Rhode Island Port Security Communications Network

Overview

The Business Innovation Factory (BIF) has partnered in a unique port security communications demonstration project funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Under a contract awarded to Smiths Detection Systems, BIF will partner with a team of communications and security experts, including Raytheon, Stonecrop Technologies, and Newport-based LiveWave, to create a wireless broadband communications network. The network will allow government agencies and emergency personnel to share and distribute and use real-time text, voice, and video data in Narragansett Bay.

Why Port Security?

The State of Rhode Island has identified the need to establish a seamless discrete and secure broadband wireless communications network for waterborne first responders that allows the distribution and use of sensitive information via text, voice, data, and video during the course of their daily operations as well as in emergency situations.

The Rhode Island Port Security Communications Network (PSCN) was created as a demonstration project funded by the US Department of Homeland Security's Office for Domestic Preparedness. The project will design, implement and demonstrate a Port Security Communications Network to operate on Narragansett Bay and interconnect with related federal, state and municipal land based communications networks.

The PSCN is a collaborative project of the RI Emergency Management Agency (EMA), the RI Economic Development Corporation (EDC), the RI Department of Environmental Management (DEM), and RI Department of Administration (DOA).

After soliciting bids from contractors across the country, PSCN selected Maryland-based Smiths Detection to lead the network construction. Smiths has partnered with the Business Innovation Factory, Newport-based LiveWave, Raytheon, and Stonecrop Technologies, to build and implement the network.

The network is expected to be up and running later this year, with full testing and evaluation in early 2006.

Rhode Island as Proof of Concept State

When the Department of Homeland Security's Information Technology and Evaluation Program was looking for locations to prototype a wireless telecommunications network for port security, it selected Narragansett Bay as a pilot site. The system will include a mesh-enabled network of text, voice, bulk data and video infrastructure embedded along the federal shipping channel in Narragansett Bay.

A great strength of Rhode Island's bid to pilot a wireless port security project was the state's unique ability to create and coordinate an expansive network of partners, including federal, state and municipal public safety agencies operating on Narragansett Bay, as well as the Northeast Marine Pilots. Rhode Island's size and accessible legislative and leadership networks enable the systematic interagency cooperation necessary to develop, demonstrate, maintain, and monitor a port security system of this kind.

For example, the RI Turnpike & Bridge Authority will facilitate the installation of antennas on bridges, the USCG will place communications equipment on its vessels, and the RIDEM will evaluate and demonstrate the network. Additional companies also may be tapped for the project, as more than 100 businesses in Rhode Island already support the U.S. Department of Defense, with services ranging from engineering sophisticated submarine combat systems to the manufacturing of various military supplies.

Setting the Standard

As a key beta site, Rhode Island will demonstrate new port security technologies with the potential for nationwide application. After the one-year project is complete, the State's ability to mobilize contingencies to move swiftly toward a new model of emergency response will set the standard by which other port security communication approaches are measured.

Rhode Island's size and defense expertise made it an ideal location for a prototype wireless telecommunications network for port security. Upon completion, Rhode Island will gain attention on the world stage as a place where industry and government convened to create an unprecedented system to mitigate and respond to security risks.