework gives integration teams a single, uniform way to exchange messages with the Dublin Fire Brigade CCS and its external partner systems, with a built-in simulator so every code path and conformance fixture can be exercised before any live partner certification or commercial licence is in place.

Each partner system is modelled as an adapter that runs in one of three explicit modes: live, simulator, or disabled. Simulator mode lets integration engineers and third-party system integrators rehearse send and receive flows against realistic payloads and assert against versioned conformance fixtures, dramatically reducing onboarding time and partner certification risk. Live mode is gated by a strict-mode guard, so a connector refuses to dispatch unless its endpoint, credential, and any required commercial licence are configured. The result is a predictable, auditable path from first integration test to certified live operation across the whole partner ecosystem.

Key Features#

• Uniform Adapter Contract: Every partner system is reached through the same live, simulator, and disabled adapter shape, so an operator learns one integration pattern and applies it to all twelve connectors rather than maintaining twelve separate point integrations.

• Simulator Mode by Default: Connectors default to simulator mode, allowing integration teams to exercise send and receive flows and the full conformance fixture set against realistic payloads before any live endpoint, credential, or licence exists.

• Strict Live-Mode Gate: A live connector refuses to dispatch unless its endpoint, credential, and any required commercial licence are all configured, preventing accidental or partially configured live operation against a real partner.

• Commercial Licensing Guard: The MPDS/AMPDS connector enforces explicit commercial licensing, blocking unlicensed live use of proprietary medical priority dispatch protocols while still permitting unlicensed simulator exploration for evaluation.

• Conformance Fixture Runner: Each connector ships a fixture runner that replays declared send and receive message-type fixtures, records per-connector standards assertions, and reports the last conformance run date and evidence scope.

• Health and Licensing Status: A health view reports each connector's mode, operational status, endpoint and credential configuration, licensing state, declared standards, and the date of the most recent conformance run, giving operators an at-a-glance readiness picture.

• Active/Active PSAP Continuity: The buddy-PSAP connector provides a programmatic failover handoff so a partner centre can accept incident continuity when a primary CAD degrades, keeping emergency operations from going dark during a degradation event.

• Versioned Conformance Fixture Set: Fixtures are declared in a single versioned fixture set that records the fixture schema, fixture set identifier, last conformance run date, evidence scope, and per-connector standards, send and receive fixtures, and licensing requirements.

Use Cases#

Fire Brigade Command and Control Centres#

A brigade connects Argus to its CCS and immediately gains a consistent way to exchange incident, unit, and status messages with every partner in its ecosystem. Watch-room and integration staff work from one adapter model, one health view, and one conformance report rather than reconciling the behaviour of a dozen unrelated interfaces.

Emergency Communications Centre Operators#

An emergency communications centre integrates call-answering handoff, ambulance exchange, hospital pre-alert routing, radio control, and major-alert coordination through a single framework. The buddy-PSAP connector lets the centre arrange active/active continuity with a partner site so incident handling persists through a primary CAD degradation.

Third-Party System Integrators#

A systems integrator delivering a partner connection rehearses the entire send and receive path in simulator mode, validates against the declared conformance fixtures, and demonstrates readiness to the brigade before a single live endpoint is provisioned. This shortens onboarding and de-risks the eventual live certification.

Clinical and Hospital Exchange Teams#

Clinical exchange teams test FHIR R5 Bundle and HL7 v2 ADT/ORU bridge flows for HSE exchange and hospital pre-alert routing against fixtures first, confirming structure and acknowledgement handling before connecting to a live clinical endpoint.

The Twelve Partner Systems#

• ECAS - 112/999 emergency call answering handoff into the CCS, carrying call handoff metadata and disposition updates.
• NAS - National Ambulance Service operational exchange with electronic patient care record status push and mutual-aid ambulance events.
• NMACS - national major alert coordination, with situation-report-inspired major incident notices and resource offers.
• MAIT - Major Accident Investigation Team scene-preservation and evidence handoff notifications.
• MPDS/AMPDS - medical priority dispatch determinant exchange with an explicit commercial licensing guard.
• ECAD - CAD-to-CAD incident and unit-status exchange with external command and dispatch systems.
• HSE FHIR/HL7 - HSE clinical exchange using FHIR R5 Bundle and an HL7 v2 ADT/ORU bridge profile.
• Hospital Pre-Alert - patient tracking and pre-alert routing inspired by emergency patient tracking, with a FHIR payload.
• TETRA/ICCS - radio control through TETRA Short Data Service status projection and an ICCS radio gateway.
• eCall/NG-eCall - EU vehicular emergency call handling using the minimum set of data.
• CFR Alerting - Community First Responder proximity alerting with responder acknowledgement.
• Buddy PSAP - active/active PSAP continuity failover handoff and acknowledgement.

