Research project for the improvement of emergency communications

2013/10/29 Zubia Gallastegi, Bego - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Telekomunikazioak

The research consortium Geryon has launched a research project to improve emergency communications. It is coordinated by the University of the Basque Country and has the participation of seven research groups. Basque companies Itelazpi and CIS Group are also part of the consortium. The European research project Geryon has among its objectives to complete emergency communications with richer services of the current broadband.

Emergency communications are characterized by ensuring safe communication from almost anywhere. For the fulfillment of their objectives, these services use powerful and resistant radio transmitters and are served by Tetra networks. The information they offer is very limited. In addition to voice notes, they can emit short written messages. In addition, not all emergency services use the same Tetra network or the same radio transmitters. Consequently, the different services cannot communicate with each other.

Mobile telephony networks, for their part, have experienced a great development and from its creation to the present day have greatly expanded the services they offer: at this time they are ready to make a new leap with the opening of 4G or LTE technology.

The Geryon project has, therefore, a double objective. On the one hand, it aims to improve communication between emergency services to enable interaction between different services, and, on the other hand, aims to complement the usual emergency communications services with richer broadband services.

The realization of the objectives of the research project will not require the replacement of technology. To ensure communication between different services, Geryon proposes to establish an additional level on current communications networks. This will ensure the safety and solidity characteristic of emergency communications.

The outcome of the research project is expected to be ready in May 2014. By then they will develop a model, a prototype, and do not rule out further development in the market.