Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Public safety communication (PSC) systems present a major factor nowadays as a support element in the efforts to recover from disastrous situations. They are the means that keep people, especially emergency personnel, connected after the public infrastructure has been stricken in such a way that renders it dysfunctional. It is crucial for the PSC system to have the Reliability, Adaptability, and Scalability and reachability These combined characteristics introduce some technical challenges and hence research opportunities that touch several areas. The integration of the solutions that result from these elements should constitute a robust and long lasting solution that can be relied on to restore the normal conditions after the chaotic disaster situation has prevailed. In order to address these requirements, we propose a solution that has the following features: 1. Independence from existing infrastructure. 2. Complete redundancy. 3. Green operation. 4. Ease of deployment, installation and upgrade. 5. Secure operation. The proposed system is architected as an overlay or a parallel system to the existing mobile communication infrastructure. It is not a cellular system. Rather, it is a low power system that is able to cover communications over tens of kilometers. The system can also be augmented with autonomous systems, e.g. drones, that would be used to fill important communication gaps. The strongest contender for such a system is the low power WAN (LPWAN) technology. The elements of the architecture can be summarized as follows: -LPWAN gateways: these should be deployed in strategic locations in such a way that ensures their safety and survivability should any trouble conditions arise -LPWAN servers: as the backend for managing the whole operation. -Energy-harvesting-based power sources: can be initially charged from the grid or other sources then rely on the ambient environment for the replenishment of the dwindling supply, as time passes -Wireless charging elements and links: these will enable the gateways to continue to function normally via charging from the remotely installed energy-harvesting-based power sources -Gateway-mounted-drones: used to fill the communication gaps with the fixed gateways, when needed Drones can be strategically located to replace gateways that experience high interference or high collision rate The proposed algorithms, protocols and schemes will be analyzed using computer simulation, analytical methods and experimental work. The three approaches will be employed to complement and verify each other. Results from this research are crucial for public safety communication during emergencies. In addition, this research will enable the training of many researchers, postgraduate and undergraduate students in advanced technologies and top notch research.