Problem Statement

Effective communication for disaster relief efforts becomes unreliable and ineffective when terrestrial networks are damaged, making communications intermittent or impossible.

Problem Characteristics

The lack of innovative and cost favorable network redundancy prevents first responders from effectively communicating and approaching sporadic disasters. Effective communication for disaster relief efforts becomes unreliable and ineffective when terrestrial networks are damaged, making communications intermittent or impossible.

  • People are in need of direct help.
  • Communication networks are constrained during disasters & emergency events.
  • Emergency officials are lose communication and become unaware of the required resources necessary for disaster relief.
  • First responders are unable to communicate effectively amongst other teams.

Process Diagram

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Functional Components

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Problem Data

Summary:

Public safety and first responder communications among home bases and team members can become very limited and at times down right unreliable in dire situations. This directly affects the integrity and efficiency of the missions of first responders and public safety officials.

Issues with public safety communications systems became extremely obvious during the 9/11 terrorists attacks along with the residuum of Hurricane Katrina.

During those times, law enforcement, firefighters, and other public safety officers could not communicate with each other, therefore leaving the first responders essentially blind and in harms way.

A little over twelve years after the 9/11 tragedy, it has been documented that the system of public safety and first responder communications remain outdated, from a performance and definitely cost-effectiveness standpoint.

Network Redundancy:

No single wireless technology has all the performance and coverage capabilities needed. When an incident occurs, public safety agencies must have redundant network connectivity on the scene.

Depending on the location of the incident, one or more of the wireless networks used to communicate between the officers in the field and headquarters might not be available.

It is imperative to have a redundant wireless infrastructure with mobile clients capable of connecting to multiple networks so they can continue to communicate with headquarters regardless of their location.

Providing the redundancy of communications to remote first responders while in motion or stationary is critical for uninterrupted communications.

Lack of Cost Effectiveness:

“Since September 11, 2001, when communications failures contributed to the tragedies of the day, Congress has passed several laws intended to create a nationwide emergency communications capability.

In addition, the act has designated federal appropriations of over $7 billion for the network and other public safety needs.

The cost of construction of a nationwide network for public safety is estimated by experts to be in the tens of billions of dollars over the long term, with similarly large sums needed for maintenance and operation.” (http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R42543.pdf)

References:

Moore, Linda K. "Congressional Research Service Reports on Homeland Security."Congressional Research Service Reports on Homeland Security. Congressional Research Service, 08 Jan. 2014. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.

Office of the Vice President. "FACT SHEET: 21st-Century Communications for Our First Responders." The White House. The White House, 22 July 2004. Web. 28 Jan. 2014. "PRP - Parallel Redundancy Protocol." Embedded Ethernet Technologie. Hirschmann, n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.

http://www.hirschmann.com/en/Hirschmann_Produkte/Industrial_Ethernet/Technologies/PRP_-_Parallel_Redundancy_Protocol/index.phtml.

Perfect Solution

The perfect solution would be to create the infrastructure necessary to equip FEMA first responders with a small sub-$100 device, which is used to relay messages to a command center in Washington, DC. The device would need to be a small device, such as a Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or smartphone, which can be easily transported and attached to a first responder’s hazmat suit.

Ideally, the data protocol system would be to have as many “team leaders” as possible, which have internet connectivity. The team leaders would be able to communicate the collective team information back and forth to the command center. This would greatly help expedite information exchange, especially between teams that aren’t geographically close to each other. Each of the devices would need to have the ability to store messages in an organized manner - such as a MySQL database, or XML/JSON format. The devices would need to use a protocol (TCP/UDP) that allows discovery of other devices on the network and also data exchange. Another useful feature would be to implement device-specific notifications/alerts.