Roadmap to emergency communication
With human-caused natural disasters on the increase, governments must use their response resources more efficiently. One area for improvement is better integration and cooperation within emergency services at national, European and international levels. The EU-funded PPDR-TC (Public protection and disaster relief – Transformation center) project devised a strategic roadmap towards the integration of European emergency communication systems. The proposal includes rapidly field-deployable broadband infrastructure, able to meet all voice and data communication needs without reliance on conventional infrastructure. The roadmap addresses needs for the coming 10-15 years. Researchers collated data from European emergency organisations to define usage scenarios. The data also classified current and future services, and identified candidate technologies and architectures. Based on simulations and validation of candidate technologies, the team prepared technical and economic recommendations. Team members submitted a standardisation proposal to the 3GPP LTE Public-Safety Work Group. The proposal promises secure and seamless connection to existing networks. The consortium also prepared several software tools to assist emergency agencies and researchers. These tools include an online database, business decision-support tools and various testing systems. PPDR-TC helped set the course towards full integration of Europe's emergency communication services. The outcome is slated to lead to more coordinated and effective disaster response.
Keywords
Communication networks, emergency services, PPDR-TC, public protection, disaster relief
