Oceus team members Kevin Stiles and Jim Row recently contributed a post on Samsung’s Insights blog, which covers how Oceus’ solutions work with Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Tactical Edition to provide reliable and secure military communications.
From the post:
Movies featuring service members shouting into walkie-talkies or tactical radios while bullets fly overhead are part of popular culture, but as we know, voice is only part of military communications. Ground troops carrying mobile smartphones are, in fact, the center of a digital ecosystem, able to capture, analyze and share crucial real-time data for better situational awareness while controlling digital assets on the battlefield. All this capability is driven by two key factors: connectivity and security.
In high-stress situations, users need to make use of all the apps at their disposal, from voice communications to ATAK, BATDOKTM, unmanned vehicle control suites and more. Not that long ago, troops in the field would connect their Galaxy smartphones to tactical radios through a USB cable. Now, Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Tactical Edition is designed to augment communications alongside those radios wirelessly over 5G NR or 4G LTE networks — via a commercial network or one of Oceus’ portable solutions designed for missions where cellular service is unavailable or unreliable.
Beyond connectivity, using a phone as a hub for data, voice, edge computing and control requires stringent security. DISA and NSA requirements, including Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) compliance, exist to ensure that devices comply with the most rigorous standards, which the Galaxy S20 Tactical Edition was designed to meet. However, this demand for data and device integrity can make it difficult to integrate functions and features onto certain devices. Oceus, as a CSfC-Trusted Integrator, develops solutions to meet those standards; we can extend the phone’s capabilities while improving security further.
