VBMS - Virtual Border Monitoring System
The Virtual Border Monitoring System has been developed for the Italian National Police and provides a virtual border for Italian airspace.
Using advanced analytics processes and complex data extraction, this airspace monitoring system is a powerful tool to prevent illegal entry of suspect individuals and, at the same time, an effective support for investigations by law enforcement agencies in case of violation of immigration laws.
VBMS is able to gather information on passengers flying in national airspace (departure and destination airports and to allow real time monitoring and correlation of information on the passenger’s (name, surname, ID number, etc.) and the data stored in the police database.
In the presence of suspect or dangerous individuals, the system will be able to generate alarms and involve the national bureau of investigation dedicated to border control.
In particular, the system automatically highlights the aircraft and its trajectory with color indicating different levels of risk, allowing for advance coordination of the security forces before landing.
VBMS is connected to the Italian Air Traffic Control System (Air Traffic Monitoring System), the investigation system of the national Police Force, the N-SIS (National - Schengen Information System) and the databases of commercial airlines, thus enabling prevention and investigation activities.
The main components are:
- data acquisition and processing on civil air traffic
- acquisition of passenger lists for incoming traffic
- visualization of live air traffic in national airspace
- alarm generation based on crosschecks between airlines and the Police database
- advanced reporting. VBMS enables effective air traffic control by providing data for aspecific flight of interest: identification data type of aircraft time of departure and arrival landing airport flight speed.
At the same time, airlines provide passenger data to VBMS, including name, nationality, place of birth, airport of departure and destination, number/type/expiry/date of passport or ID card.
In the Operation Room a crisis unit monitors (also on video wall) the “live” situation in the airspace, the routes of each aircraft,passengers, and activated alarms. In the event of the presence of suspicious individuals, the system highlights the aircraft concerned with different colours.
When an alarm occurs, the crisis unit located at the Control Centre (Governmental Agencies, Ministry of Interior, Police Headquarters) takes control of and coordinates the situation.
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