[Avionics Today 10-08-2014] The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate has awarded Elbit Systems of America a contract to deliver a technology demonstration for a mission critical secure broadband services solution for first responders and public safety users.
This demonstration will include WideBridge, a solution that integrates mission-critical capabilities with Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS)-certified BlackBerry BES10 secure workspace and Etherstack’s P.25 networks interoperability proven capabilities. The solution was developed at Elbit Systems Land and C4I for federal, state and local public safety agencies nationwide.
DHS intends to use this solution to test the access of secure multimedia services for public safety users through the LTE broadband network. WideBridge system tests began last month at the Public Safety Communications Research Lab in Boulder, Colo., and will be followed by field-testing of the system in early 2015.
According to Elbit, WideBridge enables any-to-any secure, interoperable, multimedia services with connectivity between various commercial broadband cellular networks, FirstNet LTE Band 14 and the existing P.25 Land Mobile Radio (LMR) infrastructure. Services supported by the solution include Push-to-Talk (PTT), Push-to-View (PTV), voice and video conferencing, video streaming from agents and video sensors in the network, map-activated multimedia services, situational awareness information dissemination (command & control), P.25 interoperability and an off-network broadband connectivity mode using self-forming ad-hoc mesh network for local mission teams.