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One thing that all natural disasters have in common, besides the tremendous loss of life and
disruption to everyday lives of the population, is that they are immediately followed by an almost
total loss of the ability to communicate with the outside world. Power is lost, telephone services are
discontinued, and cell phone service is either non-existent or is so congested that it takes hours to
get a call through.

So, every year, companies and emergency planners face the problem of providing continued
communication before, during, and after a disaster strikes their areas. We require alternatives to
standard communications so that businesses and critical operations can be kept running in the
aftermath of a devastating event.


 
Most households and companies continue to rely upon the standard telephone system for their
communications needs. In order to provide this service, the telecommunications carrier relies upon
either copper wire or fibre optic cables from its central offices to its customers' premises. This ͚last
mile͛ can either be above ground or underground. When a disaster happens, that last mile of
connectivity between the business and its telephone provider, Internet provider, or application
service provider are abruptly disconnected and utility power is lost. Underground cables are not
entirely safe from disruption of service either. Many times due to flooding and/or power loss these
underground services are disrupted as well. In the case of cell phone providers, the cell towers
receive your cell phone͛s call they then route it to a local central office. These towers or the
equipment inside of them can also be damaged or destroyed. The last mile circuits which connect
those cell towers to the local telephone network can also be destroyed. So cell phone service is as
susceptible to damage as the regular telephone service when a disaster strikes.

Usually following a disaster event like a tornado, hurricane or the like, the communications and
power service providers work very hard to restore service. However, in most cases, this amounts to
several days or weeks for the restoration of power and phone service. This restoration time varies
depending on the size and intensity of the disaster. If it is localized, then service could be restored
more quickly.

These copper and fibre optic cables also interconnect the local telephone company͛s central offices
to other central offices in the region and to long distance providers, cell phone carriers, and Internet
and data communications service providers anywhere in the world. These inter-exchange or ͚long
haul͛ circuits provide the ability of interconnectivity and communication to beyond the local area.
The cables travel above and underground and suffer the same fate as the local last mile circuits do.
However, because of the number of calls, subscribers and the importance of these circuits, the
carriers generally employ circuit ͚diversity͛. What this means is that there are multiple paths for the
voice or data to travel. If one path fails there is another which can be used to take the call to its
intended destination. This works well for isolated incidents but with mass devastation like the recent
tsunami in Japan, even the diverse routes are consumed in the overall damage toll.

Power is another failure mode. The central offices and cell phone sites have their own power
sources in the form of batteries and emergency generators. If the event is limited to a few hours or a
few days they will be fully operational. However, it was found that in the case of the hurricanes and
earthquakes, power has been interrupted for several days even up to several weeks. The power
plants, central offices, or cell towers in the areas of devastation were inaccessible for most of that
time. This meant that the fuel trucks needed to refuel the generators were unable to get to their
destinations and subsequently the central offices and cell sites went off-line.

Thus we understand that the power and communications utilities are planned and executed for
adverse events, but the intensity and massive area of devastation often make these plans fail. It is
left to the individual operators to determine the criticality of their services and to properly plan for
potential communication and power failures that might impact them.

After the Disaster:

Disasters can not be prevented. But through proper warnings and disaster-after recovery
procedures, the effects can be minimized. The collapse of communications infrastructure is the usual
effect of disaster, due to the collapse of antennas, buildings, power etc. But, immediately after the
disaster, due to emergency, communications are vital. There are two aspects in this scenario. One is
to immediately locate the affected persons and provide emergency assistance. The other is to
provide disaster relief during and after the disaster.

In both scenarios we have to assume that most of the local communication infrastructure would be
unavailable. For example, some base stations may be destroyed. Assuming the availability of a
mobile phone with the person(s) affected. In this case, it may be possible to establish a
communication link using

a) Base stations which are not destroyed - Here the surrounding base stations can be asked to
interrogate the mobile stations that they see and provide that information to a central monitoring
station.

b) In the absence of active base stations, it might be possible to devise a scheme to transfer the local
cellular layer to a higher layer, possibly consisting of a satellite.

For this scheme to be possible, layered architectures should be considered. In addition, most
important aspect would be how a regular mobile phone could be detected by a satellite. It is
proposed that methodologies for this must be investigated. This may include having high power
emergency channels available in the satellite, add-on extendable antennas for the mobile phone,
hardware/software reconfiguration in the mobile etc.

