Resilient Communications for the First Responders at the field

Rescue operations in both small-scale emergencies
and major natural or man-made disasters are very challenging.
The first responders are requested to explore unknown and
potentially hazardous environments, risking their own well-being
in order to save others. New innovative technologies are essential
to support the first responders in their tasks, ensuring their safety
and the effectiveness of their operations. These technologies,
that may include wearable devices, automated vehicles and
drones or back-end services require communications in order
to operate in full capacity. Available infrastructure often fail in
cases of emergency, while some operational environments may
not even support them to begin with. Aiming to alleviate this
barrier, a resilient, field deployable system, that can support the
communication between all the equipment deployed at the field
and multiple backhaul networks is presented here. The design
of the communications, the hardware solutions that support the
design as well as the selected configurations are discussed in
detail.