Coordinating Disaster Relief Operations Using Smart Phone / PDA Based Peer-To-Peer Communication

Abstract

During any post-disaster period, the availability of the Internet is ruled out in most cases, mobile phones are only partially usable in some selected regions. Candidate devices for maintaining minimal services are mostly expensive satellite phones or specialized point-to-point radio communication systems. As communication systems become crippled, so do the management of the relief operations. One of the common problems during disasters is that the rescue and relief operations are not well-coordinated. For this reason, there is a need for a system that will help in the efficient distribution of rescue and relief to disaster-affected areas. The objective of this paper is to propose a smart-phone/ PDA based disaster management system based on peer to peer communication only and supporting disconnected operation.

Collecting Sensed Data with Opportunistic Networks: The Case of Contact Information Overhead

“…Also, take the energy on a portable handheld device battery as E B Joules, and the percentage users are willing to allocate to the OppNet as P A % (i.e., allocated energy = E B × P A /100 Joules). The percentage of allocated energy utilized in exchanging contact information after an observation period of T seconds is given by Equation (5).…”

“…OppNets therefore provide economical, infrastructure-less and mobile communication that involves delay-tolerant information. OppNets have been envisioned for advertisements in the form of digital word-of-mouth services, recommendation and opportunistic trading [1][2][3], as well as communication in the aftermath of large-scale disasters [4][5][6]. The following section presents another envisioned application of OppNets towards realizing smart cities.…”

Towards next-generation routing protocols for pocket switched networks

“…In the aftermath of large-scale disasters, it is vital to locate individuals and disseminate information about survivors and potential hazards. Since battery-powered handheld devices are most likely to survive such disasters, PSNs can facilitate recovery by enabling communication between rescue teams and survivors within the affected region(s) [104,105]. Pocket switched networking is also suitable for communication between individuals within and outside the affected region(s) [40].…”