Title: DUMBONET: a multimedia communication system for collaborative emergency response operations in disaster-affected areas

Authors: Kanchana Kanchanasut, Apinun Tunpan, Mohammad Abdul Awal, Dwijendra Kumar Das, Thirapon Wongsaardsakul, Yasuo Tsuchimoto

Addresses: Internet Education and Research Lab, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand. ' Internet Education and Research Lab, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand. ' Internet Education and Research Lab, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand. ' Internet Education and Research Lab, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand. ' Internet Education and Research Lab, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand. ' Internet Education and Research Lab, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand

Abstract: This article describes an emergency communication network platform based on a hybrid combination of Mobile Ad Hoc Networking (MANET) and a satellite IP network operating with conventional terrestrial internet. It is designed for collaborative simultaneous emergency response operations deployed in a number of disaster-affected areas. The architecture of the network, called DUMBONET, and our emergency response applications are described. Experience from a real-life experimental test-bed is discussed. Our implementation involves multidisciplinary research areas such as MANET routing, peer-to-peer computing, sensor networks and face recognition. The article also identifies potential research challenges that we intend to investigate to further enhance the capabilities of our system.

Keywords: disaster response; emergency management; communications; mobile ad hoc networks; MANET; optimised link state routing; OLSR; peer-to-peer applications; ubiquitous computing; face recognition; sensor networks; mobile networks; multimedia communications; satellite networks; internet.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEM.2007.015736

International Journal of Emergency Management, 2007 Vol.4 No.4, pp.670 - 681

Published online: 11 Nov 2007 *

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