Post-disaster Communication Research Articles

Device-to-device based path selection for post disaster communication using hybrid intelligence

Public safety network communication methods are concurrence with emerging networks to provide enhanced strategies and services for catastrophe management. If the cellular network is damaged after a calamity, a new-generation network like the internet of things (IoT) is ready to assure network access. In this paper, we suggested a framework of hybrid intelligence to find and re-connect the isolated nodes to the functional area to save life. We look at a situation in which the devices in the hazard region can constantly monitor the radio environment to self-detect the occurrence of a disaster, switch to the device-to-device (D2D) communication mode, and establish a vital connection. The oscillating spider monkey optimization (OSMO) approach forms clusters of the devices in the disaster area to improve network efficiency. The devices in the secluded area use the cluster heads as relay nodes to the operational site. An oscillating particle swarm optimization (OPSO) with a priority-based path encoding technique is used for path discovery. The suggested approach improves the energy efficiency of the network by selecting a routing path based on the remaining energy of the device, channel quality, and hop count, thus increasing network stability and packet delivery.

After the Disaster Guidebook: Designing a Post-Disaster Communication Intervention for Rural Landowners

Extension is well-positioned to facilitate communication strategies that foster community resilience and disaster recovery, particularly for rural residents. This paper proposes a new approach to post-disaster communication that strengthens rural community capacities in locally and culturally relevant ways. The findings revealed specific post-disaster information needs, preferences for local resources, and communication that encourages resilience through a document analysis and interviews with informants recovering from the 2020 Colorado wildfires. The practical recommendations discussed serve as a starting point for Extension professionals in other areas to consider ways to engage with their communities before, during, and after a disaster.

UAV-Assisted Opportunistic Beamforming in Internet of Things Networks

Opportunistic beamforming (OBF) is a promising multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) downlink precoding technique, where multiuser diversity gain is achieved to deal with the performance loss caused by low-complexity channel estimation. Due to high performance and low-complexity channel estimation, OBF is appropriate for internet of things (IoT) networks.However, the conventional OBF cannot achieve satisfactory performance in post-disaster communication, and the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) makes it hard to establish communication between the base station (BS) and users. Therefore, we propose an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted OBF IoT network (UON) to satisfy the quality of service (QoS) requirements of users. Then, an optimization problem is formulated to maximize the weighted energy and spectrum efficiencies, while the optimization problem is non-convex and hard to solve. To obtain the solution, we divide the optimization problem into three suboptimal issues, and then a joint iterative algorithm is applied. According to numerical results, the proposed scheme achieves higher system performances compared with the conventional OBF scheme in both Rayleigh and Rician channels. Moreover, we discuss the objective functions with different weights of spectrum efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE) to adapt the QoS requirements of different scenarios. It is indicated that the proposed scheme can achieve high performance with low computational complexity, regardless of the weighted energy and spectrum efficiency.

Energy-Efficient Opportunistic Routing Algorithm for Post-Disaster Mine Internet of Things Networks.

The Mine Internet of Things (MIoT), as a key technology for reconstructing post-disaster communication networks, enables a user to monitor and control the safety of an affected roadway. However, due to the challenging underground mine environment, the MIoT suffers from severe signal attenuation, vulnerable nodes, and limited energy, which result in a low level of network reliability for the post-disaster MIoT. To improve transmission reliability and reduce energy consumption, a directional-area-forwarding-based energy-efficient opportunistic routing (DEOR) approach for the post-disaster MIoT is proposed. DEOR defines a forwarding zone (FZ) for each node to route packets toward the sink. The candidate forwarding set (CFS) is constructed by the nodes within the FZ that satisfy the energy constraint and the neighboring node degree constraint. The nodes in the CFS are prioritized based on a routing quality evaluation, which takes the local attributes of the nodes, such as the directional angle, transmission distance, and residual energy, into consideration. DEOR adopts a recovery mechanism to address the issue of void nodes. The simulation results verify that the proposed DEOR approach outperforms the ORR, OBRN and ECSOR methods in terms of energy consumption, average hop count, packet delivery rate, and network lifetime.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Assisted Post-Disaster Communication Coverage Optimization Based on Internet of Things Big Data Analysis.

The rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT) communication devices has brought about significant convenience. However, simultaneously, the destruction of communication infrastructure in emergency situations often leads to communication disruptions and challenges in information dissemination, severely impacting rescue operations and the safety of the affected individuals. To address this challenge, IoT big data analytics and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies have emerged as key elements in the solution. By analyzing large-scale sensor data, user behavior, and communication traffic, IoT big data analytics can provide real-time communication demand prediction and network optimization strategies, offering decision support for post-disaster communication reconstruction. Given the unique characteristics of post-disaster scenarios, this paper proposes a UAV-assisted communication coverage strategy based on IoT big data analytics. This strategy employs UAVs in a cruising manner to assist in communication by partitioning the target area into multiple cells, each satisfying the minimum data requirements for user communication. Depending on the distribution characteristics of users, flight-communication or hover-communication protocols are selectively employed to support communication. By optimizing the UAV's flight speed and considering the coverage index, fairness index, and average energy efficiency of the mission's target area, the Inner Spiral Cruise Communication Coverage (IS-CCC) algorithm is proposed to plan the UAV's cruising trajectory and achieve UAV-based communication coverage. Simulation results demonstrate that this strategy can achieve energy-efficient cruising communication coverage in regions with complex user distributions, thereby reducing energy consumption in UAV-based communication.

The impact of post-disaster communication on destination visiting intention

PurposeEffective post-disaster communication is essential for destination marketing organizations to encourage visitors following natural disasters. This research aimed to analyze the impact of two typical types of post-disaster communication messages – solidarity messages and testimonial messages – on post-disaster visiting intention. This research proposes effective communication strategies for post-disaster destination marketing.Design/methodology/approachFor the case of Jiuzhai Valley, China, which experienced market recovery after two years of rebuilding following a 2017 earthquake, this study designed three contextual experiments based on post-disaster communication scenarios on the Internet and social media to test the causal chain between recovery message types and post-disaster visiting intentions. The data were analyzed using analysis of variance, independent samples t-tests, and the bootstrap method.FindingsThe results indicate that both solidarity messages and testimonial messages evoked higher visiting intention than the no-message group. However, solidarity messages (vs testimonial messages) were more effective when shared on the destination management organization's official account than when they were shared on an influencer's account, with their effects being mediated by the symbolic – as opposed to the hedonic – value of tourist behavior.Practical implicationsDestination management organizations should actively carry out marketing communication through the Internet and social media for areas that have experienced disasters. Crisis communicators should consider inviting popular social media influencers to visit the destination and share their experiences to enhance market confidence, while also paying more attention to the operation of official social media accounts.Originality/valueThis study sheds light on the use of the Internet and social media as tools for post-disaster marketing. By expanding on post-disaster communication theory, this study fills a research gap regarding the effectiveness of tourism marketing strategies after a crisis.

Communication strategies on risk and disaster management in South American countries

Planned communication is widely recognized as a fundamental tool for risk and disaster management (RDM). This study aimed to analyze the communication strategy of RDM systems in the context of seven Spanish-speaking countries of South America (sscSA), specifically: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru. This involved the review of 29 documents related to RDM planning. This study is part of a larger research project called Integral communication system in critical events which have previous results already published. The computer-assisted qualitative data analysis methodology was used to analyze the textual corpus. The qualitative analysis was complemented with statistical models such as principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. A total of 203 ideas for good communication were identified and classified into five components: i) early communication planning, ii) information and communication system management planning, iii) communication and communicator quality management planning, iv) RDM awareness raising, and v) stakeholder consolidation. Ecuador, Chile and Paraguay correlated mostly with pre-disaster communication. Colombia and Bolivia correlated with communication during a disaster. While post-disaster communication was not well represented in sscSA planning.

