NTS and Partners Demonstrate Cutting Edge Emergency Management Communications System

NTS, Persistent Systems, Klas Government, and Tampa Microwave recently worked with the Air National Guard (ANG) to show how the All-Domain Network (ADN) can rapidly integrate disparate communications systems in an emergency situation.

The simulation centered around an ANG response to a hypothetical flooding event caused by a hurricane. It was understood that this event had caused various communications systems to fail, placing the ANG in need of some means by which they could communicate with various local, state, and federal emergency responders in the disaster (and surrounding) area. These communications would need to function seamlessly between those in the air and on the ground.

A local Joint National Guard Base served as the Emergency Management Division (EMD), which is where radio traffic and video feeds would be monitored in order to assess conditions on the ground in real-time. A Tactical Radio Integration Kit (TRIK) from Klas Government was equipped with an ATAK server and deployed at the EMD.

About the TRIK

The TRIK offers the benefits of transmission-agnostic connectivity for the entire communications system, while being contained in small form factor, making it ideal for deployments in emergency situations.

The TRIK was able to be provisioned in less than 4.5 minutes time. This was accomplished through the use of NTS MANTLE, which provides for rapid, automated deployments. NTS MANTLE provides a “single pane of glass” to automate and orchestrate the configuration of ADN devices. Users can deploy and maintain sophisticated kits with a simple point-and-click user interface.

Within mere minutes of being powered on, the TRIK was then able to dynamically switch between Tampa Microwave’s SATCOM terminal, cellular, and Wi-Fi connections without user intervention.

The TRIK then received communications and data simultaneously from four sources. Two of these were ground vehicles equipped with dismountable cameras and MPU5 smart radios, one was a Cessna aircraft provided by the Civil Air Patrol, and the last was a UH60 Blackhawk helicopter provided by the ARNG.

Flexibility is a key feature of the system, as it can be tailored to the specific needs of the client. It is able to work autonomously in areas where no local network connectivity is available. At the same time, it can also be used to temporarily augment existing private cellular infrastructure.

The core elements of the system are deep interconnectivity between the system’s Infrastructure, Platform Kits, and Dismount Kits, and a highly efficient method of routing data, which combine to make extremely efficient use of the system’s resources.

The ADN system is applicable to a broad range of use cases. In any situation where disparate forms of communication could be brought together, ADN can create a cohesive communications infrastructure. Examples of potential use cases may include; Homeland Security, Interagency Interoperability, Humanitarian and Disaster Relief (HADR) Operations, Multi-National Combined Force Operations, Major Event Support, Large-Scale Transportation of Supplies, etc.

About NTS MANTLE

NTS MANTLE is a suite of tools that leverages modern cloud-native technologies to deploy infrastructure components and software services to the Warfighter. It extends the power of the organization’s CORE services to the outer layer or deployed EDGE.

It makes infrastructure deployment a rapid, repeatable process. It drastically reduces the resources needed to deploy, eliminates configuration inconsistencies on any hardware platform, and does so without compromising the system’s capabilities. MANTLE automatically provisions infrastructure components, deploys modern workloads, and verifies the integrity of the configuration. Finally, it safely shuts down and prepares for deployment.

NTS MANTLE makes your IT infrastructure deployment faster, safer, and smarter.

To learn more about how NTS MANTLE can help your organization deploy faster and work smarter, contact us today at sales@nextechsol.com or call 904.458.7658