The purpose of this project is to identify methods to enable relief organizations to share their communications infrastructures in a secure manner.

The focus of this project will be on the IP network, although issues concerning the integration of IP and mobile telecom networks will be discussed. Ericsson Response has an agreement with the United Nations (UN) to provide communication services in emergency situations when the UN and various relief organizations initiate an emergency operation.

- "Our aim is to provide relief organizations with an Emergency Response Unit (ERU), which can be easily and promptly deployed at a site where a disaster has taken place," says Dag Nielsen, Ericsson Response program Director. "The unit will allow organizations to access the Internet with the most cost efficient and effective method of sharing their technology resources and information," states Dag.

In order to create the WIDER solution, Ericsson Response has turned to Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) for support. Under the guidance of professor Björn Pehrson, Ph.D. from KTH, a group of five students are now working on the WIDER project as part of their masters' degrees. The students come from Sweden, Greece, Pakistan and China. An Ericsson Response Volunteer, Catherine Mulligan, is working as the project manager and as a coach for the students. The WIDER project started up in January and is scheduled to be finished at the end of May.

- "Wider is part of the course "Communication System Design" in my master program in Internetworking at KTH", says Xiaoying Wang student from East China University. "There are also some other projects included in the course. But I was attracted by Wider at first glance because in my eyes it has so much significance. Technically it involves very popular and powerful technologies such as WLAN, GSM/GPRS and satellite communication. Socially our project will help the people in the disaster area a lot which also shows that technology should save the world instead of destroying it".

- "Working in an International team is very exciting and interesting idea", thinks Khurram Jahangir, student at the National University of Sciences and Technology in Pakistan. "So far the project is moving very smoothly. We have got a very good response from Ericsson Response".

Information Management is one of the most important areas of disaster response. In order to take the right decisions both locally and at HQs, the relief organizations must have access to information directly from their relief workers in the field in a timely fashion. Currently, when responding to a disaster, most relief organizations set up their own data communications infrastructures to connect to their respective head offices. This infrastructure usually includes a satellite link and HF and VHF radio communication.

Networks implemented in this fashion lead to some difficulties, as traffic intended for another user nearby would traverse the satellite link twice in order to reach its destination. This solution is very expensive for basic communication such as email.

Communication between relief workers and organizations working at the disaster zone is much more difficult due to the lack of local infrastructure. In order to improve the management of information at a disaster site, the relief organizations have stated the need for a rapidly deployable, cheap and easy to use solution for data communications in the field.