Reliable and efficient communication is crucial for first responders in emergency response and disaster recovery situations. It enables efficient command and control and provides potentially live saving situational awareness.
Problem
During major disasters, traditional communication infrastructure is often overloaded, disrupted or completely destroyed. This has been shown clearly during recent disaster events such as Cyclone Larry, Hurricane Katrina and 9/11.
Solution
NICTA SafeMesh technology allows the deployment of a temporary broadband network at an incident site within minutes. This Incident Area Network provides first responders with a means to share crucial information via voice, video and data communication.
SafeMesh is a Hybrid Wireless Mesh network consisting of mesh routers that provide a wireless multi-hop backbone network, and mesh clients which are mobile client devices that actively participate in the formation of the network by providing routing and packet forwarding functionality.
SafeMesh Features
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Rapid deployment (self-configuration capability)
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Robust (rapid self-healing capability)
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Cost-effective (non proprietary commercial off-the-shelf hardware)
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High performance (high bandwidth sustained over multiple hops)
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Support of wide range of services (voice, video, email, web, file transfer, Instant Messaging, …)
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Interoperability (based on Internet Protocol (IP) )
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Secure (Multi-level privacy and integrity protection)
Our Research Focus
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Routing protocols for multi-radio wireless mesh networks
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Cross layer optimisation
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Mobility support