Today’s world holds new challenges in all walks of life, now more than ever before. But safety and security remain the focus for innovation within the information technology and communications market. In this interview, Pavel Salanda, Managing Director of Rohde & Schwarz – Praha, talks about the current status of communications security, cyber security and air traffi c control, trends in the market and also the future.
How does Rohde & Schwarz see the current status of security worldwide?
The security sector is made up of both private organisations and those owned and operated by the state. In the past year, we have seen critical infrastructure and cyber attacks as well as unexpected natural events taking place. The damage can have devastating impacts across organisations, communities and countries. One such threat example can be criminal attacks that can have a widespread impact on the industry and the greater population.
Therefore, sensitive governmental and military communications need complete security from both foreign and domestic cyber threats in order to keep the organisation safe in and around the digital battlefield.
Global health crises and natural disasters pose great challenges everywhere. As an example, air navigation service providers (ANSP) across the globe need to maintain high levels of safety and security, especially in air traffic control (ATC).
So, for you at Rohde & Schwarz, safety and security are paramount. What is your approach?
Industry and end-users have always focused on both safety and security. Here, methods and technical capabilities have significantly improved and international standardisation is being massively pushed, as global cooperation is the norm. It is fair to say that safety and security have never been better.
To keep troops safe today and in the future, the Rohde & Schwarz tactical communications division has been named as the German industrial representative for the European Secure Software Defined Radio (ESSOR) project and is participating in the development of European waveforms for tactical interoperability in multinational operations.
Our cyber security division is a pioneer of highly secure encryption technologies, and delivers high-speed network encryption, zero trust based endpoint security, and innovative data protection solutions for cloud environments and web applications. The majority of these products are approved for securing “classified information – for official use only” by the German Federal Office for Information Security. These trusted security solutions support users along their way into a secure and digitalised world and thus make a significant contribution to digital sovereignty.
Rohde & Schwarz understands that technology is imperative, but being a strong partner is just as important. Our air traffic control division has had the privilege of successfully supporting ANSPs, and other critical infrastructure entities requiring an upgrade of their communications infrastructure from voice switching systems to IP-based solutions for safety- and security-critical requirements. Over the last decade, Rohde & Schwarz contracted more than 360 full VoIP systems in 230 projects in more than 60 countries — most of them have been deployed and are still operational today.
How does Rohde & Schwarz accomplish that?
While safety and availability without compromise are non-negotiable requirements, operations must remain efficient and flexible. In order to answer both these challenges and give a promise to our customers, Rohde & Schwarz introduced an advanced ATC communications suite from the microphone to the antenna, called CERTIUM®. With CERTIUM®, we offer a one-stop shop for the full life cycle of a system: from design, manufacturing & system integration to project implementation & tailored maintenance services.
Addressing increasing security requirements and the ANSP’s operational challenge to remain efficient in operations when handling flight volumes, Rohde & Schwarz launched a next generation radio that goes beyond existing market standards: the R&S®Series5200.
Please tell us more about your new radio.
The R&S®Series5200 represents the next generation of VHF and UHF radios for ATC communications, increasing safety, security and efficiency. It is an advanced and fully integrated network component, with a security-by-design architecture and extremely flexible network interfaces. This makes the radio future-proof and subsequent system expansions will not require additional hardware thanks to the software defined radio concept.
The R&S®Series5200 is the first radio for ATC designed to achieve the highest degree of security. Network separation, support of secure protocols and user authentication management are key features to safeguard customer infrastructures without using additional external elements. The R&S®Series5200 ensures voice and data communications in the uncompromised quality you would expect from a Rohde & Schwarz radio. The radio has its first customers already, so stay tuned for some great news on that.
“Global health crises and
natural disasters pose great
challenges everywhere. Rohde
& Schwarz understands
that technology is imperative,
but being a strong
partner is just as important.”
You mentioned ESSOR earlier. Please elaborate.
