TAIPEI (WiMAX Day). At the Homeland Security Symposium and Exhibition in Taiwan last week, local companies Acer and Tecom announced that they will launch a joint venture of research and development for WiMAX applications in homeland security.

The new project builds on work that the two companies are already conducting for the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense to build wireless military communications systems.

According to a report in the Taipei Times, Lai Shih-lung, manager of aeronautics business department at Acer noted that police, fire and other emergency offices in Taiwan operate independently from one another, which are difficult to coordinate in emergency situations. Lai indicated that the use of WiMAX would help to integrate different government agencies during an emergency, especially given the distance at which WiMAX can transmit communication.

Tecom is presently developing base stations compliant with 802.16d, and Acer has technology partnerships with Intel and is part of the Intel global WiMAX alliance.

The conference in Taipei focussed on the latest technology from Taiwan companies for homeland security. Spending on homeland security around the world is estimated to reach more than US$ 572 billion this year, according to research firm Equity International. The majority of this industry is comprised of systems for airport security, nuclear and biotech security.

Security gives WiMAX its niche
While wireless communications may presently grab a miniscule percentage of any homeland security budgets, increasingly, spending on WiMAX will soon find a niche.

More so than other wireless technologies, the 802.16 standard that underlies WiMAX support advanced encryption, authentication and security mechanisms that are required by government agencies. To this extent, the 802.16e-2005 standard has the most robust support for security and is now the most widely tested amongst government agencies.

In addition, because WiMAX is fully IP-based, it is able to adopt several IP security standards that are crucial for working in government level networks. These include standards from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) such as IPSec and GRE that provide network security between a gateway and a base station.

WiMAX also supports that Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) which is crucial for ensuring mobile security in government installations. Nortel is one WiMAX equipment vendor that has developed numerous solutions for government agencies using WiMAX, and boast carrier-grade WiMAX solutions that use high-performance IPv6 software.

Homeland security applications
Among the uses of WiMAX now in homeland security is as a basic back-haul service for remote wireless services such as video surveillance. Installations are being tested for this along borders in America, and also at government installations and nuclear facilities.

WiMAX also had an early test of its homeland security abilities in America last year following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Intel added to the relief effort and shipped equipment and laptops with WiMAX support that had aid workers quickly connected to a mobile communications infrastructure.

This early test was one of many that proved WiMAX technology is efficient for rapid deployment in disaster situations that require immediate restoration of communications systems such as voice, data and video.