Design and analysis of a WBAN-based system for firefighters

An efficient and safe firefighting activity requires a continuous sensing and monitoring of environmental conditions and firefighters´ health, to react efficiently to the fire incident, and detect life-threatening situations. These requirements can be achieved through the development of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) for firefighters. In this work, we design a WBAN based firefighting system. A cluster-based hierarchical topology is designed and a cooperative communication model is proposed, allowing firefighters to work in groups. We also propose two novel models for placing firefighters and coordinating their activities. These models allow a team leader to move randomly around the fire area and inside a combat zone modeled by a thick ring, while attracting the other firefighters of his group to follow approximately his trajectory. A simulation is conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed system and models.