SmartDR:A device-to-device communication for post-disaster recovery

Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, can cause severe destruction and create havoc in the society. Buildings and other structures may collapse during disaster incidents causing injuries and deaths to victims trapped under debris and rubble. Immediately after a natural disaster incident, it becomes extremely difficult for first responders and rescuers to find and save trapped victims. Often searches are carried out blindly in random locations, which delay the rescue of the victims. This paper introduces a Smartphone Assisted Disaster Recovery (SmartDR) method for post-disaster communication using Smartphones. SmartDR utilizes the device-to-device (D2D) communication technology in Fifth Generation (5G) networks, which enables direct communication between proximate devices without the need of relaying through a network infrastructure, such as mobile access points or mobile base stations. We examine a scenario of multi-hop D2D communication where smartphones carried by trapped victims and other people in disaster affected areas can self-detect the occurrence of a disaster incident by monitoring the radio environment and then can self-switch to a disaster mode to transmit emergency help messages with their location coordinates to other nearby smartphones. To locate other nearby smartphones also operating in the disaster mode and in the same channel, each smartphone runs a rendezvous process. The emergency messages are thus relayed to the functional base station or rescue centre. To facilitate routing of the emergency messages, we propose a path selection algorithm, which considers both delay and the leftover energy of a device (a smartphone in this case). Thus, the SmartDR method includes: (i) a multi-channel channel hopping rendezvous protocol to improve the victim localization or neighbour discovery, and (ii) an energy-aware multi-path routing (Energy-aware ad-hoc on-demand distance vector or E-AODV) protocol to overcome the higher energy depletion rate at devices associated with single shortest path routing. The SmartDR method can guide search and rescue operations and increase the possibility of saving lives immediately aftermath a disaster incident. A simulation-based performance study is conducted to evaluate the protocol performance in post-disaster scenario. Simulation results show that a significant performance gain is achievable when a device utilizes the channel information for the rendezvous process and the leftover energy for routing path selection. Our results show that peer discovery in multi-channel D2D environment can be significantly improved when channel quality information is considered in CH sequence design. Moreover, selecting a routing path based on LoE of a device and the standard deviation of residual energy of a path, can not only enhance the network lifetime, but also reduce the chance of network being partitioned.

EPLAODV: Energy Priority and Link Aware Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing Protocol for Post-disaster Communication Networks

EPLAODV: Energy Priority and Link Aware Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing Protocol for Post-disaster Communication Networks

EPLAODV: Energy Priority and Link Aware Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector Routing Protocol for Post-disaster Communication Networks

In Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs) the major issue between nodes for data transfer is link quality. The majority of the MANET routing protocols try to maintain the link quality between nodes but still need improvement. This paper focuses on link quality between nodes in an ad hoc network in emergency scenarios through the design of the Energy Priority and Link Aware Ad-hoc On Demand Distance Vector (EPLAODV) routing protocol. EPLAODV improves the link quality between nodes through SNR. For performance analysis, the NS2.35 network simulator was used. Simulation time and traffic load were the major simulation parameters. From the simulation results, it is observed that EPLAODV performs better than AODV.

An Overview of Post-Disaster Emergency Communication Systems in the Future Networks

The emerging 5G communication network is gaining tremendous attention from mobile network operators, regulators, and academia due to the provisions of network densification, ultra-low latency and improved spectral and energy efficiencies. However, post-disaster EMS, which nowadays predominantly depends on the wireless communication infrastructure, is significantly lagging behind in terms of innovation, standards, and investments. Since the 5G vision is the revolution of the telecommunication industry, provisions of efficiently handling EMS is expected to be distributed, autonomous, and resilient to the network vulnerabilities due to both manmade and natural disasters. In this article, the 4G LTE approaches for typical post-disaster communication and their shortcomings will be discussed. We elaborate three typical post-disaster network scenarios when the network is congested, partly functional or completely isolated. The possible solution framework, for instance, Device-to-Device communication, drone-assisted communication, mobile ad hoc networks and Internet-of-Things, for post-disaster scenarios will be discussed. Given that spectrum allocation is critical for EMS, we assess the possible schemes for radio resource allocation specific for EMS in addition to the social responsibility of users in such critical situations.

