A robust WLAN for survivable emergency communications

Communication systems that possess a fixed backbone topology have difficulty maintaining service when there are failures in the backbone. Consequently, a reliance on fixed backbones is not admissible for emergency communications in situations where failures are commonplace. In underground mines for example, the impact of the hazardous environment can render conventional communications systems inoperable-just when they are needed most. This paper describes a robust wireless local area network (WLAN) for emergency underground communications. The results of a study are described which predict the performance and the survivability of the proposed network.