Integration#

• REST Connector Endpoints: Every connector is reached through REST endpoints under /api/v1/dfb/connectors/, with a health route, a send route, a receive route, and a conformance route per connector, so a customer plugs in over plain HTTP and benefits from one consistent route shape across all twelve systems.

• Permission-Scoped Access: Reads require the psap:read permission and writes require psap:write, so connector operations inherit the platform's role-based access model and stay scoped to authorised emergency-services operators.

• Normalised Message Model: Send and receive operations carry a structured payload and return a normalised result with connector name, mode, success flag, message identifier, last conformance run date, payload, and health, giving customer systems one predictable response shape to parse regardless of which partner is being reached.

• OAuth2 and JWT Authentication: Access is authenticated through the platform's bearer-token model, and live partner endpoints are reached using per-connector endpoint and credential configuration, so an authority connects its existing partner endpoints without writing custom transport code.

• Webhook-Style Receive Path: Each connector exposes a receive route that accepts inbound partner messages in the same normalised envelope as outbound sends, so partner-originated events flow into the platform through a consistent inbound contract.

• Conformance and Health Reporting: The conformance route replays declared fixtures and returns standards assertions and run metadata, while the health route reports mode, operational status, configuration, and licensing state, giving integrators machine-readable readiness evidence they can wire into their own dashboards.

Open Standards#

• FHIR R5 Bundle (HL7 FHIR Release 5): The HSE clinical exchange and hospital pre-alert connectors carry a FHIR R5 Bundle transaction payload, so clinical data interoperates with any FHIR R5 compliant endpoint.

• HL7 v2 ADT/ORU (HL7 Version 2 messaging): The HSE exchange connector includes an HL7 v2 ADT/ORU bridge profile with acknowledgement handling, supporting hospitals and clinical systems that exchange admission, discharge, transfer, and results messages over HL7 v2.

• EDXL-SitRep (Emergency Data Exchange Language, Situation Reporting): The NMACS major-alert coordination connector uses a situation-report-inspired summary structure for major incident notices, aligning national coordination messaging with the EDXL situation reporting model.

• EDXL-TEP (Emergency Data Exchange Language, Tracking Emergency Patients): The hospital pre-alert routing connector follows an emergency-patient-tracking-inspired model so patient pre-alert and tracking information aligns with the EDXL tracking exchange.

• TETRA SDS (ETSI EN 300 392 Short Data Service): The TETRA/ICCS connector projects unit status as TETRA Short Data Service messages, interoperating with radio control infrastructure built on the ETSI TETRA standard.

• eCall MSD (EU Regulation 2015/758 and EN 15722 minimum set of data): The eCall/NG-eCall connector exchanges the standardised minimum set of data for vehicular emergency calls, aligning with the EU eCall regulation and its data format.

• 112/999 Call Handoff Metadata (ECAS national call answering profile): The ECAS connector carries the 112/999 call answering handoff metadata used by the national call answering service when passing emergency calls into the CCS.

Security & Compliance#

Every connector operation is authenticated and authorised, with reads requiring psap:read and writes requiring psap:write, so only cleared emergency-services operators can drive partner exchanges. Connectors default to simulator mode, and the strict live-mode gate refuses to dispatch unless the endpoint, credential, and any required commercial licence are all present, so an unconfigured or partially configured connection cannot reach a live partner by accident. The MPDS/AMPDS licensing guard blocks unlicensed live use of proprietary medical priority dispatch protocols while still allowing unlicensed simulator evaluation, keeping the platform on the right side of commercial licensing terms. Simulator acknowledgements are clearly marked as not constituting live partner certification, and the conformance fixture set records its evidence scope, fixture version, and last conformance run date so readiness claims remain honest and auditable.

Last Reviewed: 2026-05-26 Last Updated: 2026-05-26