In mid-December 2019, the Budget and Defence Committee of the German parliament agreed to join the European Secure Software Defined Radio (ESSOR) project — the trans-European interoperability initiative for armed forces at the tactical level. Rohde & Schwarz has been named as the national representative and joins the group of member-state companies that have been working on the implementation of ESSOR since 2008. This is managed by a4ESSOR S.A.S (Alliance for ESSOR), a multinational joint venture. a4ESSOR has recently achieved formal acceptance for its High Data Rate (HDR) Base Waveform which has been developed under the ESSOR OC1 (European Secure Software defined Radio – Operational Capability 1) contract signed with OCCAR (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d’Armement).
Formal acceptance of the ESSOR High Data Rate Base Waveform has been subject to successful acceptance tests at a partner nation’s laboratories in Pisa last November and formal quality acceptance. It rewards two and a half years of development work, involving all ESSOR industry partners. The High Data Rate Waveform (HDRWF) developed for ESSOR OC1 is designed for operational and tactical unit command as well as IP connectivity at the brigade, battalion and lower levels. It features flexible configuration and adaptability to demanding scenarios, and it offers soldiers versatile and robust MANET networks on their national radio systems for combined missions and in the framework of territorial and collective defence.
a4ESSOR’s partners will be porting the ESSOR HDR Base Waveform to their respective software defined radios (SDR) as part of the next phase of the project. Final interoperability tests between the partners’ radios will complete the ESSOR OC1 project, with the release of improved and up-to-date ESSOR Target Waveforms, ready to be deployed in the operational area.
Are there any other trends you see occurring in the next decade?
Unmanned vehicles, whether they are drones or unmanned taxis, are clearly a challenge. As you know, ATC technology keeps track of general and special mission air traffic, but this does not account for drone traffic. In the next 10 years perhaps, drones will be delivering goods to doorsteps and they will fly over highways and train routes for traffic monitoring. How do we integrate drones safely and efficiently into air traffic that is already flying in low-altitude airspace? How do we coordinate the airspace? How do we ensure safety at airports? There is an abundance of open questions, all of which are already under discussion in several working groups.
How does Rohde & Schwarz continue to deliver long-lasting, high-quality products, focusing on developing future-proof technologies?
We work very closely with the customer in order to regularly reflect innovations and to have our R&D teams focused on the customer’s needs. By participating in several working groups, we are set to implement future standards. We also foster an intense collaboration with our industry partners in order to tap into additional R&D knowledge and architecture to deliver the most modern, most secure and reliable products on the market.
What role does the Czech Republic play or what place does it occupy in this respect within the R&S Group?
Thank you for this question. In short, a very important one. The Czech Republic is one of the few countries in the world where our company has three separate companies. The first and oldest one, founded in 1995 and inaugurated by the co-founder Dr Herman Schwarz himself, is based in Prague and is mainly responsible for sales activities, supply of goods and systems. It also provides extensive warranty and after-sales service support for all products and systems and for all our clients. The second company based in the Czech Republic is the Rohde & Schwarz plant in Vimperk. This is a manufacturing facility built on the site of the former Tesla Vimperk company. We currently employ over 800 skilled workers here, almost 20% of whom have university degrees. The Vimperk plant is equipped with the latest production technology for the manufacture of high value-added products, just like the other two production plants in Bavaria, and is thus an essential part of our production capacity. One of the most important tasks currently facing Vimperk is the training, education and recruitment of additional highly qualified employees. The recently established cooperation with the technical universities in Pilsen and Prague is the logical outcome of our activities to achieve these goals. The third company we co-founded with MESIT in the Czech Republic in 2019 is DICOM in Uherské Hradiště. This is a joint venture that, unlike the previous two, is a pure development base focused quite specifically on the development of new radios of the SOVERON® family, which is becoming a platform for multi-national interoperable tactical secure communications based on the ESSOR standard I mentioned earlier.
Thank you for the interview.
