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Press Release

PacketHop Aids Public Safety in Homeland Security Exercise

PacketHop's Aware Communications Suite was Deployed in a Simulated Terrorist Attack


REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - May 17, 2006 - The Long Beach Airport was recently the scene of one of the largest Homeland Security training and evaluation exercises conducted on the West Coast. The exercise involved a simulated terrorist attack at the airport, and featured more than 28 participating public safety agencies and 400 first responders and volunteers. It was designed to review emergency operations and communications plans and evaluate airport and emergency service organizations' capabilities in responding to a simulated terrorist attack.

The mock attack had the potential to create an incident-area communications and coordination nightmare among first responders. However, advanced communications software provided by PacketHop, Inc., turned inter-agency communication into a strategic and tactical advantage.

After arriving at the airport, the SWAT team used PacketHop's mobile mesh-enabled resource tracking, white boarding and multimedia instant messaging applications to position patrols cars with video cameras around the airport hangar where the suspected terrorists were staging a biochemical weapon. The video captured by the patrol cars' mobile cameras was streamed wirelessly using PacketHop's multicast video application to the police department's central command center, where the SWAT team safely determined the hangar's optimal point of entry. PacketHop's multicast video application simultaneously provided scene commanders with real-time video of the SWAT team overtaking and securing the airport hangar.

While securing the hangar, one of the terrorists evaded arrest, commandeered a fuel tanker and rammed it into a jetliner, injuring more than 100 passengers on board. In response, local fire departments utilized PacketHop's resource tracking, white boarding and multimedia instant messaging applications to position their fire trucks and emergency medical services personnel around the burning jetliner. PacketHop enabled the fire departments and EMS teams to quickly coordinate a unified response - extinguishing the burning fuselage and coordinating resources to provide emergency aid to injured passengers.

"Establishing reliable, interoperable communications at any incident is critical," said Sgt. David Cannan, spokesman at the Long Beach Police Department. "During the exercise, first responders used multimedia communications like video to show scene commanders exactly what was happening on the front line. As a result, voice traffic was reduced, keeping the radio clear for mission-critical communications"

PacketHop's Aware™ Communication Suite - a fully-integrated suite of mobile mesh-enabled multimedia communications applications - provided participating first responder agencies with the most reliable, effective, and interoperable communications organizers deployed. The suite's software-based, server-less multimedia applications, which easily load onto standards-based mobile devices, like laptops, tablet PCs and smartphones, include:

  • Multicast Video - enables users to simultaneously stream multiple videos to one, a select group or all the users on the network in real-time;
  • Resource Tracking - enables users to monitor the location of other users carrying GPS-enabled mobile devices on a map or satellite image of an area;
  • Multimedia Instant Messaging - enables users to communicate via media-rich instant messages and share files in a variety of formats, including digital photographs, video frames and diagrams;
  • White boarding - enables users to capture a video frame, map or photo and instantly share it with one, a select group or all the users on the network.

The applications are proactively distributed device-to-device throughout the network via PacketHop's infrastructure-optional mobile mesh networking technology. PacketHop is the only company providing a peer-to-peer mobile mesh communications system with server-less multimedia applications that operate with or without infrastructure.

"PacketHop enabled participating public safety agencies to communicate efficiently using multimedia instant messaging and make coordinated mission-critical decisions based on real-time video and resource tracking of the incident area, rather than third hand accounts from first responders on the front lines," said Michael Howse, president and chief executive officer of PacketHop. "We're very excited to have been such an integral part of this Homeland Security exercise."

For more information regarding the Homeland Security Exercise & Evaluation Program and PacketHop's Aware Communications Suite, please visit: www.packethop.com/LongBeach.

About PacketHop

PacketHop, Inc. develops software that creates instantaneous and self-configuring mobile mesh communications for public safety agencies, commercial enterprises and consumer markets. PacketHop's Aware Communications Suite is software that uniquely enables standards-based devices like laptops, tablet PCs and smartphones to create portable networks that can securely operate with or without access points. By making infrastructure completely optional, PacketHop delivers coverage wherever and whenever instant communications are needed - with unequaled resiliency, reliability and robustness. PacketHop's suite of distributed and server-less applications enable rapid and cost-effective wireless communications and include real-time multicast video, resource tracking, multimedia instant messaging and white boarding. Founded in 2003 and based in Silicon Valley, Calif., PacketHop is funded by venture firms U.S. Venture Partners, Mayfield, ComVentures and GF Equity Partners, as well as SRI International. For more information, please visit www.packethop.com.

PacketHop and Aware are trademarks of PacketHop, Inc. The names of other companies and their products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.