FIRST RESPONDERS

The Need:
Disaster strikes anytime, anywhere. It takes many forms -- a hurricane, an earthquake, a tornado, a flood, a fire or a hazardous spill, an act of nature or an act of terrorism. It builds over days or weeks, or hits suddenly, without warning. Every year, millions of Americans face disaster, and its terrifying consequences. When first responders are deployed to the scene of a disaster, they face overwhelming odds to rescue those in danger, restore order, and aid in recovery of the affected region.

August 2005 saw one of the worst natural disasters in United States history. FEMA was responsible for the evacuation of the thousands of people who remained in New Orleans and surrounding cities and states during the storm, as well as initial recovery work and propriations. Within three days, a large contingent of National Guard and active duty troops were deployed to the region. The enormous number of evacuees simply overwhelmed rescue personnel and resources. The situation was compounded by environmental conditions throughout the region that extensively destroyed much of the entire regional communications infrastructure; phone, cellular, cable and other IP service providers were either off-line entirely, or completely inaccessible in the very locales their services were needed most. In many or most cases, connectivity was limited to radio traffic or even hand-written courier-delivered messages. This, in turn, all but destroyed the agency’s ability to communicate with state and local authorities and even their own distributed teams across the Gulf Coast region.

The Solution:
Each First Responder Team deploys with one of the pTerex MTEN products mounted or placed within one or more of their transport vehicles. pTerex MTEN products automatically detect and connect to any available uplink source (Ethernet, serial, wireless, cellular or satellite), establishes an immediate local area network, and provides every member of the First Responder team with Continuity of Connectivity to each other and the home network. Should one source of connectivity fail, pTerex MTEN will seamlessly switch over to the next best active connection, without loss of session. Once in the zone, or in locales where typical IP access is otherwise limited, the self-powered, self-contained Explorer 500 BGAN Satellite dish (about 1/3rd the size of a notebook PC) is positioned and instantly provides up to 492Kbs of shareable IP connectivity. As BGAN is not affected by clouds or rain and also operates independently of external power for extended periods, the pTerexMTEN (and all associated team members)stay connected with each other, all other deployed teams, and the designated Home Agency Headquarters. They effectively remain behind the headquarters corporate firewall at all times, taking on the security profile provided by their own Home Agency network log-in permissions.

PRODUCTS

Available pTerex^ma MTEN products include:

Executive Communications Suite (MTEN 2500ECS)
Classified and Unclassified functionality in a lightweight, ruggedized roll or carry aluminum suitcase. The ESC is small and light enough to fit into any commercial airline overhead luggage compartment.

Vehicle Mount – Secure Unclassified (MTEN 2505VMSU)
Provides clients with secure, Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU) network connectivity. The VMSU is a compact, ruggedized form factor suitable for vehicular under-dash, trunk or rack mounting.

Vehicle Mount – Secure Classified (MTEN 2505VMSC)
The VMSC works in conjunction with the 2505VMSU in providing client connectivity for Classified network communications. The VMSC is identical in form to the VMSU.

Base Unit – Secure Unclassified (MTEN 2500BUSU)
The BUSU is deigned to reside in the network DMZ and connect to the unclassified side of your home agency’s network through the firewall to provide throughput of unclassified data to and from the deployed unclassified clients via their deployed MTEN units. The BUSU is a standard server rack mount form factor.

Base Unit – Secure Classified (MTEN 2500BUSC)
The BUSC is designed to communicate with the classified side of your home agency’s network via a standard IPbased Type I encryption device and works in conjunction with the 2500BUSU in providing throughput of encrypted IP data to and from deployed classified clients to the classified enclave of your home agency’s network. The BUSC is identical in form to the BUSU.