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Continuous communication in critical operations with Dejero

October 10, 2024

Michael Stanton, Dejero’s Director for the Americas, explores Dejero is enhancing public safety through robust digital connectivity

Dejero, a Canadian leader in connectivity solutions, is advancing real-time data transmission and live video for emergency scenarios.

With the recent expansion of its public safety partner program across North America, Dejero’s Smart Blending Technology ensures continuous connectivity by combining bandwidth from multiple networks, supporting first responders and emergency teams in difficult environments.

Dejero has recently expanded its partnerships in the public safety sector to provide real-time data and video solutions, promoting adoption of reliable connectivity by agencies across North America.

Its partners, including Code 3 Technology, FlyMotion, and others, help customize Dejero’s Smart Blending Technology for municipalities, states, and departments, meeting growing demands in public safety.

In this discussion, Michael Stanton, Dejero’s Director for the Americas, discusses the company’s mission to improve public safety through resilient digital solutions and the growing impact of their technology in critical situations.

Can you explain what Dejero Smart Blending Technology is?

Dejero Smart Blending Technology combines the bandwidth of multiple network providers, including 4G/LTE-A, 5G, fiber, IP connections, LEO, MEO and GEO satellites, with diverse technologies to deliver enhanced reliability, expanded coverage, and greater bandwidth.

It connects mobile workforces and remote locations in the most challenging environments to command centers.

Essentially, it provides real-time awareness from video and data transmitted from the scene to help incident commanders make safe and informed decisions during emergency situations.

How does Dejero ensure the reliability and security of its connectivity solutions?

Unlike traditional failover or link aggregation solutions, Dejero simultaneously aggregates wired and wireless IP connections to form a virtual Dejero ‘network of networks’ that’s optimized for speed and reliability.

Spreading the load across a range of carriers and service providers means that Dejero is able to take advantage of all the available connections rather than having to rely on one specific carrier.

For additional security, Dejero monitors every path for any degradation in performance, such as usage spikes in cell towers, and automatically reroutes packets in real-time across other paths if any issues arise.

Here’s how Dejero connectivity ensures reliability and security:

  • Delivers high-performance mobile satellite bandwidth with unmatched coverage for mission-critical operations.
  • Extends coverage for Wi-Fi-enabled devices, sensors and cameras miles into challenging environments, such as rural and remote areas and mountainous terrain.
  • Blends multiple cellular networks and satellite into a single service.
  • Our video transport and general-purpose connectivity products are built to be rugged and reliable in order to survive the remote and mobile environments where our customers operate.
  • The user experience is designed for simplicity and ease of use, and regular software updates are remotely implemented to continuously provide new features and performance enhancements.
  • Dejero devices are certified with multiple first responder priority networks.
  • Offers VPN support, AES256 encryption, and dynamic routing of packets over multiple connections to provide public safety agencies with secure, fast, and prioritized network access.

Take the devastating wildfires in Hawaii last year.

Hundreds of people were affected and displaced, losing their homes, businesses and sadly even loved ones.

Power and fiber damage caused by the fires resulted in a degradation in network services.

Dejero assisted the State of Hawaii by delivering reliable, mission-critical connectivity, helping with humanitarian aid while communication lines are down.

Alongside our partner, IP Access International, we supplied a Dejero GateWay M6E6 network aggregation kit and a Starlink terminal.

The GateWay augments Starlink’s capacity by blending its offering with multiple wired and wireless IP connections.

This meant the state could achieve greater reliability, increased network coverage, and a larger bandwidth for sending and receiving real-time video and data.

It was a crucial tool for search and rescue efforts in incredibly tough conditions — especially as the region was experiencing fluctuating service gaps.

Can you give an example of how Dejero technology has been implemented by public safety agencies?

Dejero Smart Blending Technology benefits a multitude of applications including mobile command vehicles, first-responder fleet in-vehicle connectivity, dispatch and 911 facility connectivity resiliency, temporary field connectivity, disaster response, field station for planned events, and real-time video for UAS.

It covers anything from knowing where your assets are in vehicles, to ensuring safety of your first responders and knowing they always have connectivity, to providing people with a means to call home when a disaster strikes.

A great example of Dejero technology at work is Cal OES emergency 911 call centers and how it’s helping them to better support their dispatchers and emergency responders, and ultimately save lives.

