Atos-Eviden is leading the sub-project Remote Coordination and Interworking of First Responders in Emergency Situations, winner of the last open call of TrialsNet, a project funded by the European Union, within which this trial was organized in collaboration with Bomberos de Madrid, the IMDEA Networks Institute and the 5Tonic Laboratory.
The objective of the exercise was to demonstrate that the Atos solution makes it possible to remotely communicate and coordinate different first-responder groups, which until now have been working with different technologies and in isolation in emergency situations, optimizing their efficiency and response capacity.
5G technology for improved emergency response
The trial simulated a fire in the 5Tonic Lab to test the intercommunication capabilities between different response teams. The IMDEA Networks caretaker team, equipped with PBX technology, made an emergency call to the fire dent's remote-control center, equipped with 5G MCx technology and an MCx dispatcher application. The call was routed between the two technologies thanks to an innovative Inter-Working Function (IWF) developed by Atos researchers based on beyond-5G/6G technologies.
The control center immediately notified the fire station of the emergency via a group call. The firefighters entered the building, evacuated the affected personnel and extinguished the fire while in constant communication with both the control center and the IMDEA Networks first responders, using the Atos MCx Lifelink Connect and MCx Dispatcher applications in addition to the new IWF.
The test demonstrated that the solution ensures the delivery of mission-critical services over 5G technology, enabling voice, data and video communications and facilitating interoperability with PBX networks in emergency situations. The implementation of the 5G-Advanced IWF in the 5G architecture allows different teams to coordinate through the dispatcher application that monitors the location and status of groups, manages profiles, facilitates group calls and enables remote coordination between different teams.
The entire communications infrastructure was provided by 5Tonic's experimental 5G network, managed by Ericsson, and Atos' remote network infrastructure in Switzerland, ensuring ubiquitous coverage.
The possibility to manage 5G and PBX communications from a single MCx dispatcher application located in a remote-control center is an extremely important feature in emergency situations that require a coordinated response of different groups of first-responders (e.g. 2024 Valencia Floods).