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Simplifying relief communications
Ericsson Response has been using its experience in disaster relief to establish good working relationships with UN-affiliated and private relief organizations. This cooperation has resulted in an agreement with the United Nations to facilitate communication services.
August 2, 2007
During the past four years, Ericsson has developed a secure network for use during relief operations. The network, based on IP and WLAN, virtually negates the need for response organizations to bring large-scale communication equipment to disaster scenes.
Dag Nielsen, Ericsson Response Director, explains: "Almost every organization used to have its own high-frequency radio capability for communication at the scene, and big satellite dishes for external and HQ communications. But there was virtually no coordination between organizations and poor on-site communication within organizations."
Many on-site communications were directed via satellite to an organization's headquarters and then back to the scene of the disaster. As a consequence, communication between two volunteers separated by a few hundred meters was transferred via satellite, which was expensive. Having several large satellite dishes on site was also expensive, not to mention the physical problems of actually getting equipment there.
In 2002, Ericsson Response proposed building a system that several organizations could use simultaneously at a disaster site. And in 2003, Ericsson Response teamed up with the IT University in Stockholm to develop an efficient and cost-effective solution. Then, in 2004, the WIDER (Wireless Local Area Network in Disaster Emergency Response) project was established in collaboration with the United Nations and trialed in Geneva, Switzerland. Ericsson's demonstration of WIDER to the Red Cross and Red Crescent was also well received.
The solution was soon being tested for real in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, following the tsunami of December 26, 2004. It was also deployed in the aftermath of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake in Muzafferabad, where 20 Ericsson Response volunteers spent nine months, initially installing the solution and then providing support to the UN camp. All camp communications were facilitated by WIDER, including access to a web server with all essential emergency-related information. The system was connected to the internet via a satellite link.
"That work in Pakistan was a landmark because it was the first time the UN organizations on site were able to work together on the same network at a disaster scene," Nielsen says. "That proved the benefits of the solution, which was very well received."
Further refinements of the solution resulted from trials in Norway and Spain in 2006 and 2007. Today the solution products stand ready for immediate deployment from Ericsson's headquarters in Stockholm.
