Geospatial Routing

When it comes to getting information to people and systems that need it, “where” is frequently as important as “what.” For example, when monitoring readings from across a large sensor network, looking for patterns of consumer activity, considering location as part of social networking activity, or coordinating disaster relief efforts.

Solution Summary

Solace’s solution can process the contents and location of alerts and information at very high speed, enabling the real-time filtration and forwarding of alerts and information based on the location of events, publishers of information and potentially relevant recipients.

Advantages and Benefits

• Real-time situational awareness: Solace’s geospatial routing can ensure that alerts about something occurring in a given area is immediately delivered to the people and systems that need it, instead of warehousing it for batch analysis. This enables more complete and timely situational awareness that lets everybody from line level employees to top executives more effectively anticipate and respond to developing situations at their level of responsibility.
• Low TCO: Solace’s solution can handle high-volume content routing in a very small footprint, requiring minimal datacenter resources such as power, cooling and rack space. Its appliance form factor delivers predictable functionality and performance and facilitates easy administration and scaling.
• Fast, flexible definition of location: Most messaging solutions can only route by politically defined areas, or by simple proximity to a specific point of latitude and longitude. Solace’s appliance supports the routing of alerts based on whether they take place within ad hoc and dynamically changing areas such as flood plains, parade routes, security zones, or any arbitrary area of interest, including those that don’t map neatly into pre-existing politically-defined regions.

Value and Applications

Geospatial routing makes sure information about something occurring in a given area is quickly and securely delivered to all people and systems that need it so local, state and federal agencies can more efficiently manage situations that require their attention. Here are just some of the potential applications of geospatial routing in the public sector:

• Aggregation of data from sensor and metering networks (SCADA, hazmat, etc.)
• Correlation of suspicious activity and communications
• Monitoring of weather systems such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and severe thunderstorms
• Notification about natural disasters such as earthquakes, eruptions, and tsunami
• Command and control of emergency services personnel and equipment

Support for EDXL including CAP

In 2004 the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiated an effort to streamline communications between intelligence services, other government agencies, first responders and front-line emergency services personnel. The result was a common language called Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL). EDXL included a standardized XML-based distribution element called EDXL-DE, which was formally ratified by OASIS in 2006, and the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). EDXL including CAP is quickly gaining acceptance and momemtum in the homeland security, intelligence and critical incident response communities. Solace’s message routers support the messaging and extraordinarily complex routing requirements of EDXL-DE, and provide an ideal platform for EDXL-DE messaging systems thanks to an unrivaled combination of performance, resilience, and low TCO.