Hybrid Wireless Mesh Network with Application to Emergency Scenarios

Abstract

Establishing and accessing a reliable communication infrastructure at crisis site is a challenging research problem. Failure in communication infrastructure and information exchange impedes the early response efforts resulting in huge loss of lives and economical impacts. In this paper, we present the results taken over the wireless mesh network that had been deployed to provide first responders with an infrastructure for local communication on campus during the drill. Additionally the network was connected to the outside world through a wired backhaul. This infrastructure is quickly deployable, easily configurable and interoperable in a heterogeneous environment with minimum interdependencies. We present the measurements taken directly over the network by capturing operational network traces to evaluate network performance and identify the source(s) of bottleneck to improve performance and network resource usage for future deployments.