Wireless search and rescue: Concepts for improved capabilities

✍ Scribed by Bernard L. Malone III

• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 130 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1089-7089
• DOI: 10.1002/bltj.20024

✦ Synopsis

The terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, claimed the lives of several thousand people and caused the country to go on high alert. Immediately after they occurred, many thousands of people reached for their wireless telephones and devices to communicate with others about the event. Knowing that many of the thousands of victims in need of rescue were probably carrying mobile wireless communications devices, rescuers tried to communicate with the victims in an attempt to locate and rescue them. In the course of one of the most dramatic rescue attempts in modern history, the capabilities of wireless technology were extended as it was put to use for a purpose other than that for which it had been designed.

Because so many people now carry wireless devices, future advances in communications technology will have to incorporate the capacity to locate and communicate with wireless devices during extended disaster scenarios. This paper describes technical concepts based on experiences with wireless communication during the search-and-rescue activity at the World Trade

Center in New York City after the attack of September 11. The intent of the paper is to stimulate thinking about the development and application of wireless technology products and techniques that can aid in search-andrescue operations and can support the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security's national emergency response capability.