Radio IP soon to unveil mission-critical mobile VPN
Radio IP Software will introduce in Q1 2010 a next-generation mobile VPN targeted to the public-safety and public-utility sectors. The mission-critical mobile VPN, which currently is being beta-tested by several first-responder agencies, will leverage the company’s Concurrent mobile VPN platform that was demonstrated this year at the TETRA World Congress and Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials conferences. Concurrent VPN technology lets users access a variety of wireless networks simultaneously via a single secure authentication. For instance, a law-enforcement agency could transmit dispatch data to patrol officers over its private wireless network, transmit bandwidth-intensive data such as streaming video over a commercial wireless network, and transmit non-mission-critical data over a Wi-Fi or mesh network, all concurrently and without one application’s usage impacting another. Field personnel would be able to access each of the networks via the same secure connection. The technology ensures that all application data being transmitted moves on the network best suited to that application’s usage requirements with regards to performance, coverage and security, according to the company.
Also, the company is offering version 2.4 of its Access Defender application that prevents denial-of-service and buffer-overrun attacks. The fully FIPS-compliant application is designed to reside between two firewalls; it scrutinizes and quarantines all incoming communications in a two-step process, first authenticating the user and then the user’s device. Once a user is authenticated, the VPN then connects to the device; in other words, the LAN, via the VPN, grants access to the device, rather than the device initiating access to the VPN, according to the company.