The Art of Communication

In critical situations, the lack of communication, even for a short period, can impact saving human lives. Giacomo Speretta, the SVP Marketing, Business Development and Sales Strategy at Leonardo’s Cyber Security Division explains the impact and role played by professional radio communication in today’s day and age.

Multiple uses

Professional communications have different applications and uses. They are fundamental for law enforcement activities because they support safety and security operations and are embedded in operating procedures. These types of communications are also key in other sectors such as transportation or major events. Communication solutions designed and developed by Leonardo — an international Italian-based organisation dedicated to the development of multi-domain operational capabilities in the fields of aerospace, defence and security – is equipping several metro lines all over the world. Professional communications is also used to protect major events thanks to the experience of Leonardo in this sector. Leonardo was the official security partner at Expo 2015 Milan and recently the company provided secure communications solutions to Cortina 2021, the Alpine World Ski Championships, and to 1000Miglia competition, which re-enacts the 1,000-mile historic car race from Brescia to Rome.

Professional mobile radio communication (PMR) has always been used to support rescue operators and first responders, with solutions enabling prompt and efficient operation. These are communication solutions based on narrowband (P25, Tetra and DMR) technologies that have been widely used for many years. Today broadband technologies, such as LTE and 5G, which characterise commercial communications, are being increasingly used in professional sectors supporting video and multimedia, with their throughput and low latency features.

Critical situations

However, speed is not everything. Some important services, critical for professional communications, are not present yet, for instance the capability to work in situations where a critical event has compromised the functioning of the network, to name one.

In this scenario, professional communications are facing an important challenge: on the one hand, to guarantee the full reliability of mission critical communications for first responders, on the other hand to face the progression towards broadband technologies, the basis of communications at work and everyday life, that are required for public safety and in the mission critical domain. In professional communications communities many people think that the near-midterm future will be a mix of narrowband and broadband technologies sharing the scene and interoperating with each other.

When asked about the crucial transition faced while guaranteeing all essential services and functionalities to security operators and first responders, Speretta said, “At Leonardo we think that hybrid networks such as our RIM (Italian acronym for multi-carrier hybrid network) play a key role to tackle this evolution. Indeed today, both technical and economic reasons suggest that this hybrid approach, based on an integrated narrowband-broadband infrastructure, is the winning solution for the professional communications network evolution. Co-existence and integration of both technologies allow for service complementarity with uniform and integrated management. In particular, hybrid networks enable phased service migration and support the introduction of new services, only when tested and suitably integrated in existing operating procedures.’’

On the question of whether solutions based on narrowband technology would be decommissioned soon, he said, “The answer is no. Analysts see narrowband technology on the market well beyond 2030. At Leonardo, while maintaining our Tetra and DMR product lines, we are incorporating the latest hardware and software technologies in new narrowband systems fully compatible with existing families, aimed at supporting existing and future networks for several years.

“Our new families of DMR and Tetra base stations, codenamed DTA, consist of a more powerful hardware platform, a new and simplified modular architecture and renewed software components increasing remote configurability and control, also introducing a cyber-agent for enhanced security.’’

New technologies for broadband

Discussing the future of broadband, Speretta said, “On the broadband side, Leonardo focuses its attention on service infrastructures. While relying on certified third-party systems for network infrastructures, we are also focusing our offer on services components. Our CSP-MCX (mission critical services) solutions extends the wide portfolio of standard solutions for professional communications with next generation standard based broadband capabilities: MC PTT, MC Data and MC Video. We are also addressing standard based interoperability between narrowband and broadband and our control room products such as MCCR and X-2030 allow for a unified approach in operations management. In addition, MCX based solutions represent an added value in developing platforms that utilise professional communications (Eg. X2030) for those geographical areas where 5G is the prevalent communication standard.’’

For more information, please visit:

https://www.leonardocompany.com/en/security-cyber/professional-communications