The two-year Priority research program for innovation in the field of critical communications funded by Business Finland -the Finnish government organisation for innovation funding- was launched in August last year. The program focuses on finding answers to various key research questions in the fields of 5G security, Artificial Intelligence (AI), rural area coverage, and quality of service in hybrid networks as well as improving critical communications and situational awareness for public safety users.

Based on a real-life scenario of public safety operations, Airbus’ Tactilon Agnet solution was in the limelight, and was used to present mission-critical collaboration through a deployable 5G network for the very first time, showing the tools’ capability of integrating and delivering video from external sources. The Tactical bubble itself is composed of a mast, a core network, and at least one base station. It can be used in local areas where the network connection is sparse.  

Video data collected by drones was integrated with Tactilon Agnet for the occasion, and delivered to users via the tools’ collaboration capabilities. Thanks to these new innovative features, the users are able to enrich the situational awareness of both first responders in the field, and the commander of the operations in the command and control rooms, in real-time, and with the required level of security and reliability.

In addition to Airbus’ Tactilon Agnet collaboration platform, the demonstration also included the use of Tactilon Dabat hybrid terminals and Viewcor for 4G/5G network monitoring. These key Airbus products fit perfectly into the framework of the companies’ research on enhanced critical communications services, network analytics, and machine learning in the field of public safety, with emphasis on the use of Artifical Intelligence. This includes automated security assistance, crowd anomaly detection, and data analytics.

“New technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of things (IoT) all offer new opportunities to accelerate the technological evolution of critical communications and to meet the new safety and security challenges of societies. It will lead to the improvement of situational awareness during challenging missions, and will improve the efficiency of mission critical operations. Research programs like Priority provide Airbus with an excellent platform to develop new technologies and test them in an environment extremely close to real-life operations.” explains Tapio Savunen, Strategic Marketing Director for Secure Land Communications at Airbus and chairman of the Priority program steering group.“In Finland we have an ongoing next generation critical communications program called Virve 2.0. Once again, the Finnish authorities are trailblazers regarding the use of new technology and Airbus is working hand-in-hand with many Finnish front-line technology companies such as Nokia, Bittium and Netradar in order to develop enhanced public safety solutions.” Savunen adds.

Secure Land Communications (www.securelandcommunications.com)

Secure Land Communications (SLC), an Airbus programme unit, offers advanced communication and collaboration solutions enabling its customers to gather, process, and deploy intelligence. Its portfolio is tailored to the needs of professionals from Public Safety and Transport, Utility and Industry (TUI). It includes infrastructures, devices, applications and services based on Tetra, Tetrapol and Broadband technologies. As the European leader and a key international player, SLC has customers in more than 80 countries and employs around 1,185 people in 16 countries.