5G-EPICENTRE: IoT for improving first responders’ situational awareness and safety

The Mobitrust platform is the key technology behind the Use Case 4 of 5G-EPICENTRE, which is centered on IoT for improving first responders’ situational awareness and safety. Mobitrust has been subject to continuous development by a specialised OneSource team for the past eight years, and the latest enhancements led to the cloudification and split intro microservices of its internal components. The wearable devices, known as BodyKits, are able to use 5GSA , which brings vast improvements to field awareness by delivering reliable communications, low latency and enough bandwidth for real-time HD video from multiple points in the field.

The platform has a wide range of possible end users, including police forces, fire departments, civil protection, military forces, industrial workers and emergency medical services. By leveraging multiple technologies and collecting inputs from multiple sources such as sensors (biological, environmental and positioning), cameras, among others, Mobitrust offers the following functionalities:

• Integration with 4G and 5G for public safety communications
• Data correlation and personalised notifications
• Integration with Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) devices
• Integration with Mobile Device Management
• Advanced statistics
• A secure mobile platform
• Automated actions in response to a set of defined events
• Automated alarms in case of an anomalous sensor reading

All the video, audio and sensors transmissions may be sent to mobile Command and Control Centres (CCCs) as well as to a central location CCC. From these control centres, with the enhanced situational awareness, operators are able to perform better informed decisions and improve the overall safety of field teams and the public in general.

Mobitrust  network services

Thought to be used anywhere at any time, the Mobitrust platform is now leveraging the microservice architecture, which allows the split of its internal components into multiple geographical locations. Hence, certain components can be instantiated near the scenarios where operations are taking place. Such proximity will allow a decrease in latency for communications and also the reliability of the whole system by being tolerant to failures in backhaul connectivity, which are known to occur in certain catastrophe scenarios.