Intention aware misbehavior detection for post-disaster opportunistic communication over peer-to-peer DTN

Delay tolerant network (DTN) has been successfully proposed for setting up emergency post disaster communication networks when normal communication infrastructure is typically incapacitated. DTN being a network where participating nodes transmit messages to the final destination in multiple hops, its success depends on the cooperation of these participating nodes. Performance of such cooperation based networks get severely affected by misbehaving nodes that do not participate in message forwarding either due to reasons that are beyond its control (non-availability of appropriate forwarders, decreasing battery life, etc.) or out of certain malicious intentions. The misbehavior detection schemes, proposed so far, rarely investigate the actual intention behind misbehavior of participating nodes and do not attempt to restore the reputation of falsely alleged nodes. In this paper, we propose iDetect, a reputation based intention aware misbehavior detection scheme that uses contextual evidences to analyze the intention behind a node’s misbehavior. The scheme boosts the low reputation of incorrectly ostracized nodes and includes them in future communication. Re-inclusion of these nodes increases the number of genuine forwarders in the network which, in turn, assists in efficient delivery of crucial post disaster situational messages. Results of extensive simulation, using ONE simulator, substantiate the effectiveness of the proposed iDetect scheme over state-of-the-art competing schemes, in terms of detection ratio, availability ratio, etc. while not compromising on standard network performance in a post disaster communication scenario.

Wise-PRoPHET: A Watchdog supervised PRoPHET for reliable dissemination of post disaster situational information over smartphone based DTN

Delay tolerant network (DTN) has been successfully proposed for setting up emergency post disaster communication networks when normal communication infrastructure is typically incapacitated. These networks work on the basis of cooperation from participating nodes, which is cost-intensive in terms of battery life, computation, etc. Therefore, nodes can refuse to cooperate to save resources, giving rise to selfish nodes that hinder the transmission of sensitive post disaster situational messages. Another issue is the presence of malicious nodes that collude to either spoil the reputation of honest nodes or boost the reputation of selfish nodes. The existing DTN routing protocols, like PRoPHET, do not address these issues. In this paper, a trust based Watchdog technique is seamlessly integrated with PRoPHET so that situational messages are successfully delivered even in the presence of selfish and malicious nodes. The Watchdog monitors its neighbouring nodes to generate a local perception about their forwarding behaviour. This information is then disseminated in the network to build a global perception of forwarding behaviour for detection of selfish nodes. The local perception is further used to identify malicious nodes in the network. The proposed technique rationalizes self-trusting, a property of trust based data forwarding in opportunistic networks which reduces and delays message transfers, to further improve delivery ratio and delay. Results of extensive simulation, using ONE simulator, substantiate the efficiency of the proposed Watchdog enabled PRoPHET over state-of-the-art competing schemes, in terms of detection ratios, attraction ratio, etc. while not compromising standard network performance. Finally, it is claimed that the proposed technique, tolerates a reasonable percentage of selfish and malicious nodes to achieve a desirable level of network performance, in a post disaster communication scenario.

