App ecosystems
There is also Sepura’s AppSPACE
software environment, which brings a
wide number of applications to its range
of TETRA radios (see p26 for more
details). Aronsson says while it can be
tempting to put off experimenting with
apps until “the next wave of technology
comes along”, it is possible to get started
without any big investments in new
devices given narrowband technologies’
data capabilities, and through doing so
it is possible to generate a better return
on investment and/or see improvements
in employee safety and other areas from
your existing radio fleet and network.
The bottom-up approach
We have established that apps
have a huge amount to offer
critical communications users and
organisations. One might therefore be
forgiven for thinking their use would be
ubiquitous. Sadly, this is not the case.
Aronsson says one of the things that
he observed while at this year’s Critical
Communications World was that there
are “huge differences” in the extent
to which countries and organisations
around the world are making use of
applications in mission-critical settings,
despite the fact that whenever anyone
gave a presentation at the event that
discussed their use of apps, they clearly
were seeing great benefits from doing
so. There is therefore a need for more
organisations to reach out to their peers
in other countries and see what they are
doing this area. Aronsson highlights the
need to look out for success stories in
the critical communications media and
suggests that such organisations would
benefit from speaking to their network
and terminal vendors about this topic.
He believes that the largest barrier to
greater adoption of apps in the critical
communications sector is the tendency
for organisations to resist change,
and one of the most effective ways of
addressing this is to “start with a small
team in your organisation and with
small steps”, as opposed to a “big topdown
project approach which has not
been so successful”. This allows evidence
“They have apps that are only on the
FirstNet App Catalog but they also
have apps which are on the public app
stores, but they are still listed on the
FirstNet site and they have different
levels of certification or verification.
That gives you a kind of curated access
to the public app stores. So if you
want an app from a public app store
(and people do because there are many
very useful apps on them for these
kind of operations), you can look at a
curated list of apps and download them
knowing that an independent body
has looked into these and considers the
developers to be dependable – I think
that will help a lot.”
He adds that, using the FirstNet App
Catalog as an example, “anyone from
anywhere in the world” can look at its
list and download and use the publicly
available ones. The FirstNet Catalog
contains more than 40 apps, with recent
additions including 10-21 Video, a
private live-streaming app; Pulsara,
which enables clinicians to exchange
patient-specific information through
alerts, messaging, audio clips or video
chat during time-sensitive emergencies;
and AccessMyLAN, which makes it
easier for IT administrators to manage
mobile security, productivity and
compliance for first-responder devices.
Zaknoun says Airbus has an
application certification process/service
to make sure all recommended apps by
on the app’s effectiveness to be gathered
while causing little disruption and then,
should it prove successful – Aronsson
says it is typically more a “when” rather
than “if” question – it can be rolled
out elsewhere. If the pilot fails then
the risk is contained when compared
with a larger-scale initial roll-out. This
approach also allows an application’s use
of network resources to be assessed prior
to full roll-out, which can help alleviate
the concerns that public safety network
operators might have.
Aronsson also advocates starting small
in terms of integration with other IT
systems as this reduces the complexity
of the initial project and the potential
for delays, which might occur if the
initial team project were to begin their
pilot with an app that was integrated
with national databases. He says starting
off with an app that only uses local
information is the best approach; then,
if local pilots and trials prove successful,
the team is in a stronger position to
discuss integrating their app with
national databases; “because they
already have the reference case they
can show the teams responsible for the
national databases their security set-up
and network load – it makes it much
easier to have that discussion with the
people who own the additional data”.
He agrees that one good way to
enhance the bottom-up approach is to
appoint an internal app champion to
try to drive such projects forward and to
present the results from successful trials
to other parts of their organisation.
Zaknoun says that based on
the results of his company’s fourth
annual professional app survey, one
barrier is that while there are “some
internal initiatives taking place within
organisations to adopt secure mobile
applications”, there is a lack of high-level
planning in this regard. He adds that
though some organisations like those in
the Nordic countries are ahead of the
curve here, ideally a large public safety
network operator or similar organisation
needs to take the lead on this so that
others might follow their example at the
international level.
I ask Aronsson what organisations
could do to mitigate some of the issues
around simply downloading apps from
commercial app stores. He says the
FirstNet App Catalog model, which
includes apps that also appear in public
app stores and reviews and certifies
them, is a good example of how to
address this issue.
Mobile working
applications
can allow police
officers to
spend less time
at their desks
and more time
on the beat
By their nature,
developers are problemsolvers
– they can build
whatever you want, be it
high levels of security or
local redundancy
September 2019 @CritCommsToday 19