Technical challenges of information communication in disaster areas with delay tolerant networking technologies

Communication is one of the biggest problems in disaster areas. We have learned, through the Great East Japan Earthquake, that the usual telecommunication systems have almost broken due to the major earthquake and massive tsunami, and then it is very hard for the people to get the current situation, to know where/how to evacuate, even call for help. This paper expresses technical challenges to provide a communication system in disaster areas with DTN (Delay and Disruption Tolerant Networking) technologies over wide-spreading Wi-Fi technology. Two types of DTN based information sharing technologies are introduced: Wi-Fi access point with DTN functionality, and terminal to terminal communication system for establishing user oriented ad-hoc style networking in disaster areas.