Systems help keep countries secure

At the recent Border Control Africa conference in South Africa, Ericsson demonstrated how broadband allows efficient, robust and secure communications built on both public and government networks for national security and border control staff.

Philip Strydom, key account manager with Ericsson, says: "Broadband ensures the kind of quick download time that we need for integrating features such as streaming video, or providing text and biometric information to agencies as varied as police, military and immigration."

Representatives at the Johannesburg conference were particularly interested in Ericsson's Government Home Network (GHN). It provides wireless broadband data and voice communications with outstanding cost efficiency and deployment time, enabling rich information to be shared among various agencies.

Strydom says senior military officers and emergency personnel showed interest in how GHN enhanced and enabled access to Ericsson's Border and Area Control solution, as well as Ericsson's CoordCom - an emergency center solution.

"Ericsson's concept involves using GHN, which all agencies can use, to integrate different kinds of data, such as text or video, in a coordinated and effective way," he says.

CoordCom, which was also featured at the conference, helps coordinate the chain of emergency activities - from taking and identifying an emergency call, to dispatching police, fire or ambulance teams to the emergency site.

Björn Krantz, business manager, National Security & Public Safety at Ericsson, who attended a similar conference in Slovakia, says: "We are trying to create awareness of Ericsson's capability to meet security and public safety needs for improved operational capability and efficiency.

"Ericsson's unique value is that it designs, delivers and integrates solutions for specific regional and national environments and realities - we bring it all together."

CoordCom and GHN can be integrated into any existing communication infrastructure.

GHN takes advantage of existing coverage and established public network operators' infrastructure, as well as utilizing any private networks the customer may own.

It provides multi-network redundancy and nationwide roaming, using existing roaming agreements with multiple network operators, and providing overlapping services in the targeted area. This combination ensures outstanding service using the existing commercial forces in the marketplace, such as leading broadband capability.

Strydom says: "Governments can use existing commercial networks for secure links with which they can ensure reach throughout the country, or they can build on base stations to achieve total coverage - but that's very expensive - or they can combine the two, which is what most governments decide to do."

In a typical case, a government worker makes a call that starts with the commercial network. Using SIM card identification, the worker is recognized and given access to the government core network, and is then able to access whatever data is required.