Codan VaaN 2.0 firefighter-assured communications concept

Global fire and rescue organisations manage millions of emergencies each year, often in RF-denied environments — high-rise structures, tunnels, basements, rural terrain, or with congested networks — where legacy LMR voice networks cannot support growing needs for live video, telemetry, location, sensors and UxV control.

Codan’s Vehicle as a Node 2.0 (VaaN 2.0) concept transforms frontline appliances into communication hubs, delivering assured, non-infrastructure dependent communications to the incident location. Edge Spark Connect Pod provides vehicle-mounted Starlink and 4G/5G cellular backhaul, creating an on-scene Wi-Fi bubble linking the incident to the command centre. Edge Spark Connect Lite is a portable, battery-powered forward node that extends IP network coverage into remote, underground or complex environments.

At its core, the DTC MeshUltra MANET delivers a secure, self-forming, self-healing mesh network supporting high-throughput, non-line-of-sight voice, video and data for up to 144 nodes and 32 encrypted talk groups. This foundation enables future firefighter capabilities such as encrypted push-to-talk, body-worn video, indoor/outdoor location, SCBA and biometric telemetry, sensor fusion, and resilient C2 visualisation of firefighters, appliances and UxV on a live map.

Codan’s integrated Zetron ACOM command centre solution provides vital interoperability across diverse equipment and agencies, fusing multi-bearer connectivity with real-time voice, data, and incident coordination to improve situational awareness and speed operational decision-making.

VaaN 2.0 employs FIPS-certified encryption and supports multi-agency interoperability. A phased deployment — vehicle nodes, wearables, forward nodes and UxV integration — provides firefighting agencies with a ready-now, future-ready communications that maintains operational continuity, enhances safety, accelerates decision-making, and enables remote and autonomous firefighting.