Secure Networks for First Responders and Special Forces

About this technology

Overview

In early 2000, Glenn Research Center asked Western DataCom Co., Inc., to develop an IP router so that NASA could better secure its communications with orbiting satellites. This was part of NASA's IP in Space" initiative which looked to employ commercial off-the-shelf products to support reliable fast and secure communications. The company signed a Space Act Agreement with Glenn and delivered a prototype device that met the requirements set by the NASA research center. In 2004 a commercial secure mobile router system that was spun off from this work was successfully used by the Army for an AeroStat (balloon)-based radar called the Persistent Threat Detection System in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The system permits military technical operations centers (TOCs) in Iraq to send secure high-speed voice video and data communications to the field through mobile units tactically deployed. This was the first use during war of technology enabling TOCs and mobile units to send secure voice video and data communications according to Western DataCom. First responders from Cook County Illinois; the New York Port Authority; and the New Jersey Port Authority are currently utilizing the technology in preparation for natural or man-made disasters."