Fukushima ETHOS: Post-Disaster Risk Communication, Affect, and Shifting Risks

ETHOS Fukushima is a risk communication (RC) program organized after the Fukushima nuclear accident by the International Commission on Radiological Protection and other international organizations supported by the Japanese government. ETHOS has been hailed as a model RC that is participatory and dialogue-based. Yet the critical and feminist literature has shown the need for analyzing the power relations in participatory projects, and for analyzing affect as a target of management by neoliberal governmentality. The affective work of ETHOS is characterized by narratives of self-responsibility, hope and anticipation, and transnational solidarity with Chernobyl victims. These resonate with the affective regime under neoliberalism that privileges self-responsibility, anticipation, maximization of emotional potential, and cosmopolitan empathy. This particular regime of affect has been integral in shifting risk from the nuclear industry and the government to individual citizens. ETHOS Fukushima has supported continued residence in contaminated areas. It has helped portray the reduction of government/industry responsibility as morally defensible, and the decision to stay in Fukushima as a free choice made by hopeful and determined citizens. At the same time, ETHOS has helped characterize the state’s and the nuclear industry’s roles in cleaning up and compensating the victims as restricting individual freedom and demoralizing the local people. The recent RC literature increasingly argues for a positive assessment of emotion, but this argument warrants careful analysis, as emotion is socially regulated and entangled in power relations. Moreover, deploying affective tropes is a crucial technique of neoliberal governmentality, especially because of affect’s seemingly oppositional and external relationship to neoliberalism.

A framework for post-disaster communication using wireless ad hoc networks

Disaster management system requires timely delivery of large volumes of accurate messages so that an appropriate decision can be made to minimize the severity. When a disaster strikes, most of the infrastructure for communication gets uprooted. As a result, communication gets hampered. A well designed Internet of things (IoT) can play a significant role in the post-disaster scenario to minimize the losses, and save the precious lives of animals and human beings. In this paper, we have proposed a framework for post-disaster communication using wireless ad hoc networks. The framework includes: (i) a multi-channel MAC protocol to improve the network throughput, (ii) an energy aware multi-path routing to overcome the higher energy depletion rate at nodes associated with single shortest path routing, and (iii) a distributed topology aware scheme to minimize the transmission power. Above proposals, taken together intend to increase the network throughput, reduce the end-to-end delay, and enhance the network lifetime of an ad hoc network deployed for disaster response. A multi-channel MAC protocol permits the transmission from hidden and exposed nodes without interfering with the on-going transmission. We have compared the proposed framework with an existing scheme called Distressnet[1]. Simulation results show that the proposed framework achieves higher throughput, lower end-to-end delay, and an increased network longevity.

The use of demo-prefaced response displacement for being a listener to distressful experiences in Japanese interaction

AbstractThis study draws on video recordings of interactions between volunteers and evacuees from the areas affected by the March 2011 nuclear power plant explosions in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture. This article has two purposes. The first is to provide a conversation analytic description of a set of interactional practices: displacing responses from their unmarked status as responses to immediately preceding turn-at-talk. The second is to explicate the ways in which the volunteers use the practices in post-disaster communication to address difficulties in affiliating with evacuees who are assumed to have had distressful experiences. The practices, with the Japanese word

A Markovian Analysis for Explicit Probabilistic Stopping-Based Information Propagation in Postdisaster Ad Hoc Mobile Networks

There has been surging research interest in utilizing mobile phones for information relaying in postdisaster areas lacking infrastructure support. A common complication for such postdisaster ad hoc communication is how to efficiently control the forwarding behaviors of relay nodes so as to save their energy consumption and buffer usage while simultaneously guaranteeing the desired delivery performance. Different from previous studies, we consider in this paper an explicit probabilistic stopping mechanism, where a relay node that is actively disseminating a message will stop spreading the message with a certain probability, after meeting another node having already received the message. Besides developing a two-dimensional Markov chain framework to characterize the message propagation process, we also derive the average time required for completion of message propagation, the probability distribution, the expectation, the variance of the fraction of nodes finally receiving the message, etc. Our results reveal that the explicit probabilistic stopping mechanism is very desirable for postdisaster communication, even being able to guarantee a majority of nodes in final message reception. What is more, the developed framework provides us a deeper understanding on how network parameters may affect these important performance metrics, which further enables network designers to accordingly tune controllable parameters.

