Recovery And Restoration Is A Work In Progress
Long Island, New York-based Globecomm Systems Inc. is looking at a number of applications and has contracts for business restoral services with a restoral company called Agility Recovery Solutions using VSAT flyaway terminals and vans equipped with workstations and phones, fixed overlay satellite networks to back up existing terrestrial service, and mobile first responder vans equipped with communications and videoconferencing by satellite.
"I think that this business is still in its first stages. Budgets and requirements definition have been slow in getting started," says David E. Hershberg, CEO of Globecomm Systems. "I think that people in general have a lack of knowledge of what can be done and misconceptions about problems with satellite delay that need to be addressed. While some agencies such as FEMA are very much committed to satcom, most are just getting involved. We have a pilot program we have been working on with the government for almost a year that has yet to get full funding."
"We can restore services using patented IP technology very quickly. This involves having a very flexible system that will meet a number of customers unique operational and routing requirements," he adds.
According to Ken Miller, president of Globecomm Systems, emergency managers and first responders usually have narrow-band communications like VHF radios and cell phones, but usually do not have satellite communications facilities because of the cost and complexity of operation.
"In general, the use of satellite technology is minimal compared to the potential for using this technology to improve communications during emergencies. We are working to raise awareness of the benefits of satellite technology for these applications," says Miller. "Emergency management, disaster recovery and business continuity solutions represent a good niche for satellite communications."
Much More Than Real Time Communications And Imagery
According to Egan, while the military has the resources to control satellite targeting and specialists to interpret the data, emergency management organizations often function in cash-strapped states that seldom have access to high-resolution imagery nor have the remote sensing specialists necessary to interpret the data.
"We have had to train our own remote sensing specialists and equally important, we're training our management staff on what geo-spatial data is available to them and how to use it," says Egan. "My wish list is for high-resolution imagery like that taken by the Ikonos satellite and for real-time data downlinks. Geo-spatial data, if available real-time, could assist incident commanders and emergency managers whose job it is to get that data in the hands of those responders so that they can quickly and efficiently deal with an event. However, less-than-real-time data (like we are using) is also valuable to mitigation specialists who take action to lessen the effects of a disaster."
NASA is currently funding a WEMD grant proposal entitled Strategic and Practical Use of Remotely Sensed data in Emergency Management (SPURS-EM), which has as its goal the provision of additional, more current, remotely sensed information to support hazards analyses risk assessments that will be displayed on the Washington All-hazards Warning and Risk Estimation (AWARE Washington) Web site.
"Without the grant from NASA, the WEMD would not have a geo-spatial capability," says Egan. "However, because airborne systems are relatively inexpensive, very responsive, and programmable, I think they will remain as the primary platform of choice for years to come. For example, we can fly a Civil Air Patrol aircraft equipped with airborne sensors for about $60 an hour. The USGS recently flew an unmanned airborne vehicle (UAV) into the Mount St. Helens crater to confirm what the mountain was doing. I see the use of UAVs as an increasing trend that complements the use of satellite and terrestrial sensor systems."
"I anticipate that as the use of satellite imagery becomes more common, the federal government will do even more to share this technology with state and local end users," Egan adds. "I think one area of emergency management that will become a user of geo-spatial data is in homeland security, particularly in critical infrastructure identification, mapping and protection."
According to Dr. Suminao Murakami, professor at the Advanced Research Institute for Science and Engineering at Waseda University in Tokyo and a member of the Laboratory of Urban Safety Planning, local and regional emergency personnel in Japan had enough satellite equipment close at hand so that they could maintain communications and respond quickly to the recent earthquake in Niigata Prefecture. He agrees, however, that more satellite equipment is needed with an emphasis on the rapid sharing of GPS and GIS data with local and regional emergency personnel. Complicating the situation in Japan, according to Murakami, is the absence of a single uniform GIS database in all regions of Japan, and a lack of standardization which prevents rapid updating of the GIS database.
While the satellite industry is stepping up and addressing these concerns, the demand for additional satellite industry participation in key decision-making groups shows no sign of abating. Take for example the work being done on the Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) by the Emergency Interoperability Consortium (EIC) and others. EDXL is a proposed Extensible Markup Language standard specific to the emergency management and response community. This is evolving as part of the Department of Homeland Security's disaster management e-government program.
"We would love to have a satellite player in EIC, but none has come forward so far. I hope they do, as many emergency agencies are looking to satellite systems for redundancy, and the common alerting protocol this group got adopted as a standard is all about public warning, and there are few technologies better suited to fast, broad distribution of alerts and associated data than satellites," says David Aylward, director of the Washington, DC-based The ComCARE Alliance which is a member of the EIC.
Brown at iDirect has other concerns, including the fact that the public sector is mostly exposed to satellite technology through either satellite TV or satellite radio.
"We need to raise awareness in the industry and general public that satellite technology is much more advanced than the current prevailing perceptions. This is not your father's satellite any longer. The perception is in line with technology as it stood about five years ago. We have come a long way in just the past two years and our new generation of products will launch us even farther ahead with capabilities surpassing a T1 terrestrial connection," says Brown. "The satellite industry in general needs to think of themselves as being part of hybrid networking solutions instead of just 'satellite connectivity.' Providing wireless connectivity may be WiFi, WiMax (or Wi 'X' as we call it), satellite services, or part of a blending of terrestrial and all of the above. Nonetheless, we need to think of ourselves as fitting into a network operator's hybrid offering if we are to be fully adopted into more and more networks."
Peter J. Brown is Via Satellite's Senior Multimedia & Homeland Security Editor. He also volunteers as a satellite technology and communications advisor to the Maine Emergency Management Agency.
Email
Comments
Print
Reuse
