P2Pnet: A MANET Based Emergency Communication System for Catastrophic Natural Disasters

When stricken by a catastrophic natural disaster, the efficiency of disaster response operation is very critical to life saving. However, communication systems, including cellular networks, were usually crashed due to various causes making the coordination among a large number of disorganized disaster response workers extremely difficult. Unfortunately, rapid deployment of an emergency communication system based on existing technologies may not be feasible since most technologies rely on a good transportation system, which is usually not available in a catastrophic natural disaster, to deliver essential equipments. Based on the first-hand experiences we learned from Chi-Chi Earthquake and 88 Flood that struck Taiwan in 1999 and 2009, respectively, this paper proposes to use volunteer’s laptops to construct a large scale MANET based emergency communication system, P2Pnet, to support themselves in urgent crisis. We had implemented the first phase prototype as well as three application experiments on top of P2Pnet: a walkie-talkie-like emergency communication system, a mobile learning system that was taken as an alternative experimental environment as well as a rescue information system for earthquake disasters. This preliminary research demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed concept and points out future research directions. We wish this research may raise the awareness of the vulnerability of existing cellular networks and to stimulate more researches on emergency communication technologies for disaster response.