TY - JOUR
T1 - Implementation of a rapidly deployable, mobile communications system prototype for disadvantaged environments
AU - Hackett, Timothy M.
AU - Bilén, Sven G.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was sponsored under Air Force Contract #FA872105-C-0002 and supported by a NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the United States Government. The authors would like to thank Andrew Weinert and Scarlett Miller for their leadership. The authors would also like to thank Aaron Fleishman, Michael Rybar, and Peter Zundritsch for their assistance in field testing.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 The Authors.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Large-scale natural disasters present complex challenges for disaster relief communications. Fixed infrastructures, such as cell towers or radio base stations, may be completely destroyed during a disaster or this infrastructure may never have existed. In a disaster situation, having unreliable communications systems can put a relief personnel's safety at risk as well as make the effort much less effective. Furthermore, emergency situations require time-sensitive communications that could mean the difference between life and death. The communications system described in this paper provides a rapidly deployable, data-centric mobile communications system for all organizations engaged in disaster relief: first responders, search-and-rescue, emergency medical and health services, etc. Utilizing the IEEE 802.11b/g standard, this system creates a mobile wireless local area network through a series of "wearable routers". The routers provide local Wi-Fi access to all users within of their respective ranges, and then all of these routers are connected to each other through an ultra-high-frequency backhaul network. Ultimately, from the user's perspective the network appears to be a standard Wi-Fi network with enhanced range. The purpose of this network is to provide communications between both local and widespread users until more traditional communications systems are restored. A proof-of-concept prototype using commercial-off-the-shelf components has been realized, and the real-world performance of the system has been characterized in Boston, MA and Pittsburgh, PA. The results show that this system provides a viable solution, but requires further attention to antenna design and in-band interference.
AB - Large-scale natural disasters present complex challenges for disaster relief communications. Fixed infrastructures, such as cell towers or radio base stations, may be completely destroyed during a disaster or this infrastructure may never have existed. In a disaster situation, having unreliable communications systems can put a relief personnel's safety at risk as well as make the effort much less effective. Furthermore, emergency situations require time-sensitive communications that could mean the difference between life and death. The communications system described in this paper provides a rapidly deployable, data-centric mobile communications system for all organizations engaged in disaster relief: first responders, search-and-rescue, emergency medical and health services, etc. Utilizing the IEEE 802.11b/g standard, this system creates a mobile wireless local area network through a series of "wearable routers". The routers provide local Wi-Fi access to all users within of their respective ranges, and then all of these routers are connected to each other through an ultra-high-frequency backhaul network. Ultimately, from the user's perspective the network appears to be a standard Wi-Fi network with enhanced range. The purpose of this network is to provide communications between both local and widespread users until more traditional communications systems are restored. A proof-of-concept prototype using commercial-off-the-shelf components has been realized, and the real-world performance of the system has been characterized in Boston, MA and Pittsburgh, PA. The results show that this system provides a viable solution, but requires further attention to antenna design and in-band interference.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.proeng.2016.08.149
DO - 10.1016/j.proeng.2016.08.149
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:84993940960
SN - 1877-7058
VL - 159
SP - 158
EP - 166
JO - Procedia Engineering
JF - Procedia Engineering
T2 - Humanitarian Technology: Science, Systems and Global Impact 2016, HumTech2016
Y2 - 7 June 2016 through 9 June 2016
ER -