Communication coverage awareness for self-aligning wireless communication in disaster operations

Broad band communication in international disaster response actions is becoming more and more important. The information exchange between field commanders and tactical commanders lead to a better situational awareness on all layers of disaster management. After large scale disasters the communication infrastructure is often destroyed. Setting up a communication infrastructure is essential in todays disaster response actions. As organizations in disaster response actions are not consisting of IT experts, the setup and installation has to be easy. For example [1] presents such a system. Furthermore the knowledge where to deploy wireless communication gateways and wireless relay nodes is essential. Consequently the positions of field commanders can not only be based on tactical needs but also on communication needs. In this paper we present a simulation based visualization tool which helps to evaluate deployment locations for communication equipment to achieve adequate communication coverage with respect to specific disaster related information. This allows an optimal positioning of relay nodes and field commanders in the field to ensure broad band communication in disaster response actions and thus faster help for the people.