SRI International, Covia Labs Join to Enhance Mission-Based Communications

SRI International and Covia Labs have joined hands to develop low-cost and secure communications, network management, and situational awareness systems for the U.S. military, public safety agencies, and commercial clients. 

In a release Chris Lockett, program manager at SRI said, “Clients are asking for new capabilities and architectures that enable remote, secure, mission-based communications with and without cloud connectivity.”

“An important need is to be able to deploy commercially developed technology within military and security applications,” Lockett added.

According to officials a two-year agreement has been signed between the partners which is expected to support contracts with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Department of Homeland Defense (DHS). The technology will provide enhanced capabilities on communication devices like smartphones. 

David Kahn, chief executive officer of Covia Labs remarked, “SRI International’s long history developing innovative solutions for the U.S. military and public safety agencies makes it an ideal partner for Covia as we develop a wider array of services for these markets. A longer-term objective of this relationship is to develop a low-cost solution that enables the seamless formation of secure teams across different military and public safety agencies.”

It was revealed that Covia Labs and SRI will be offering suitable solutions that will synergize the organizations’ capabilities encompassing SRI’s DynaMesh networking technology and Covia Labs’ secure systems integration and interoperability products.

Also DynaMesh which is a secure, mobile, independent network can make use of existing communications infrastructure available with customers to maximize public safety, security, and command and control resources even in case there are disruptions and in emergency situations.

Officials emphasized that the network is instant and wireless and enhances response times and extended communication coverage.

The patented software platform delivered by Covia synergizes the data and functionality present on various devices and equipment into a single fully integrated system. Covia delivers a single interoperable system irrespective of hardware, OS or platform. This results in the integration of commercial devices like cell phones and laptops to mission-specific equipment such as security cameras, sensors and weapons systems. 

This allows a designated administrator or multiple users to manage as well as use all resources of the devices present on the platform.

Covia Labs’ communication interoperability solution serves the DHS and the public safety market by providing mission-critical voice communication over emerging Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular networks. This improves high-speed data communication significantly. In this case SRI will study the need for LTE deployments and see how far it will assist in mission critical applications regarding public safety operations.