Knight Sky, LLC: Smart Satellite Networks for Disaster Management

Disasters, be it natural or man-made, come with little warning and can strike anywhere. Although they are unpredictable, with the consequences of Global Warming and increase in terrorist activity they are a harsh reality of life. As incident response teams scramble to save, protect and ultimately recover from these incidents, uprooted communication systems and congested cellular networks add to the predicament. Though satellite communication networks are often the only option available as the communication lifeline, it is just too expensive for any single government agency to maintain a dedicated satellite network that stands idle between these events. Even worse, this isolated approach creates a multitude of diverse solutions which discourages interagency communications and increases the overall government budget. Knight Sky LLC, a managed network services provider in Frederick, Maryland, has made it their mission to tackle this problem. “We offer an affordable and effective emergency satellite communications as a subscription service through our nation-wide satellite network SkyMAX; it stands ready and available for any federal, state or local government agency to utilize when disaster strikes. Through Knight Sky’s subscription-based satellite communication service, government agencies can readily avail a variety of scalable service plans well suited for contingency communications requirements without having to budget for a dedicated network infrastructure or retain fulltime in-house expertise. We have been successfully providing emergency communications as an out-sourced service to the US Army, DHS, FEMA, the US Forest Service and several state and local agencies within the U.S. for years now,” states George Paul Knizewski, President and CEO, Knight Sky.

“SkyMAX”, a government compliant secure satellite network, is interconnected to each of the major satellite operators creating the unique ability to provide the most effective satellite service with the latest technology and best coverage the satellite industry can offer. Knight Sky in turn connects each government agency to the SkyMAX network through its Data Center located in Ashburn, Virginia. When disaster strikes, Knight Sky immediately routes the agency’s traffic over any satellite constellation, depending upon mission requirements. Network security is of paramount importance. Knight Sky manages each gateway connected to the Public Internet for advanced persistent threats, however should the need arise in the wake of cyber threats they can shut down these gateways and still keep inter-agency communication alive while keeping the threats at bay.

Additionally, the in-built security mechanism within the network maintains separation between mission-critical government data and the public network infrastructure.

The network utilizes “Quality of Service” mechanisms to ensure dedicated bandwidth and reliable performance for mission critical communications as opposed to the consumer grade Internet Services and often congested cellular networks. SkyMAX operates on C and Ku-band frequencies which are more resilient to rain fade conditions than Ka-Band frequencies used by consumer grade satellite service providers. Between deployments government agencies can support routine maintenance and training with a basic level of service, making it affordable and manageable. "In crisis scenarios such as hurricanes, floods and forest fires, government agencies can immediately scale network capacity by several orders of magnitude to meet the demand," says George. For instance, on three separate occasions in the last year, in response to California Valley forest fires, Texas flooding, and Hurricane Matthew, Knight Sky scaled the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) fleet of Mobile Communication Operations Vehicles (MCOV) from 3 activated vehicles to more than 30 communications vehicles within an hour of receiving each request. Effective and uninterrupted operations were maintained for the duration of the event.

We can surge network capacity from 64kbps to 20Mbps or more within minutes—all our customers have to do is call our NOC

Not only does Knight Sky provide the satellite communications network they can also off load the expense of government agencies from procuring and maintaining satellite communications equipment which need trained operators on staff full-time and may become obsolete by the time it is needed. Through a unique contract with the Department of Agriculture, Knight Sky will deploy personnel and equipment to establish and maintain communications base camps anywhere in the United States within 24 hours. For example during the 2016 California fires season there were more the 33 separate incidents, at locations where no other means of communication were available, Knight Sky personnel arrived on-site with satellite equipment, phones and wireless access points. As FirstNet devices become available they expect to be able to provide connectivity for them as well. Knight Sky personnel were embedded along-side the firefighters providing both mission critical communications and MWR type services for the deployed responders.

With the company’s Network Operations Center (NOC) and Technical Assistance Center (TAC) providing 24/7/365 access to satellite and IT experts, Knight Sky ensures simplified contingency network planning, setup, and execution. “We can shore up the connectivity from 64 kbps to 20Mbps within minutes—all our customers need to do is make one phone call to our NOC”.

The NOC also plays a critical role in assessing the network performance for all voice, video and data communications. Their NOC technicians become the sole technical resource to the down range operators for all communications and IT issues resolving any and all networking issues, voice and video quality and even laptop applications. “Through our NOC, we have enabled FEMA to save huge costs while improving their incident response capabilities as they can avoid having an in-house staff for network management during disasters” says Knizewski.

Besides enabling communication services to communication vehicles Knight Sky recommends fixed satellite services installed on the roofs of government offices as a means to back up terrestrial circuits. We encourage government agencies to include satellite-based IP networking as a strategy in their resiliency and continuity of operations plans. Knight Sky has helped a bevy of government agencies to build and sustain a COOP plan. For example, Knight Sky provides a satellite back-up to the Emergency Management Center to the City of Portland Oregon as well as to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. “We also provide the connectivity for all of the U’S’ Army North communications vehicles and regional offices across the U.S. ensuring continuity of emergency operations”.

Satellite communications is not just a means for restoring terrestrial communications - it is essential to mobility. Knight Sky provides satellite services to maritime vessels and aircraft for daily communications. They are currently supporting aircraft for the US Coast Guard and research vessels for the National Oceanographic and Aeronautical Agency (NOAA). Satellite technologies for airborne systems have made significant advancements in the last few years. Knight Sky will be adding airborne capabilities to their SkyMAX network this year with increasingly higher speeds by leveraging newly launched high throughput satellites (HTS) and phase array antenna systems. They plan on having the same scalable and affordable service plans as they now offer.

Although disasters are unpredictable in nature, they are always regional and seasonal though odds are that there is at least one crisis in the nation at any given time. Therefore a satellite network which reaches all 50 states and territories is almost always utilized somewhere. In a way, Knight Sky’s SkyMAX service may be considered an experimental government cooperative or insurance policy. If each agency were to procure just a basic level of emergency communication services it would support a nationwide network, the full breadth and depth of its capabilities can be brought to bear for any of its participants when and where disaster strikes. Ultimately, no one agency is burdened with the entire cost to keep this resource in a constant state of readiness when it’s their agency needs to call upon it.

“Our focus is on technology, due diligence on all available services and to provide government agencies with the best that the industry has to offer,” concludes George.