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Thales and Streamwide are joining forces once again to boost the security, confidentiality and integrity of mission-critical radio communications for emergency services, security forces and critical infrastructure providers.
Developed and controlled entirely in France, the joint solution will enable users to deploy private 4G and 5G networks with the guarantee that their communications are secure.
Security forces, emergency services and critical infrastructure providers seeking to transition their traditional 2G mobile communications capabilities to 4G and 5G technologies have various options at their disposal, ranging from dedicated private 4G/5G networks to hybrid networks using the coverage offered by national mobile operators.
With the enhanced capabilities of 4G/5G, Mission Critical Services (MCS) can be combined with multimedia functionalities including voice, data and video communications and position information to allow more effective coordination of personnel on the ground and enhance operational effectiveness and security.
Given the critical nature of the missions involved, boosting the security of such communications has become key to ensure their confidentiality and integrity, particularly when traffic is routed via mobile operators’ access networks as part of a hybrid solution. To support critical infrastructure providers and security forces in this transition, Thales and Streamwide have joined forces to offer a comprehensive MCS solution that provides guaranteed sovereignty, enhanced security and full compliance with international standards.
Thales’s sovereign key management server (KMS) is the essential building block for boosting the security and confidentiality of mission-critical communications. The server provides end-to-end encryption keys for group communications and ultra-secure distribution to all the terminals in a given user group.
Thales controls all the components involved (hardware, software, cryptographic algorithms based on elliptic curves, etc.), guaranteeing the sovereignty of the KMS solution and ensuring unmatched levels of security and confidentiality for mission-critical communications.
The solution was developed in partnership with Streamwide, France’s leading provider of MCS software solutions. Thales’s KMS solution and Streamwide’s Team on Mission application join forces to provide a comprehensive MCS solution that is rich in functionalities and offers users unmatched end-to-end security for their critical missions.
Team on mission is the next generation solution to address the challenges of the demanding public safety environment – voice, data, video, interoperability and location services all bundled in one solution in real time. Team on mission enables a smooth transition from PMR to MCPTT over 4G/5G LTE with the reliability and assurance that communications will be there when and where needed.
The Thales KMS is compliant with the 3GPP standard, and is interoperable with commercially available MCS products that meet the same standard. It will shortly be available to existing and future Thales customers using 4G/5G technologies for their critical communications. The solution allows any two systems based on these standards to interconnect with each other, providing the de facto interoperability needed to coordinate members of different organisations taking part in joint missions in France or cross-border and international operations.
This innovation enhances the security and confidentiality of mission-critical communications over commercial and private networks. Security forces, emergency services and critical infrastructure providers will be able to confidently share any type of data needed to ensure mission success (voice, data, video, position, etc.) within their organisation and with other organisations during joint missions.
“This partnership demonstrates how standards can support the creation of solutions that meet the high expectations of users in terms of new communication and security capabilities for routine operations, emergency situations and major events,” said Jean-Claude Schmitt, Vice President, Network and Infrastructure Systems, Thales.
“Streamwide’s system is one of the most complete MCS solutions on the market, while the Thales KMS provides the assurance of sovereignty that users require.”
