SDR-Based Reliable and Resilient Wireless Network for Disaster Rescue Operations

A reliable and resilient communication between survivors and the Search and Rescue (SAR) team, after a disaster, is critically important for efficient rescue operations. Unfortunately, in many cases, large-scale disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes and floods can damage the infrastructure of the local terrestrial wired and wireless networks. Several solutions have been proposed to provide reliable and resilient survivors connectivity using GSM base stations deployed by Flying Mesh networks (FMNs). The problem of this solution is that full coverage of the disaster area is not guaranteed and traffic having high bandwidth requirement cannot be supported. In this paper, we propose to offer survivors and rescuers connectivity through multiple radio access technologies (RANs). These RANs are carried by a Wireless Multi-Hop Network (WMHN) combining the existing FMNs with additional opportunistic Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs) created by rescuers. We add to each peer node (in WMHN) the capability to be a multi-technology access point. GSM, WiFi and LoRa technologies are selected due to their native support by smartphones, and implemented by a single embedded Software Defined Radio (SDR) platform. In order to enhance the end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) for survivors/rescuers, we prioritize the serving radio technologies based on the traffic type (SMS, voice and video). We show through simulation results that our solution reduces latency, packet loss and increases the connectivity of survivors.