WC Archive

He noted that emergency crews currently use cellular-based digital communications that require a backbone network and provide limited throughput over long distances. The WIDENS network, by contrast, is composed of ‘terminodes’ – versatile software-defined radio communication nodes with mixed enhanced handset terminal and IP Router features for greater throughput.

“WIDENS complements existing systems with high bandwidth (2Mbit/s) over a dedicated emergency area of a few square kilometres,” he explains. “Higher throughput means the possibility to exchange large amounts of sensor data such as images for telemedicine applications, or to use video-surveillance. WIDENS is also straightforward to deploy in the field as there is no need to install any specific equipment such as aerials. The network sets up automatically.”

Versatility is one of the primary strengths of the WIDENS system. For instance, the network can be used as a standalone system to provide communications in remote regions while being connected to backbone network and/or command and control centres via satellite or airborne platforms. WIDENS is also designed to serve as a ‘healing overlay network’ for areas where there is a lack of network capacity to support emergency-related traffic or in areas where the communication infrastructure has been destroyed.

Put simply, WIDENS uses software-defined radio to set up relatively high-bandwidth connections between various remote terminals, including mobile devices, within a given area. This allows first responders to communicate with each other, including sending video and sensor data. Moreover, as an "ad hoc" network, there's no single device required as a central router; instead, nearly any device on the network can route packets of data from one unit to another. This gives the system a greater resistance to outages -- a packet can follow any possible path to get from a device to its target, even if that means looping through dozens of other devices. Transmission rates may be slower than with WiFi and other routed wireless networks, but the system is far more robust.

The main advantage of something like this is that it's very easy to set up and go, adding new units and devices as they arrive, making it perfect for rapid disaster relief efforts. Since it uses regular Internet protocol packets, the information and communication can also easily be routed out to external networks using something like the Net.Relief.Kit.

Initial tests of the WIDENS system have been completed, and the developers are now working on fixing the problems that have been found, and improving overall performance. The WIDENS code is intended to be open source, and will soon be found at the Open Air Interface website.