This work has been supported in part by the MacArthur Foundation.
After major disasters such as the attacks of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina along the US Gulf Coast, and the 2004 Tsunami in Asia, many lives depend on the effectiveness of "first responders" such as firefighters, police, paramedics, public health workers, and the National Guard. These first responders depend on their wireless communications systems, and in too many cases, these communications systems have proved to be inadequate. Indeed, problems occur on a smaller scale every day. The goal of this research is to find ways to improve wireless communications systems for first responders. This includes elimiating interoperability problems, improving spectral efficiency, improving dependability and fault tolerance, improving security, and introducing new capabilities such as broadband communications, geolocation, and autoconfiguration.
Some sample papers are available at
www.ece.cmu.edu/~peha/safety.html