New radio technology developed to help communications in buildings and underground

| 08.08.2008 | 09:54:5412448 |

August 8 '08: The National Institute of Standards and Technology announced recently the creation of a new radio communications technology that can extend the range of radio communications for first responders working in buildings, underground and in other similarly difficult areas. The mesh network and breadcrumb system, Computer World reported, uses "relay devices [which] run software that can notify emergency crews when they need to place another of the breadcrumbs along their route to extend the range of communications down a hallway or tunnel."

In January 2007, three technology companies partnered to create a wireless communications that would connect miners working underground with topside operations. Information Week reported the technology was expected "to greatly improve safety by giving miners a way to communicate with the outside world during a disaster. ... The new system gets around the inability of cellular networks to penetrate the earth through the use of Internet telephony, or VoIP."

On the NIST's developed technology page, a description of the new breadcrumb network would equip a first responder (FR) "with a two-way radio and several small relay nodes" when they enter a building. "As the FR goes further into the building, the radio signal from the incident command (IC) weakens. Before losing radio connectivity with IC, a relay node is deployed, providing two-hop connectivity between the FR and IC. This process repeats whenever any FR is about to lose radio signal, creating a multi-hop mesh network in real time to maintain connectivity with IC."

Computer World reported NIST researchers have developed two versions of the new network, "one for the 900-MHz communication channel and the other for the 2.4GHz channel. NIST said it is willing to share the prototypes with businesses and other organizations working on first responder communications systems."

National Blueprint Tags: Intelligence & Situational Awareness, Economic & Infrastructure, Response & Containment.