DEMONSTRATIONS
Demo 1
- Luxembourg
Luxembourg, and its surrounding territories (Germany and Belgium) have been experiencing several major devastating tornados and flooding events, most recently in 2021 with more than 180 deaths and significant destruction of critical infrastructures. In this context, as the first Proof of Concept, LuxGovSat S.A. (LGS, Luxembourg) envisages in collaboration with CGDIS – Grand Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps to simulate jointly a crisis communications event in Luxembourg based on a new tornado or flooding scenario in the rural northern part of the country. The simulated impact of the severe weather event shall be demonstrated by forced handovers from a mobile network to the SatCom networks included in the project. The loss of communications during a video teleconferencing (VTC) between the CGDIS headquarters (HQ) in Luxembourg City to the Fire brigade deployed in the crisis area shall be overcome by a seamless switch to the satellite communication networks using terminals of the type “Spro dual Ka/ X and Spro X”.
The extreme weather event will demonstrate the resilience of the X-band communication provided by a governmental satellite. Additionally, when the extreme weather condition settles, the communication will be switched back to normal terrestrial network used in the demonstration.
Demo 2
- France
As a second Proof of Concept, Telespazio France (TPZF, France), addresses the terrestrial network outage during a large cultural/sporting event in an urban area in which the terrestrial network is severely deteriorated due to the excessive demand or has even collapsed following man-made or natural disaster. In this situation, the emergency responder (the local SDIS- Services Départementaux d’Incendie et de Secours) needs to ensure a constant monitoring of the situation to ensure crowd security and avoid any risks to the people participating in the event. The demo will show a seamless handover from 4G/5G to satellite civil KA-Band connectivity, monitor connection quality metrics (latency, jitter, throughput), and demonstrate techniques like aggregating and duplicating satellite links for enhanced throughput and resiliency. To ensure this monitoring, and due to the lack of a sufficient number of staff on the ground, the SDIS deploys a Line-Of-Sight (LOS) Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) with an operating range of a few hundred meters (DJI-type Commercial-Off-The-Shelf drone) to obtain an aerial view of the area.
Since the terrestrial network is unavailable or at best unreliable to fulfil this role, the SDIS deploys its SIGMA solution to secure this link using a satellite connection.
Demo 3
- Germany
Due to climatic changes, mountain slides are a common issue in the Alpine region. In such scenarios, terrestrial communication and rescue operations of the missing groups are extremely difficult. To help with establishing an effective communication during crisis management, ND SatCom GmbH (NDS, Germany), as the third Proof of Concept aims to send mobile terminals (Manpack, Flyaway) to the operational area. These terminals are preconfigured for satellite in X-band or Ka-Band. SatCap (X-band/Ka-band) will be available through LGS in Luxembourg. Traffic will be forwarded from LGS HUB to the location of the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich. When the armed forces arrive at the operational area for rescue operations, more communication nodes will be necessary (only Ka-band terminals available). In the demonstration, a preconfigured Ka-band terminal will be integrated in the vehicle to take over part of the mission, if necessary. Therefore, SatCap in Ka-band must be made available via TPZF. Traffic will be forwarded via the HUB in France to the location of the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich.
Furthermore, a local network (local 5G cell) with satellite connection will serve as a private 5G core (NGO, aid service). 5G cell (Vodafone) will be available after 3 days and can take over parts of the traffic. Finally, the mobile satellite terminals will be dismantled at the end of three demonstrations.
