Belinda Braunstein, Troy Trimble, Rajesh Mishra, B.S. Manoj, Leslie Lenert, & Ramesh R. Rao. (2006). Challenges in using of distributed wireless mesh networks in emergency response. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 30–38). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are formed by self-organized wireless nodes that use multi-hop wireless relaying. These networks are useable in a variety of situations ranging from fixed residential broadband networking based on rooftop wireless mesh nodes to emergency response networks for handling large scale disasters. Quick deployability, minimal configuration, broadband communication, and easiness of reconfigurability are the major characteristics that make WMNs a suitable choice for emergency applications. There exist several open research issues in using such WMNs for emergency response applications. We, in this paper, present a hybrid distributed wireless networking architecture, Extreme Networking System (ENS), and present large set of performance observations collected from a real distributed hybrid wireless mesh network used for supporting a medical emergency response application. We present the traffic behavior observed in our network when a client server medical emergency response application is employed. The performance observations on real-traffic scenarios for emergency response application underlines the need for focusing further research on topology control, reliability, service availability, and distributed management. We observed that though there are several challenges that need to be solved, a WMN is a favorable choice for emergency response networking.
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Rahele B. Dilmaghani, B.S. Manoj, & Ramesh R. Rao. (2006). Emergency communication challenges and privacy. In M. T. B. Van de Walle (Ed.), Proceedings of ISCRAM 2006 – 3rd International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (pp. 172–180). Newark, NJ: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium.
Abstract: Communication and interoperability between different organizations of first responders has been a problem for a long time. There have been examples of failure in communication between different organizations at World Trade Center on 9/11, for example some of the police warnings were not heard by fire fighters that resulted in several lives lost. In most cases, network unavailability or incapability of coordination among networks causes much damage. Therefore, we present a highly reliable communication infrastructure that is suitable at ground zero where the existing communication network is damaged or unavailable. We used Hybrid Wireless Mesh Network (HWMN) as a candidate for communication infrastructure with the capability of working in a heterogeneous environment with different available backhaul technologies. In addition to the use of WMNs, we also present some special requirements for a cellular networks generated by simulation models investigating different scenarios that occur at ground zero. For example, when hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, people outside the ground zero area could place a call, but were not able to receive phone calls. This happened because the cellular network elsewhere was not able to contact the Home Location Register (HLR), located at New Orleans. We, in this paper, propose a solution in which the important user or network information databases such as HLR and VLR (Visitor Location Register) are replicated to provide a sufficient amount of fault tolerance.
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