REDWOOD CITY, Calif., 21 April 2006. PacketHop Inc., developer of mobile mesh communications software and real-time multimedia applications, has announced it's joining forces with federal, state, and local first-responder agencies to provide the mobile broadband communications system for a full-scale Homeland Security Exercise & Evaluation Program (HSEEP).
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mandated live exercise will take place in Long Beach, Calif., at the Long Beach Airport on April 22.
Some of the participating agencies in the exercise include the Long Beach Airport Bureau; Long Beach Police, Fire, Public Works and Technology Services Departments; FAA; Federal Bureau of Investigation; National Transportation Safety Board; Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and EMS; U.S. Army, Ninth Civil Support Team; and the American Red Cross.
The purpose of the exercise is to review emergency operations and communications plans and evaluate airport and emergency service organizations' capabilities in responding to a simulated terrorist attack.
Coordinating multiple agencies at the scene of a major incident is difficult because agencies rely on proprietary voice communications systems that often do not interoperate with other agencies' communications systems.
To ensure that participating first responders are provided with the most reliable, effective, and interoperable communications, organizers will deploy PacketHop's Aware Communication Suite -- a suite of mobile mesh-enabled multimedia communications software.
The suite enables secure peer-to-peer wireless broadband communications -- known as mobile mesh -- via software loaded onto standards-based mobile devices.
Its server-less applications, which include real-time multicast video, GPS-enabled resource location tracking, whiteboarding, and multimedia instant messaging, provide users with a more effective means to communicate.