In the cases where adding the satellite feature to each regular mobile phone is too expensive, we
can consider an alternative network architecture. In this architecture, a small subset of local users,
e.g. police and town officials, carry mobile phones that are satellite capable. The other mobile
phones are modified so that they can communicate with these satellite capable phones, forming an
ad-hoc network when the base stations are all destroyed. This alternative architecture enables cost
sharing of the satellite communication links among multiple users in the same area. In addition, the
cost of modifying a mobile phone to be ad-hoc network capable is expected to be less than the cost
of modifying a phone to be satellite capable.
Tracing of Survivors

Proposed actions (availability of a mobile)

1. Establishment of a procedure for the surviving Base stations to interrogate mobile stations in the
vicinity

2. Collection of that information in a central station

3. in the absence of Base stations

ͻ Establishment of a procedure for the mobile to be detected by a satellite

OR

ͻ Integration of the mobile to a network with satellite capable equipment ʹ

Ad Hoc Net work

Communications for Emergency Management:

This would be to investigate a ͞last mile͟ wireless high-speed communications system to support
emergency management. The system will utilize surviving network infrastructure to provide network
connectivity to emergency management field workers for applications such as Geographic
Information System (GIS) access and audio/video conferencing.

The issues to be looked at are designing the system architecture, developing and/or integrating
radio, link, network, and application-level hardware and software, and exploring GIS applications. An
important element of the work is rapid deployment, so equipment must be portable, easily
configured, and able to access remote databases and GIS engines.

It may be also an opportunity for Radio Local Area Network (RLAN) technology. Low power
requirements, low cost, portability, point- to-point, point-to-multipoint and multicast capabilities,
coupled with high bandwidth, make RLANs an excellent technology for "on- the-spot" emergency
communications.

C. Communications for Emergency

Proposed actions

1. Design of a system architecture for integrating surviving infrastructure

2. Establishment of a broadband wireless communication system

3. Provision of services required for the field worker

Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) technology has gained wide acceptance (especially in Europe) and
is considered one of the mature technologies for PMR and even for PAMR (Public Access Mobile
Radio) markets. TETRA has been conceived in accordance to the requirements issued by public
safety agencies such as ambulance services, law enforcement, civil emergency management/disaster
recovery, fire services, coast guard services, search, and rescue services, government
administrations and so forth. In recent years it has been observed that integration between mobile
broadband technologies and TETRA can be helpful for the achievement of the advanced services
envisioned for the next generation of Public Safety and Disaster Recovery (PSDR) communication
systems. In fact, data rates required for advanced emergency services provisioning plus the demand
for enhanced mobility improved ad hoc functionality, and international interoperability reach far
beyond the scope of the current PSDR narrowband telecommunication systems and call for mobile
broadband enhancements. A significant challenge faced by professionals conducting public
protection and disaster relief operations is the problem of incompatible communications systems.
The goal of the MESA project established between the ETSI and the TIA was to develop advanced
mobile broadband technical specifications that could solve interoperability issues among different
communication technologies and to define enhanced functionalities of the public safety
communication (PSC) systems. One task of this special issue is to address the integration of current
PMR systems with 3G and 4G technologies for providing enhanced communication services including
real time access to (local) sensor networks (if any) as well as to databases for retrieving and
distributing audio, video, and geographical information. This could be important during an
emergency operation where a large amount of contextual information is generated and need to be
distributed wirelessly to personnel from different emergency agencies.

Post-Disaster Communications: Disaster Recovery

After the disaster such as an earthquake or tsunamis, we expect that some or all communication
infrastructure in the disaster related areas are destroyed. The main function of emergency
communications is to set up communication networks so that survivors can establish a contact or
can be located by the rescue teams through common electronic devices such as cellular phones.

We outline three possible strategies for setting up emergency communication networks below.

1.? In the case that some base stations of cellular networks remain after the disaster, we can
utilize the remaining base stations. However, for emergency communications, we will need
to change the transmission scheme (e.g. different frequency band, higher power, etc.) for
larger coverage areas. In addition, a local police station may be equipped with a radio base
station that can also be used to set up the emergency network. For emergency
communications, the mobile phone units must be able to operate in the emergency mode
with a compatible transmission scheme. Fig. 1 illustrates emergency communications based
on surviving base stations from the cellular phone systems.
2.? The above strategy based on using the remaining base stations may not be applicable when
all base stations are destroyed. In this case, one possibility is to use satellite
communications for each survivor. For this scheme to be possible, a regular mobile phone
needs to be able to communicate with a satellite. The modifications of existing systems may
include having high power emergency channels available in the satellite, add-on extendable
antennas for the mobile phone, and hardware/software reconfiguration in the mobile units,
and so on. Fig. 2 illustrates emergency communications based on a direct contact between
each survivor and a satellite.
3.? In the cases where adding the satellite feature to each regular mobile phone according to
Fig. 4 is too expensive, we can consider an alternative network architecture. In this
architecture, a small subset of local users, e.g. police and rescue officers, carry mobile
phones that are satellite capable. The other mobile phones are modified so that they can
communicate with these satellite capable phones, forming an ad-hoc network when the
base stations are all destroyed. Fig. 5 illustrates emergency communications based on the
use of ad-hoc networks.

