SECURING WIRELESS NAME OF THE GAME FOR NORTHROP GRUMMAN

Every responsible municipality has money-specifically getting the best value for taxpayers’ money-on its mind, but security is equally important.
When it comes to communications networks, this is where Northrop Grumman earns its keep. The company’s customer base tends to be governments and enterprises that care deeply about the security of their networks.
“We focus on the requirements of our customer. Each technology has different characteristics that make each one of them unique,” said Mark Adams, chief architect of networks and communications at the company. “We try to take into account what the customer wants to do with the network first of all” and “what they’re willing to pay for the network.”
Because of that, Northrop Grumman doesn’t work in just one technology. It sees pros and cons with most technologies currently available, all while keeping an eye on emerging technologies coming down the pipe.
Calling Long-term Evolution (LTE) “a very possible key technology” in the future and WiMAX “another arrow in the quiver for companies like ours,” Adams said the options are all over the map.
“I will say that the one difference I think for us is that the Wi-Fi technologies, although they have a place, I think they are more designed for what we call local area networks as opposed to wide area networks,” he said.
Cellular networks are much better at covering large swaths of geography, he added.
But Northrop Grumman has done work in Wi-Fi. “One of our key Wi-Fi developments was work that we did with Corpus Christi, Texas,” he said.
Still the focus is primarily on security. The company’s goal is to enable enterprises and government agencies to trust the network so much that they’re willing to accept wireless into their day-to-day and emergency operations.
“Out of the box, most technologies truly aren’t secure enough,” Adams said.
“For public safety, the key elements that we talk about are three things: reliability, security and resilience,” he said. “Resilience is being built is such a fashion that in emergency situations . it still works.”