PRESS RELEASE: Solana Networks to demonstrate Internet Public Alerting System for Quick and Efficient Notification of Disasters at World Conference on Disaster Management in Toronto

Solana Networks will be demonstrating its Internet Public Alerting Systems (IPAS at the upcoming World Conference on disaster Management in Toronto. As part of an Industry Canada sponsored project, Solana Networks and Sombra Labs have developed an Internet Public Alerting System (IPAS) that provides emergency officials with an adjunct to their existing disaster notification methods such as sirens, television and radio. With a significant portion of the general public spending more of their time at their computers either during working hours, or during their leisure time, the Internet holds much promise as an additional, complementary medium to alert the public in the event of emergencies. This project was completed over an 18-month period and involved background research into the area of Internet based disaster alerting and the development of a scalable, secure approach to disaster notification via the Internet. The IPAS system was developed to achieve these goals and underwent three successful rounds of field trials with eight municipalities in Canada.

"Internet Public Alerting System (IPAS) is ideally suited as a complementary system to enhance public alerting", said Leo Paoletti, IPAS Project Manager at Solana Networks, "Feedback from our users was very positive with almost 90% of those surveyed wanting their community to use IPAS as a means of emergency notification".

IPAS was developed around the publish-subscribe architecture and was designed to inform Internet end-users of emergency alert notifications in real-time by utilizing an interactive and secure pop-up window on their computing device.

The IPAS system has applications in many areas of emergency alerting including notification of child abductions, disease outbreak or other medical emergencies, fires, car accidents or malicious attacks. It can also be used in enterprise networks where quick notification of incidents is required for employees or certain groups of employees.

The benefits of the system developed by Solana Networks and Sombra labs include:

• Security - The system includes elaborate security authentication and authorization to ensure that alerts cannot be spoofed and that the general public knows the alerts are being sent from a trusted source.
• Ubiquity and Alert Timeliness - IPAS allows the public official to enter alerts from any secure web browser in the country. The alerts are immediately disseminated to the public with as little delay as possible.
• Ease of Use - To facilitate easy adoption of IPAS by the public it was designed such that it is quick and simple to operate.
• Flexibility - The system can easily scale to support a large number of users in a geographically distributed environment.

The IPAS system is of great benefit to that segment of the population who spend a lot of time behind a desk in a work environment and do not have access to other alerting media. IPAS can be expanded to include GIS capabilities to geographically visualize events and target alerts and appropriate actions. Furthermore, it can be extended to issue alerts to wireless devices such as web enabled phones and wireless data devices such as Blackberry. "We even envisage this system being used in vehicle GPS navigations systems to warn of traffic events and automatically provide new routes thus avoiding any problems", added Leo Paoletti.

About Solana Networks

Solana Networks is a high technology company located in the Ottawa area developing intelligent software products and services for the Internet. They have extensive experience in the design and development of products and solutions that enhance IT network performance, whilst reducing operating costs.Solana Networks also offers professional services and has expertise in a wide range of IT areas including: Software Development, Studies Analysis and Research, Simulation, and Network Assessment Services. Solana Networks bring together real world experience and expertise that has seen the successful deployment of products in many of today's IP Networks. For more information, please visit www.solananetworks.com or call 613 596-4094.

About Sombra Labs Inc.

Sombra Labs was formed in 1998 as a small consulting group in the areas of performance analysis and design of internet based technologies, wireless networks and computer networks security planning. Sombra Labs focuses on developing innovative new technologies for surveillance and remote control/automation and monitoring using wireless equipment as well as advanced research in the area of Internet wireless interfaces.

Media Contacts

E-mail: Geraint Jones
Solana Networks
T: 613-596-4094
F: 613-596-8924
www.solananetworks.com