Enhancing National Security with Broadband Internet

Sanath Siriwardena

Today the national security has become the top most important topic among people in the country. For the past three decades, cureless terrorism had taken away the lives of innocent civilians and destroyed millions worth of national and individual assets.

The damage caused by this destructive ruthless act of terrorism to the country and to the society is irrevocable.

When the calamity increases and becomes a threat to national security, a number of steps have to be taken to counteract the situation and safeguard the people and the country.

Human intelligence and authentic security methods played a major role in national security in the recent years.

Where recent incidents are concerned, some of the important and valuable evidence have slipped through our fingers due to limitations in human intelligence.

Having identified these important evidence most countries, especially the ones with known terrorist threats have taken full advantage of modern technology to counteract these situations.

In other words, the world has migrated to next generation technology based solutions to enhance public security in countries where it is needed.

Surveillance

Though CCTV (closed circuit TV) security systems were in operation for quite some time, due to certain limitations it had prevented the system from obtaining real time, remote information.

Security surveillance systems incorporated with a set of CCTV cameras are usually monitored from a close proximity location.

But today the high tech surveillance cameras operated by using numerous data transport technologies manage to monitor and operate from a remote location sometimes miles away from the camera location.

The advantage of such a system is the ability of monitoring the system remotely not only by a single location, but by multiple locations. Unlike a single location monitoring system, a multi location monitoring system has a high degree of surveillance capability due to the considerable number of monitoring locations used.

Multiple remote monitoring locations give better redundancy during an event of disaster. If one location is destroyed by a bomb or by a similar disaster, still the other locations could be operated remotely; whatever the video being recorded would remain accessible for investigations.

In addition to its superior service quality, the operational and deployment costs are considerably low since Broadband technology is being used to connect to remote monitoring location. As long as the data is sent through broadband internet, there won’t be any spectrum problem either. So it is not going to be a burden to the country and it is economical.

The equipments and peripherals used in these IT based technology systems are very low in price despite its superiority quality. Data or the video sent to remote locations from a surveillance camera is highly secure.

Therefore the content could not be watched by a third party due to the data encryption technology used in its transmission.

The flexibility of this application is high compared to other security systems that have been used in the past. As the entire system is intended to run over software oriented application platform, the state-of-the-art mechanism gives an extensive controllability to its users.

The advantage of the system is the cost effectiveness of video delivery or the video transmission than in any other technology.

The low-cost broadband transport backhaul offers an unrivalled cost cutting budget to the government both in deployment and in operational phase.

Shift

When considering the present security situation that prevails in the country, we need an immediate shift towards these high tech systems with greater security capabilities that could cater to our requirements.

Public gathering places like railway stations, bus stands, towns, major access roads, city entering points could easily be monitored for security. Video obtained from cameras could be analysed and instructions could be given to security personnels that are in close proximity to the location.

Once deployed successfully by covering all city locations, this birds-eye view could be used to check traffic congestion and security situation prior to VVIP movements.

The VVIP backup security vehicles with fitted on-board monitoring device could obtain real time live video from cameras ahead by a single movement of a finger by the operator of the device. Redundancy satellite service could also be obtained in the event of a primary system failure but it would be too expensive for daily use.

Places like hydro-power generating reservoirs have become a major security issue in the recent past. Dams, especially the places and areas where human access is limited, could be monitored-real time with the aid of surveillance cameras installed at these locations.

Live video fed in to the system by a wireless camera is instantly made available for monitoring in a control room even some miles away from the location of the camera. Without only limiting to primary surveillance, this type of system could be adopted in railway transportation and safety systems.

Once the system is deployed the advantage is not limited to its security and surveillance missions; it could be used for other secondary services like public safety and welfare by distributing the initial deployment costs among other services.

This minimises the capital expenditure spent by the government on similar projects and increases the well-being of the public.

The next generation broadband technology further assures cost cutting content delivery mechanism for future applications. BPL (Broadband over power line) uses the power line or existing electricity cables to deliver high speed Broadband internet to its users, at relatively low prices.

Where tomorrow’s technology is concerned, data delivery from one location to another location could certainly be done at a lower cost than today.

Device

The wireless nature of the system, from capturing device to the receiving unit, minimises the content delivery cost as it is using the broadband technology in the backhaul network. It is indeed a very cost effective technology, both in implementation stage and in operational stage.

This security system that runs over the broadband platform would safeguard the lives of the general public and it would secure national assets of the country at its best. Citizens would feel much secure and confident to attend their routine day to day work despite continuous security threats, knowing that they would be safe under the surveillance system.

The high-tech Information Technology based, reliable yet affordable broadband once again have come forward to salvage mankind. Therefore having identified its benefits in optimum time we should not delay adoption of broadband in Sri Lanka’s lives any further.