Research to determine feasability of a reliable, low-bandwidth, low-power mesh network for wildland fire management.

Reliable Low-Bandwidth Low-Power Mesh Network for Wildfire ManagementNon-Technical Summary:Wildland firefighters typically operate in remote locations and oftenrugged terrain with little to no internet communications access.Keeping track of the firefightersis often difficult especially in an emergency. The firefighters are limited to verbally self- reporting their locations primarily by using two-way radios and GPS receivers.During wildfireevents shifting winds difficult terrain and unpredictable fire activity can cause firefighters tobecome separated from their crews or trapped by the approaching fire.The precise locations ofall crew members can be difficult and sometimes impossible to track in these conditions whenrelying on existing radios and spotty internet and cellular connections.We propose to build aproof of concept reliable low-bandwidth low-power mesh network consisting of optimizedCommercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware and custom software for wildfire managementthat will automatically report GPS locations of all firefighters at frequent intervals.This willprovide supervisors and fire managers with the increased situational awareness needed to makemore informed decisions fight fires more effectively provide increased safety margin forpersonnel that are often in dangerous areas and more quickly detect and respond to medicalemergencies. Commercial-Off-The-Shelf wireless mesh network links such as the goTenna ProX pair via Bluetooth with smartphones and tablets and provide off-grid mesh networking forlow bandwidth communications including GPS location reporting and text messages.Properlyconfigured and integrated with our software the wireless mesh links paired with smartphones ortablets already carried by firefighters will connect all firefighters involved in an operation andautomatically report GPS locations to greatly enhance situational awareness and thereby reducedeaths and increase efficiency.Objectives: The major goals of this Phase I project are: 1) determine the best available wirelessmesh link 2) Determine the optimal configuration i.e. frequency antenna etc. 3) Demonstratethe ability in lab and on-site settings to automatically report GPS data across the mesh network4) Demonstrate the ability to use a wireless mesh link as a stationary relay to expand networkreach and the ability to power that relay indefinitely5) to build a prototype app that willdemonstrate overlaying GPS locations of all network users on a USFS geoPDF map and 6) todetermine whether this network can integrate with existing voice radio networks and relays.