Section: Application Domains

Emergency Applications

In an “emergency” application, heterogeneous nodes of a wireless network cooperate to recover from a disruptive event in a timely fashion, thereby possibly saving human lives. These wireless networks can be rapidly deployed and are useful to assess damage and take initial decisions. Their primary goal is to maintain connectivity with the humans or mobile robots (possibly in a hostile environment) in charge of network deployment. The deployment should ensure the coverage of particular points or areas of interest. The wireless network has to cope with pedestrian mobility and robot/vehicle mobility. The environment, initially unknown, is progressively discovered and may contain numerous obstacles that should be avoided. The nodes of the wireless network are usually battery-powered. Since they are placed by a robot or a human, their weight is very limited. The protocols supported by these nodes should be energy-efficient to maximize network lifetime. In such a challenging environment, sensor nodes should be replaced before their batteries are depleted. It is therefore important to be able to accurately determine the battery lifetime of these nodes, enabling predictive maintenance.