NeTS-FIND: The-Day-After Networks: A First-Response Edge-Network Architecture for Disaster Relief

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

Recent natural and man-made disasters have exposed the fragility of our national communication infrastructure. Familiar communication services, such as cell phones and Internet connections, fail in emergency situations when the need for them is at its peak. A robust network architecture must therefore focus on connectivity in the aftermath of disasters. Moreover, since disasters (hopefully) will not strike too often, an ideal solution should require little, if any, additional infrastructure investment. Rather, the solution should rely on organizing resources that are already available during a disaster to improve connectivity via clever design of communication protocols. This project investigates the requirements for post-disaster networking and communications, identifies the challenges and unique new opportunities, and develops a new network architecture and its companying protocol suite from the bottom up. The new service model and communication model are realized through novel communication protocols and architectural services, both tailored to the demands of post-disaster communications and very different from the existing Internet. The broader impact of this project will be the complete design and thorough evaluation of the-day-after network architecture that is available for disaster relief, secure against malicious attackers, application-oriented, evolvable in both short-term and long-term, and manageable by authorized administrators. The research activities integrate with the education curricula at the University of Illinois by addressing several of its sub-problems in graduate courses, undergraduate course projects and senior undergraduate theses. The results of this project are disseminated through both research publications and communications with the manufactures of the mobile wireless devices.