Public safety agencies like the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Service (Cal OES) are constantly aiming to improve the communication infrastructure in their NG-911 call centers.

Down time — or any sort of compromised connectivity — is not an option.

Over 200 GateWay M6E6F network aggregation devices are deployed at sites across California to accomplish Cal OES’s goal of equipping PSAPs with reliable connectivity,  These devices easily integrate with existing facility IT infrastructure and connect with the Dejero GateWay Cloud Service to route data to its destination, delivering resilient back-up connectivity.

By implementing Dejero technology, Cal OES was able to accelerate the transition to their Next Generation 911 system.

With resilient connectivity for their critical communications established, Cal OES has peace of mind that PSAP operations will continue to operate without interruption, even if primary and secondary connectivity paths are disrupted.

Increased the system’s resilience to withstand natural and human caused disasters — recognizing that single fixed line carrier connections have limited performance and reliability.

The technology ensures that emergency calls to CalOES PSAPs are quickly and accurately delivered in three seconds or less.

It also significantly reduced 911 system outages and downtime — eliminating the threat to critical operations of EOCs if the hard-wired connection were ever compromised.

How does Dejero’s partnership with companies like Dell Technologies enhance your offerings in the public safety space?

We recently launched our GateWay 3220 device, which we designed in partnership with Dell Technologies.

The GateWay 3220 provides resilient connectivity to the Internet, cloud applications, and private networks.

It is intelligently designed for critical communications for fleet connectivity, first response, government, utilities, smart cities, connected homes, and enterprise.

The combination of Smart Blending Technology coupled Dell Technology’s NativeEdge platform enables all smart city endpoints to deliver real time data for sustainability, urban mobility, and public safety.

And while NativeEdge capability makes it easy to run real time analytics, data transfer is faster and more reliable using Dejero’s connectivity technology.

It enables emergency responders such as firefighters in remote locations to access building data, sensor data, real time weather reports; all data types occurring at the edge aggregated and pushed through in real time through reliable connectivity supplied.

Having the ability for doctors to remotely connect to first responders in the field is a huge benefit; imagine being able to guide a paramedic through a detailed procedure while enroute to a hospital.

These technologies when enabled can literally save lives.

Dell also has a global reach and provides highly reliable hardware with great warranty and service options, so our customers can be sure their systems are always running at optimum performance.

How is Dejero incorporating AI, IoT, and edge computing technologies into its solutions?

In a range of public and private edge environments, innovative AI/machine learning (ML), analytics, internet of things (IoT), and container solutions enable new applications, deployment options, and use cases.

Bridging communication between physical sensors, the digital edge and private or public cloud services, the GateWay 3220 solution supports reliable connectivity to enable edge compute so users can anticipate and respond, in real-time, to boost efficiency and improve mission and business-critical systems.

As we continue to enable cloud computing and AI to leverage the power of computing at the edge, we need connectivity to move that data back and forth.

 Many advancements have been made with regards to processing data at the edge – and we’re seeing that almost every application needs reliable and secure connectivity.

How is Dejero addressing the biggest challenges facing public safety agencies?

Transmitting real-time video and data from the field requires a lot of bandwidth, and relying on a single connection leaves organizations vulnerable.

It’s crucial that public service agencies implement more advanced, enabling technology, whether it’s telemedicine and ambulances where we’re transmitting EKGs or having video conferences with doctors during surgery, or having remote access to building plans and sending drones video back to headquarters and command posts.

How do you see digital connectivity solutions like Dejero’s evolving in the public safety sector?

I would say one of the biggest challenges we are seeing is how emergency call volumes are increasing every year in almost every agency.

With that in mind, agencies need to be sure that their first responders are equipped with the latest technology so they can make the best, most efficient decisions.

Dejero makes sure they stay connected to get all the resources they need, when they need them.

It means that EMTs and paramedics can provide the best patient care and fire departments can put out a fire more efficiently because they can view building plans so they can quickly locate fire hydrants.

When it comes to police officers in the field, they should be able to access all available information, for example court records, jail records, investigative notes, body cameras, previous call history.

In order to access all of those great resources in real-time for greater situational awareness, you have to have connectivity.

This article was originally published in the October 2024 issue of Fire & Safety Journal Americas. To read your FREE digital copy, click here.

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