A Field Communication System for Volunteer Urban Search and Rescue Teams Combining 802.11ax and LoRaWAN

Abstract

Despite the technological progress achieved by our society, natural or man-made disasters continue to pose a challenge and put to the test the organization and preparedness of government apparatuses. The loss of life and property following calamities motivates citizens into action. In response, volunteer Urban Search And Rescue (USAR) organizations are established with the aim of providing help when needed. Just like their government funded and run counterparts, these organizations try to use what technology has to offer to improve their efficiency. However, they face challenges due to their limited funding and inability to access certain resources such as licensed spectrum for their communications. This situation is further deteriorated because civilian communication infrastructure cannot be relied upon to be available in case of disasters. Communications are paramount for any operation, let alone USAR. To address this need, we have designed and built a field deployable communication system that is able to leverage what existing communication infrastructure is available and utilizes 802.11ax and LoRaWAN that operate in unlicensed spectrum to provide wireless local connectivity. The performance and suitability of the system have been tested in various small and large-scale exercises, while the range and transmission speed achieved by 802.11ax over its predecessors are determined through a measurement campaign. In this article, we report the results and lessons learned from our approach to fill this communication gap and the suitability of the selected technologies for the role.