SAFIRE: A Self-Organizing Architecture for Information Exchange between First Responders

Disaster response requires quick and timely mobilization of relief efforts to save lives and property. Fundamental to these efforts is a reliable communications infrastructure that allows the disaster response teams to coordinate and exchange information in an efficient manner. Existing solutions for disaster response are inadequate as they suffer from interoperability problems and lack the appropriate amount of flexibility. In this paper, we propose SAFIRE, a novel multi-hop architecture for facilitating fast and reliable information exchange between first responders. The salient features of SAFIRE are (1) A decentralized cognitive radio-based approach for supporting direct communication between first responders, (2) A publish-subscribe mechanism for exchanging information among first responders, and (3) A flexible multi-layered policy framework for optimally configuring the system. We present the challenges in designing SAFIRE, and outline its basic components. We believe our exploration of such an architecture opens up a set of unique challenges related to the integration of different systems to realize SAFIRE, giving rise to new avenues for research in communication systems for disaster response.