Radio environment map (REM): An approach for provision wireless communications in disaster areas

In this paper we propose radio environment map (REM) as a mean for setting up and maintaining wireless communications in disaster areas providing services to public protection disaster relief (PPDR) forces and disaster victims. The wireless communication infrastructure is expected to be partially or fully damaged in the disaster area, resulting in an unknown radio environment. In our approach, the initial base station parameters are estimated by applying the knowledge of the radio environment prior to the disaster and by an initial spectrum sensing, while during the operation phase the base station parameters are updated based on the REM, which relies on distributed spectrum sensing. The REM implementation using the open source geographical information system GRASS and its add-on RaPlaT is described.