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It is important to note that power is a main component of any recovery or mitigation strategy. That
is, without power to run these technologies, they will not operate. So, it is important to have reliable
and sustainable power for the duration of the resumption and/or recovery effort.

c 
This alternative is used to interconnect two buildings together. Infrared provides an optical data,
voice and video transmission system. Like fiber optic cable, infrared communications systems use
laser light to transmit a digital signal between two transceivers. However, unlike fiber, the laser light
is transmitted through the air. In order for the digital signal to be transmitted and received, there
must be clear line of site between each unit. In other words, there should be no obstructions such as
trees or buildings between the transceiver units. So, if the wireline or wireless communications fails,
communications between two points could still exist. The only drawback is the distance and the line-
of-sight requirements.

This solution provides low-cost, high-speed wireless connectivity for a variety of last-mile
applications. It provides narrowband voice and broadband data connectivity and the various
products provide scalable, wireless alternatives to leased lines. These infrared systems operate at
data rates of 1 Megabit to Multi Gigabit speeds and they are deployable in one day, without
requiring right-of-way or government permits for installation. They can provide an alternative
communication link in hours instead of weeks or months. Cost can range from $10K to $25K per
installation capable of distances of up to 1000 meters.


  
Another alternative to commercial communication systems is microwave (wireless). This alternative
is used to interconnect two buildings together that are spaced farther apart than the conventional
infrared can operate (i.e., in excess of 1000m). Microwave also provides a data, voice and video
transmission system. Unlike infrared communications systems, which use laser light to transmit a
digital signal between two transceivers, microwave uses ultra-high frequency radio frequency
(wireless) transmission. In order for the digital signal to be transmitted and received, there again
must be clear line of site between each unit. However, the distance that this alternative can span is
up to 60 miles as long as no obstructions such as trees or buildings are located between the two
locations. If wireline or wireless communications fails communications between two points can still
take place. There are several drawbacks to this solution:

* Distance limited to up to 60 miles

* Requires an FCC license to operate

* Right of Way Permits may be required

* Needs highly trained technicians to install equipment

* Cost can be prohibited to small businesses.

 
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There are several types of satellite alternatives. To provide a short term telephone back-up
alternative thensatellite phone service like INMARSAT, at&t, Iridium, Satcom, Skytel, Worldcell, or
Globalstar to name only a few offer basic voice, fax and basic v and e-mail services. They offer
mobile phone services and are not usually capable of providing sustained data communication or
Internet types of services. However, this communications strategy is good for keeping your senior
executives and critical operations personnel in contact during disasters. You can rent phones for
about $40/week and then pay about $1.00/minute for basic service or you can buy the phones for
$700 to $2000 each and negotiate rates in the area of $0.85/minute. So as you can see this is not an
inexpensive option, but usable depending on the need for communications.

#

VSAT is an acronym for Very Small Aperture Terminal, an earthbound station used in satellite
communications of data, voice and video signals. A VSAT consists of two parts, a transceiver that is
placed outdoors in direct line of sight to the satellite and a device that is placed indoors to interface
the transceiver with the end user's communications device, such as a PC. It is very much like a
satellite TV setup.

VSAT service can be placed into two categories: those that provide basic Internet access services and
those that are enterprise grade. For the small and medium sized business the Internet access type
service is often what is selected. Such offerings as: DirectWay, WildBlue, and Connexstar all offer low
cost, small business types of back up solutions which use equipment much like the in-home satellite
television services.

The data rates are in the area of 200 kbps uplink and 1.5 Mbps downlink which is very much like
residential DSL service. The cost is about $300 for the equipment and around $100 or less each
month. This would provide a small business the ability to utilize VoIP, VPN and connect to the
Internet.

For medium and large size businesses there are more sophisticated satellite services. They require
satellite antennas, which are 3 to 5 meters in diameter and much more sophisticated and expensive
equipment.

Installation of these more sophisticated satellite services can cost in the range of $100K to $250K
with monthly operational service charges from $1000 to $5000/month. They provide quality of
service and committed information rates as part of the service. They can provide for up to 150 toll-
quality phone lines, broadband Internet, and high speed data communications and also provide
secure communication (encrypted) is required.

Satellite services can also be rented as part of a contract or call up service. But, rental services are on
a first-come-first served basis. As we witnessed during the tropical storms of last year these portable
rental satellite service providers were inundated with requests and try as they would there were
only so many units to go around. Those who did not plan or contract ahead were left without service