Towards efficient disaster management: 5G and Device to Device communication

Recent events of multiple earthquakes in Nepal and resulting loss of life and resources bring our attention to the ever growing significance of disaster management, especially in the context of large scale nature disasters such as earthquake and Tsunami. In this paper, we focus on how disaster management can benefit from recent advances in wireless communication technologies and protocols, especially mobile technologies and devices. The paper provides an overview of how the new generation of telecommunications and technologies such as 5G, Device to Device, 4G/LTE, and software defined radio can improve the potential of disaster management networks. Our survey is different from existing surveys in that we focus on recent advances and ongoing research directions in disaster management with the focus being on the use of ubiquitous mobile devices and applications.