Wireless infrastructure deployment model for sudden-onset disasters through real-time monitoring

As communication is the most fundamental resource for a smart city, it cannot allow any disruption with the related services. Therefore, real-time monitoring systems for the QoS state for the communication infrastructure are vital. Such systems that can detect communications failure can be used also for redeploying emergency and ad-hoc communications infrastructures. Sudden-Onset Disasters (SOD) typically generate system-wide infrastructure breakdowns, including communication. Robust, and efficient communication between the first-responders is crucial for the relief efforts to succeed. Deploying a modern and advanced emergency communication infrastructure requires complicated online-mechanisms and raises several technical challenges. Recent major sudden-onset disasters such as the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, the Haiti earthquake in 2010 and the flood in New Orleans in 2005, demonstrated the need to improve the existing technology and make it accessible for rapid deployment on a large scale by non-technical personnel. In this paper, we present a communication infrastructure deployment model suited for the first responders' activity at the scene of a sudden-onset disaster. The model relies on a real-time QoS state monitoring system for reliably predicting communication loss by leveraging the retransmission rate of the users as a link state predictor. This online mechanism can be pre-implemented in the smart city communication infrastructure for day-to-day use and in an SOD scenario as a communication redeployment tool that helps the first-response concentrate their efforts on lifesaving actions. The conceptual model was implemented and tested successfully using 802.11 technology thus demonstrating that it can be effectively used as smart city communication solution.