Maximum Preparedness. Rapid Response.

Coordinating Multi-agency Response

The U.S. government has a mandate to serve its citizens and remain in control under whatever disruptive incidents may occur, either within or outside its borders. That means in a crisis, government leaders must have access to highly reliable and resilient communications to coordinate effectively among national, regional, and local agencies.

The need has never been greater. According to a recent Frost & Sullivan white paper entitled: The Case for an Inter-Governmental Crisis Network, January 7, 2009, the primary challenge is not the ability of first responders to communicate with each other in the field, but the inability to coordinate multi-agency response efforts at the decision-maker level.

True Path-Diversity:A Necessity in a Crisis

Utilizing redundant or alternate paths to back up a terrestrial network is the most effective strategy to achieve high availability. But if the so-called alternate paths share common technologies or physical routing, they are vulnerable to sabotage or natural disasters that can simultaneously take out primary and backup systems. Deploying network services from two terrestrial carriers does not accomplish the goal of network resiliency. True path diversity, and hence the highest network availability, can only be achieved by employing alternate technologies and independent physical routing, which is inherent in the deployment of satellite services.

Deploying path-diverse satellite services is an important first step to ensure continuity of operations for an agency and its mission. No less important is the need for federal, state and local agencies across many levels to rapidly share information and coordinate decision-making to ensure effective relief and recovery during an emergency. Both are critical to the nation’s safety and security, and require the existence of a national “Plan B” network, which Hughes can provide: the Inter-Government Crisis Network (IGCN).