Description:

Providing responsive and effective public safety requires highly coordinated and interoperable communications infrastructure and information systems. Achievement of these goals is particularly challenging in rural and sparsely populated areas, where the lack of communications infrastructure, large distances and difficult terrain contribute additional complexities. In this project, we explore the feasibility of using mobile ad hoc networks in rural areas for public safety related emergency communications. Specifically, we are evaluating existing standard ad hoc routing protocols using the real-life rural emergency scenarios and are developing a novel QoS aware protocol to meet all the performance requirements.