DELIVERING COMMUNICATIONS FOR FIRST RESPONDERS, LAW ENFORCEMENT AND MILITARY IN CELLULAR DENIED ENVIRONMENTS - TUNNELS

Where would we be without radios? Little did Marconi realise when he sent his first commercial transatlantic transmission from Clifden in Galway to Glace Bay in Nova Scotia, back in October 1907, how dependent the world would become on RF transmission.

Emergency Services, Law Enforcement and Military services depend heavily upon real-time communications and, most of the time, they provide a reliable platform for communications.

But what happens when the responder goes beyond the range of connectivity? When VHF/UHF and cellular connectivity is not available? But “how often would that happen?”, you might ask.

You might be surprised at the answer.

The images here provide unique challenges for traditional RF communications. Imagine military personnel in a crawl tunnel, needing voice comms to their colleagues on the surface; or fire fighters below decks on a ship, battling a fire and needing voice comms with the Incident Commander on the deck or on shore…..maybe they want to transmit live images from thermal imaging cameras; or First Responders deploying to a traffic accident deep in a road tunnel; or Police or surveillance teams following a target into the underground car park of a shopping mall, or hotel.

Traditional radio communications technology can fail in many of these circumstances, which is surprising to many people in this “always connected” world.

This is where ACE6 Technology COFDM & SSBM IP Mesh MANET communications networks step in, to bridge the gap, and ensure the safety of our emergency services, LE and Military personnel, by providing connectivity at and beyond the edge of traditional systems.

The Ace6 mMesh radios systems have multiple waveforms loaded on the FPGA chip, allowing the user to switch at will between ultra-long range and very narrow bandwidth (300KHz) SSBM (Single Side Band Modulation) waveform for audio and data communications at extreme range and penetration, and COFDM wide bandwidth (up to 20MHz) for full data rate real time HD Video streaming and data capacity across the network.

In recent end user trials in transport tunnels in Sydney, Earthquake simulators in the UAE, the deep canyons of California’s San Bernardino Valley, and in a simulated Fire on board a Navy vessel anchored at port, Ace6 IP Mesh exceeded end user expectations.

In the fire simulation exercise, only three IP mesh radios, with 500mW RF output, were needed to provide PTT voice and data comms from the mid-ship fire location to the Control Room and the shore-based Incident Command vehicle.

Using the integrated Wi-Fi access point, the Mesh network allowed Motorola Smart Connect radios to communicate across the private network to the shore-based modem where real network access was available.

In Abu Dhabi, at the UN ISAR Disaster Training facility, we were challenged to attempt voice comms from an enclosed 1.2sq m crawl tunnel. Not only did the PTT Mesh radio succeed in delivering clear audio, but we also delivered live streaming video, using 2.5MHz bandwidth, with only 500mW RF power, in C-band.

In recent end user trials in a road transport tunnel, with intersecting tunnels, and no cellular coverage, the first responders continued to use their cellular based operational apps via the private IP mesh network, exchanging video, images and IP data seamlessly across the network, while also being able to communicate with the cellular network via the IP mesh radio on the Command & Control vehicle, with Ethernet connection to a Cradlepoint modem.