CNI IT Department and NRL Work to Bring Communications Back Online

Navy NewsStand ^ | Sep 12,2005 | unattributed

[SandRat]

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNI) and Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) are working together to help bring communications back to installations affected by Hurricane Katrina.

According to Tina Donbeck, CNI’s Information Technology (IT) Program Manager, Applications Branch, “NRL has offered up their Infralynx Assured Communications System. It consists of two mobile communication vans, which will deploy to the Gulf Coast and provide classified and unclassified connections. The vans also have satellite capabilities that will help with radio communications,” she said.

CNI’s IT Department is also helping to set up wireless connectivity for the ships in Mayport, Fla. “It is a combination of working with the wireless and original old fashioned fiber to bring up all the ships,” said Kim Newton, CNI IT. “We are making the ships wireless so that the ships being relocated from Pascagoula, Miss., can use the fiber lines."

The team is making progress according to Newton. "Sept. 1 we were able to bring up the USS Hue City (CG 66) on wireless - both voice and data - enabling them to communicate through all this crisis and thus allowing some of the other ships to use the other resources at the piers. Feedback from the ship says their voice connectivity is better than they have ever had it. Only five days into the new system, and already we are receiving positive feedback,” she said.

"CNI also sent six sets of wireless equipment and a team of about 20 experts to Pensacola, Fla., to equip six more ships that will be arriving at their new temporary home port of Pensacola,” added Newton.