Supporting Security Services
Supporting security services with wireless mesh networks
- By Angel Quinn
- Aug 07, 2020
Demonstrations, celebrations,
festivals, and major
sporting events - any
large gathering of people
- presents police and security
services with a range of issues relating
to public safety. Increasing the police
presence on the ground is a natural and
highly visual way of increasing the number
of eyes looking out for potential problems.
But modern technology enables public
protectors to cover far more ground far
more efficiently. No large scale, planned
public event would take place now without
enhanced surveillance in the form of
secure and high-definition CCTV.
Owing to their temporary nature, these
kinds of gatherings pose many challenges
for the police, with additional coverage
needing to be set up quickly, securely, and
reliably in locations where existing infrastructure
may be inadequate or simply
non-existent. Rajant Corporation works
alongside blue light and security services
around the globe to provide support for
forces who are dealing with tens or even
hundreds of thousands of visitors by deploying
the wireless infrastructure that
supports secure and stable connectivity.
BUILDING
CRUCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Without having the right wireless infrastructure
in place, public safety organizations
can be presented with limited or
fragmented connectivity between on-theground
personnel, vehicles, and command
centers, creating serious and possibly lifethreatening
gaps in situational awareness.
Building a new but temporary infrastructure
is not easy, and the network
must overcome many complex challenges,
including potentially incompatible equipment,
which can lead to public safety organizations
being unable to receive realtime
data. Also, inadequate bandwidth
can affect the ability to access files such
as on-scene video, aerial imagery, maps,
and images in real-time. Significantly,
many existing public safety networks lack
adequate bandwidth for streaming video
from remote cameras to first responders,
especially while response teams are racing
to an incident.
On-the-move visibility is critical to providing
first responders with a clear picture
of the situation they are about to encounter.
This can be essential to protecting
people and saving lives. It is also critical
when it comes to monitoring large public
events, enabling officers to effectively control
crowds, manage traffic, and supply
more “event eyes” for greater safety.
A ROYAL PROBLEM
In recent years, there have not been
many more high-profile and large-scale
public events than the royal wedding of
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Six
hundred guests were invited to attend the
church, 2,640 members of the public were
invited to watch from the Windsor Castle
grounds, and the local Thames Valley Police
prepared for 100,000 people to line the
two-mile journey the couple would make to
their reception. In that crowd could have
been any of the 160 royal ‘stalkers’ identi-
fied and monitored by a special police unit.
Thames Valley Police needed to provide
extra CCTV coverage of the crowds
as part of the security arrangements being
put into place in the small English village
where the wedding was taking place. This
was especially important given the route for
the post-wedding processions of the royal
couple as this was through the winding
streets of Windsor and up through Windsor
Castle’s Long Walk. Rajant was chosen
to install the wireless infrastructure. In just
under three days, Rajant was able to rapidly
deploy eleven cameras with thirteen
of its BreadCrumb® nodes, providing a
high-speed, robust CTTV network. This
ensured the whole area would be securely
monitored with footage made available at
multiple surveillance points and delivered
in real-time in high definition.
But it was clear that a conventional point-to-point/multipoint
network set-up would not work in the urban environment of Windsor.
Only a true mesh network would provide the resilience and
coverage required, especially at crucial points where network fiber
infrastructure, for the essential additional cameras, was unavailable.
MESH INFRASTRUCTURE DEALS
WITH A MASSIVE DEMAND FOR IMAGES
Unlike traditional mesh, Rajant’s private Kinetic Mesh® networks
offer reliable, intelligent, and secure wireless broadband
connectivity that not only survives but thrives in evolving and
mobility-driven environments. It forms a “living” mesh network
that can move with and adapt to the evolving communication
requirements of public safety organizations. Crucially, Rajant’s
network can seamlessly integrate with existing communications
infrastructure, which was vital when linking together newly installed
and existing CCTV cameras at the royal wedding.
Kinetic Mesh also provides high bandwidth with high throughput
and low latency across networks. This was vital in a situation
where large amounts of video data needed to be delivered fast
and when massive amounts of wireless output from broadcasters,
other security organizations, and the general public could
have prevented transmission of the vital imagery. According to
Thames Valley Police, “The imagery provided over the Rajant
network was several seconds ahead of the television broadcasters
covering the event and met the expectations of our users.”
But size and speed are nothing if the system is not secure.
Rajant BreadCrumbs, fitted to cameras around the royal wedding
location, offered many levels of encryption to protect the
network from devices and people accessing them directly up to
and including the use of B military-grade encryption. Thanks to
Rajant, the delivery of fast, stable and high-definition CCTV was
achieved. Hundreds of thousands of visitors and guests in Windsor,
who wanted to catch a glimpse of the royal couple, were effectively
covered during the wedding - ensuring that the day was
enjoyable, but more importantly, safe for all those involved.
A REAL-LIFE WILDFIRE DEMONSTRATION
The royal wedding was a planned event that, even with the
difficulties the urban environment created, it had a defined route
and ran with clockwork timing. Emergency services can benefit
from a Kinetic Mesh network in much more dynamic settings too.
Back in October 2019, the heat from the sun combined with
winds gusting through the foothills of El Capitán Canyon in California
and sparked a bush fire in the overly dry, desert hills. Word
reached the emergency services and crews from the Santa Barbara
County Fire Department, Cal Fire, the U.S Forest Service, and
other agencies who were immediately dispatched to contain the
blaze before it spread. More than 200 firefighters were dispatched
to fight the fire and reinforce containment lines with helicopters
and drones in the air and bulldozers on the ground.
Nearby, members of Rajant and its technology partner Dejero
were planning to meet with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department
and the Department of Homeland Security to deliver a live
safety demonstration. The proposed solution uses mesh radio communications,
bonded cellular, and satellite technologies to bridge
the communication gap in locations where signals are often dropped
and lost to provide firefighters with the mission-critical connectivity
they seek. Realizing how it could use the equipment brought for the
demonstration to help in a real-life situation, the Rajant and Dejero
team systematically offered support to the fire department, and Rajant
BreadCrumb nodes were mounted to the fire-breaking bulldozers.
These 30-ton dozers, manned by trained firefighters, uprooted
vegetation and eliminated the food needed to fuel the fire.
The firefighters manning the bulldozers were now able to communicate
wirelessly from within the smoke-filled valley. As the
flames and smoke created conditions with minimal visibility, the
firefighters were able to utilize the data from both terrestrial and
aerial sources to guide the dozers through the terrain. Video footage
and data was sent from the bulldozers to the tactical truck
and central command post over cellular and SAT networks. The
SAT comms on the vehicle were powered by Kymeta’s flat-panel
dish technology, enabling true “comms on the move” to best leverage
Rajant Kinetic Mesh. Four days after it started, the fire
was 100% contained. Four hundred twenty acres had burned with
no structures damaged and no reported injuries.
MESH MAKES A DIFFERENCE
Making sure that police, firefighters, and emergency units
can access and send large amounts of data from wherever they
are and in real-time can make a big difference to the security of
planned and unplanned events. A wireless mesh network can support
emergency services by ensuring there are no single points of
failure throughout the network – whether individuals or equipment
are stationary or in motion. In complex
and fast-moving environments, this can thwart
potentially high-risk situations before they
have a chance to develop.
This article originally appeared in the July / August 2020 issue of Security Today.