On the Energy-Efficient of Throughput-Based Scheme Using Renewable Energy for Wireless Mesh Networks in Disaster Area

We study the emergency communication problem in the post-disaster scenario. The emergence of Renewable Energy-enabled Based Station (REBS), which has pre-equipped energy harvesting devices, provides a new perspective to solve this problem, since the post-disaster communication scenario happens to be a Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) constituted by REBSs. However, one needs to address the unstable and inadequate power supply, insufficient capacities of the communication links, and the time-varying traffic demands accordingly during a period of time. In this paper, we deal with these problems and focus on optimizing data traffic throughput with the lowest weighted energy consumption based on the expectation of traffic demands. We firstly analyze the post-disaster communication issue and formulate this problem into a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) problem, and propose an off-line energy efficient scheme using the expectation of traffic demands. Furthermore, an on-line scheme is put forward which dynamically adjusts the off-line result with the knowledge of the current real data traffic demands. The efficiency of our proposal is demonstrated by theoretical analyses and numerical results.

E-ONE:Enhanced ONE for Simulating Challenged Network Scenarios

Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) empowers sparse mobile ad-hoc networks and other challenged network environments, such as interplanetary communication network or deep sea communication network, where traditional networking protocols either fail to work completely or do not work well. The Opportunistic Networking Environment (ONE) Simulator has gained considerable popularity as an efficient tool for validating and analysing DTN routing and application protocols. It provides options for creating different mobility models and routing strategies as per the users’ requirements. Nowadays, challenged networks such as rural internet connection, social networks, post-disaster communication systems, etc. use DTN along with some hybrid infrastructure networks. Incorporating such real life network systems in ONE needs extensive modification of the same. In this paper, we present the enhanced ONE (e-ONE) simulator as an extension of ONE to facilitate simulation of challenged networks and describe the enhancements we have added to the ONE. As a case study, we consider a challenged network, which we call a latency aware 4-tier planned hybrid architecture designed for post-disaster management. We describe, in detail, how this enhanced version of the ONE simulator is useful in analysis and evaluation of the scenario considered.

Exploring an energy-efficient DTN framework supporting disaster management services in post disaster relief operation

In recent years, several investigations have been made on "challenged network" [also known as, delay tolerant network (DTN)] architectures highlighting their advantages and disadvantages. In spite of its inherent shortcomings of unreliability and delay, smart-phone based opportunistic network is gaining immense popularity in the research community due to its applicability in different adverse and extreme communication scenarios where traditional communication infrastructure is either unavailable or incapacitated for a long time. Considerable research has been conducted till date to design efficient network architecture for emergency data dissemination in intermittently connected/challenged networks. Different architectures (ranging from flat to multi-tier) are proposed for implementing opportunistic DTN keeping in view of specific application requirements. However, very few of these proposed architectures have been examined from the perspective of a post disaster communication. Moreover, most DTN architectures are designed by aiming towards increasing delivery probability and reducing latency and as a whole, maximizing network throughput; with very little emphasis on its energy efficiency. The impact of different mobility patterns on existing DTN routing algorithms with respect to data dissemination and energy consumption has also not been studied so far. Our objective, in this paper, is to investigate the impact of different mobility patterns on existing DTN routing protocols and existing DTN architectures and subsequently, come up with a suitable energy efficient DTN framework combining suitable architecture and routing protocol that may be used to offer different disaster management services during post-disaster relief operation. We have done an extensive simulation on ONE simulator with different categories of well-known existing DTN architectures, mobility models, DTN routing protocols to study the network performance in terms of delivery probability, energy efficiency and overhead ratio. Based on the simulation results, we have tried to figure out a suitable combination of energy efficient architecture, mobility model and routing protocol that fits well in the post disaster communication scenario.