Wireless Mesh Networks for Public Safety and Disaster Recovery Communications

Recent events have revealed significant shortcomings in Public Safety and Disaster Recovery (PSDR) communications. A lot of currently deployed PSDR communication technology suffers from lack of interoperability and reliability in disaster scenarios. Furthermore, even the most advanced PSDR communication systems do not provide true broadband capabilities to support bandwidth intensive applications such as high quality real-time video. Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) are a promising alternative technology for PSDR communication, providing features such as broadband support, excellent resilience to failures, self-configuration capability, interoperability and low cost. This paper provides a background on WMN technology and discusses its ability to meet the specific requirements of PSDR applications. We specifically address current limitations of WMNs and provide an overview of current research activities that are underway to overcome these shortcomings. BIOGRAPHY: Dr Portmann received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich in 2002. His research interests are in overlay and Peerto-peer networks and network security. He is currently a lecturer at the School of ITEE School of ITEE in the University of Queensland. Asad is a researcher in the SAFE Networks work package of the Safeguarding Australia program at NICTA's Queensland Research Laboratory. He is currently working on Wireless Mesh Networks that can be deployed in disaster scenarios. He holds a degree in MSc Computer Science and in MS Information Security. Asad's research interests include data networking and information security.