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Friday, March 19, 2010

Motorola, HCL bag Rs1bn CWG communication contract




Courtesy....Sportzpower


NEW DELHI: Motorola and HCL have bagged the Rs 1 billion secure digital radio communication systems contract for both general coordination as well as providing seamless emergency communication services during and after the Commonwealth Games 2010.
The digital radio system that is hack proof will be set up by June and will be on a wet lease for seven years, way beyond the Games.
At the moment the team is working is conversing with the agencies, studying their work flow and based on that they will create the ‘fleet map’ for the operations.
The system is based on the Tetra technology, a standard technology solution certified by European Telecommunication Standards Institutes, the agency that certifies such technology, Subodh Vardhan, director sales and country head, Enterprise Mobility Solutions, Motorola India Pvt Ltd tells SportzPower.
Tetra stands for Terrestrial Trunk Radio.
The agreement has been signed between the private parties and the Delhi government, and at the moment the control room is being set up.
Parallely, training of officials from various agencies is being given and the system should be commissioned by June, George Paul, executive vice president, HCL Infosystems, says.
Paul explains that there will be various levels of users, from the common official at the ground level to those operating the control room and then the topmost level, where the system can be closed to operate just a single agency or opened to integrate multiple agencies during an emergency.
Vardhan points out that the latest technology available to men manning the various agencies at the moment is mobile telephony, which is an open system and there are cheap solutions which can allow anyone to evesdrop.
“The Tetra system operates on a completely encrypted communication which cannot be hacked,” Vardhan explains.
Besides, he notes that during emergencies, “say what happened during Mumbai 9/11”, mobile lines get completely chocked, making communication impossible.
The Tetra system functions on digital radio signals that ensure no call drops and can be available to thousands of users in a given specific network.
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So how is it different from a satellite radio system?
“In satellite radio there is an inherent delay, since the signals go up and is beamed back. Besides, there is capacity limitation and penetration of signals in various places can differ,” Vardhan says.
Penetrating wall after wall and reaching a phone user – say in difficult places like basements is tough for both mobile phones as well as satellite radio phones, but Tetra signals will be uniform in airports, metro rail tunnels or even basements.
The signals will be beamed from rooftops of high rise buildings, which is why the term ‘terrestrial’, which too ensures greater coverage and penetration into all kinds of areas.
The unique thing about the Tetra system is that each agency will have its own secure and impenetrable communication line in ordinary times, but during emergencies, the control room can open communication between all the agencies that may require talking to each other.
Says Vardhan: “Ordinarily the police, Municipal Corporation, Delhi Transport Corporation and all other agencies will run their own communication network that is closed to all others; but say there is a fire, or a blast, then whichever agencies need to coordinate will be able to do so constantly and seamlessly.
"There will be certain access levels and those persons, on receiving a certain distress message from any of the agencies, will open up the communication with the other relevant agencies from the control room."
How does one guarantee seamless functioning, though? There will be multiple switches geographically separate from each other and if one is attacked or destroyed by terrorists, then another one will automatically take over, Vardhan explains.
George Paul points out that the venues will see thousands of people gathering and this system can ensure free flow of communication and coordination.
Says Paul: “It is not just a security system. With a large number of people congregating at each venue, all sorts of decisions need to be taken by various agencies and hence, the Tetra system will in fact be running the Games.”
Since Motorola is the tech provider, where does HCL come in? “Because the systems have to be integrated, and because it has to be run for seven years, we have to play that role,” Paul clarifies.

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