Inside the
Disaster
Zone

Meeting the challenges of emergency response with force-multiplying technologies

Government's
Finest Hour

When disaster strikes, citizens look to federal, state and local emergency responders to return their lives and communities to normalcy. Government can’t do it alone. Real-time situational awareness, connectivity and secure mobile communications provide force-multiplying support that helps save lives, reduce damage to both property and infrastructure and restore normalcy to communities as quickly as possible.

More than ever, public safety depends on interoperability. Safety for all of us means working together. When emergency strikes, maintaining connections is key. Emergency responders, law enforcement and relief workers need to communicate seamlessly, regardless of what network they're on. That's interoperability.

Here’s what that looks like in action.

Explore the Key Disaster Response Capabilities>

Situational Awareness

When you’re part of the team that runs to a crisis, without situational awareness, you’re running blind. In the aftermath of a disaster, first responders need infrastructure and technology that identifies potential resources on the scene – their location, technology capabilities and personnel credentials. This includes fire and rescue, law enforcement, medical personnel and recovery teams. Those responding to a crisis can even include private citizens with their smartphones and a boat or vehicle.

Sometimes referred to as STRIPE – Space, Time, Role, Identity and Persona Environment - effective situational awareness recognizes environments change over time and emergency responders need the flexibility to rapidly redefine roles and personnel.

  • Managing the response

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  • Intelligent infrastructure

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  • Deploying Internet of Things (IoT)

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  • Tracking assets

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  • Connectivity

    Communications is a fundamental priority in any disaster response plan. First responders rely on 4G LTE networks for mission-critical data, because 4G LTE is the most widely used and interoperable solution for voice communications.

    History has shown that 4G LTE networks provide reliable and resilient communication paths during a disaster. 4G LTE is backed by technologies that can rapidly extend connectivity, even in the worst-hit areas.

  • Emergency response teams

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  • Mobile connectivity

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  • Portable network in a box

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  • Real disasters, real use cases

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  • Safety for all of us means working together.

    Mobility

    Mobility is the basic building block of modern communications, and a huge part of first responder and support agency capabilities. Mobility enables situational awareness, field coordination and communications. Capturing real-time events, streaming video or data and deploying resources based on informed communications helps save lives.

  • Internet of Things (IoT) and Sensors

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  • In-vehicle Comms

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  • Handheld comms devices

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  • Demonstrating the power of mobility

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  • Security

    When disasters strike, cyber adversaries immediately step up attacks. Disaster recovery security strategy must protect three attack vectors – the network, mobile data in transit and user applications.

    We’ve seen this first-hand. Large disaster training exercises, such as Operational Convergent Response (#OCR), trigger cyber incidents because attackers cannot discern a simulation from a real disaster.

    All new technologies and solutions require cybersecurity baked into their development. Networks need redundancy and the flexibility of alternative data paths.

  • Secure the data, secure the network

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  • Secure the device

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  • Secure the application

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  • Key security resources

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  • Public safety depends on interoperability.

    The Network

    First responders rely on highly flexible, scalable and efficient network infrastructure to provide the highest priority emergency communications. Interoperable technologies enable first responders and support agencies to collaborate between the field and the operations center via unified communications and real-time situational awareness.

  • There is a choice

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  • Differences between networks

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  • A network core dedicated to first responders

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