Abstract
Natural disasters and terrorist acts have significant potential to disrupt emergency communication systems. These emergency communication networks include first-responder, cellular, landline, and emergency answering services such as 911, 112, or 999. Without these essential emergency communications capabilities, search, rescue, and recovery operations during a catastrophic event will be severely debilitated. High altitude platforms could be fitted with telecommunications equipment and used to support these critical communications missions once the catastrophic event occurs. With the ability to be continuously on station, HAPs provide excellent options for providing emergency coverage over high-risk areas before catastrophic incidents occur. HAPs could also provide enhanced 911 capabilities using either GPS or reference stations. This paper proposes potential emergency communications architecture and presents a method for estimating emergency communications systems traffic patterns for a catastrophic event.
Highlights
Enhanced 911 (E911) call location data points along with Public Safety Answer Points (PSAP) voice streams used in an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) could be invaluable to commands to determine where to focus rescue efforts, deploy security forces, and manage evacuees
With PSAP data fed into the EOC, commands would be able to make better decisions based on discrete data points and legitimate situational awareness
One potential method is combing the onboard navigation with position determining equipment (PDE) which can calculate the angle of arrival (AOA) and the time delay of arrival (TDOA)
Summary
This unprecedented damage to telecommunications networks has rejuvenated an interest in emergency telecommunication systems Due to their survivability, coverage, and capability of being continuously on station, HAPs offer an excellent alternative for providing emergency telecommunications after a catastrophic incident. HAPs are an ideal option for providing emergency coverage over high-risk areas before catastrophic incidents occur [2] This unique capability provides significant advantages over terrestrial-based deployable systems and even other airborne systems. HAPs could be outfitted to provide needed critical communications for search and rescue, command and control, and critical infrastructure repair This unique service population and scenario of use require a new mindset for understanding emergency network requirements and traffic loading. COWs and COLTs can provide capacity and coverage similar to a quotidian cellular system, both HAPs and deployable terrestrial systems have timeframes or windows around the disaster incident in which they are each most effective
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