New Cell Network Doesn't Depend on Towers
by Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor | July 20, 2010 11:33am ET
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2015-11-08 22:26:14
The infrastructure that keeps cell phones and landlines buzzing is often the first casualty of a disaster, cutting off survivors at a time when communication is most crucial. Now, Australian researchers say they can solve that problem with mobile telephone networks that don’t require cell phone towers or other vulnerable equipment.
The system, dubbed “Serval” after a species of resourceful African wildcat, relies on Wi-Fi-enabled mobiles to turn each phone into an independent router. Any two phones with the Serval software can automatically create a temporary network, allowing voice transmissions without having any data travel through a cell phone tower. [Read "."]
“It’s about bringing convenient and flexible telecommunications into situations where ordinarily it would be very difficult to do that,” said Paul Gardner-Stephen, a computer scientist at Flinders University in South Australia who heads the Serval Project.
Gardner-Stephen and his colleagues tested the phones July 9 in the wilderness north of Adelaide. Despite a complete lack of coverage, they were able to make calls to phones within a few hundred meters, simulating the type of network needed in a wilderness rescue scenario or in the aftermath of a disaster in a small village, Gardner-Stephen said.
Presently the phones can make calls only to nearby phones that run Serval software.
Deployable towers
The system works using typical phones. In this case, the team used Google’s Android phones, modifying them with mesh network software that enables the phones to self-organize into temporary networks. Additionally, the team developed software they call Distributed Numbering Architecture (DNA for short) that allows users to pre-assign their usual mobile phone number to their phone in the temporary network. That way, Gardner-Stephen said, people always have access to their usual contacts in case of a disaster.
The team is also working to develop a system of miniature phone towers, weighing no more than 22 pounds (10 kilograms) each, that could be parachuted from airplanes after a disaster such as the Haiti earthquake. The towers, which would cost about $1,000 apiece, would have a battery life of a few days, enough to keep communications running while permanent networks were repaired, Gardner-Stephen said.
The team is discussing a partnership with Red Cross New Zealand and is looking to work with other non-governmental organizations and telecommunications firms to improve the technology. With adequate funding, Gardner-Stephen said, the mesh network system could be operational in 18 months.
Potential boon
The temporary networks aren’t as high-quality or long-range as permanent, tower-based networks, so they’re unlikely to replace the current system in the developed world. But, Gardner-Stephen said, developing countries often lack coverage, especially in rural areas. Using recycled handsets fitted with Serval technology could be a cheap way to bring telecommunications to those areas.
“We can help cover black spots in the First World and provide people with free short-range telephone technology,” Gardner-Stephen said. “But also, the technology helps rather than leaves behind the poorest people in the developing world.”
AAP
In the aftermath of a natural disaster or terrorist attack, crippled telecommunications infrastructure can hamper rescue efforts.
But new technology being developed at South Australia's Flinders University could overcome this by allowing mobile phones to communicate directly with one another, bypassing the need for towers or satellites.
Dr Paul Gardiner-Stephen is leading the project and recently travelled to Arkaroola in the remote Flinders Rangers to test the technology.
"There was absolutely no infrastructure or support for the telephones so they were acting entirely on their own to carry the calls," he said.
The phones are equipped with software allowing their wi-fi capability to act as a mini tower and connect with other phones, forming their own network, Dr Gardiner-Stephen explained.
Regional users without access to conventional signals may benefit from the technology but disaster relief may be the most beneficial application.
The software lets users keep their existing number allowing people to contact one another readily in emergencies.
"One of our dreams is that every phone will come out with this one day so that if there is a disaster anywhere in the world everyone's phones will then switch over to this mode as a fallback," he said.
While the possibilities for cheap telecommunications are exciting, the system is unlikely to supercede current mobile phone systems.
"It's complementary," said Dr Gardiner-Stephen.
"When the infrastructure is available it provides excellent service.
"We can only provide a good service but the key is, when the infrastructure is knocked out we still provide good service while the traditional mobile phone network provides no service."
THIS WOULD SEEM TO HAVE OBVIOUS DISASTER-RESPONSE IMPLICATIONS:
The project includes two systems that can operate separately or be combined. One is specifically for disaster areas, and consists of a temporary, self-organizing and self-powered mobile phone network that operates via small phone towers dropped into the area by aircraft.
The second system consists of a permanent mesh-based phone network between Wi-Fi enabled mobile phones, with no tower infrastructure required. Eventually, the system will also include the “Batphone,” which will be a specially designed phone able to operate on other unlicensed frequencies.
The systems use open-source software developed by the team and dubbed Distributed Numbering Architecture (DNA). The software allows mobile phones to make calls out and receive calls on their existing numbers. The mesh network technology was developed by Village Telco and is integrated with the software to create a mesh network in which each phone acts as an independent router. . . . Dr Gardner-Stephen said the system could be operational within 18 months provided the project receives adequate funding. He said his dream was for every mobile phone to be equipped with the system so that if there is a disaster all the phones in the region will automatically switch to the mesh network mode of operation as a fallback.
First posted
Australian researchers have developed software that allows mobile phones to communicate with each other where there is no reception.
It is a new mobile phone system that promises to work anywhere and potentially help save lives in a disaster.
Researchers have gone to extraordinary lengths to test it out in a remote desert wilderness in South Australia.
In a landscape of deep valleys and rugged red ochre mountains, the tests have been a success.
They were carried out at Sillers Lookout, a lonely cliff that juts out like a long finger at Arkaroola in the Flinders Ranges.
The area is dead quiet apart from a few flies and some unexpected chatter.
Researchers from Flinders University have gone to the remote spot to prove their technology works.
They have been carrying out tests in a range of situations where there is no mobile phone reception.
Dr Paul Gardner-Stephen, who is leading the project, has made software that allows ordinary mobiles to communicate without phone towers or satellites.
"Here at Arkaroola the nearest mobile phone coverage is probably 100 to 130 kilometres away," he said.
"We are in chasms and gorges where even satellite phone would actually have a lot of trouble because you can't see enough of the sky to acquire the satellite."
Dr Gardner-Stephen says his device actually incorporates a compact version of a mobile phone tower into the phone itself.
"So using the WiFi interface that is in many phones today that you would normally use for internet or that kind of thing, we are actually carrying voice over that, but in a way that doesn't need to go back to a central repository anywhere," he said.
The signal between phones is limited to a few hundred metres but by adding more devices and small transmitters the range can be expanded to cover a much bigger area.
Dr Gardner-Stephen says the system could provide an instant mobile phone network in a disaster.
"With Haiti what was actually observed was that their mobile phone network and their landline phone network was essentially knocked out for the first 48 hours after the earthquake," he said.
"It was really about a week before it was back to the point where people could fairly readily make calls.
"What research has actually shown is that the vast majority of the response to a disaster is actually from the local people there, so if we can provide them with ease of communications as soon as possible after the earthquake, not 48 hours, not 72 hours but potentially minutes after a disaster, then we can help them to start rescuing people from rubble and generally rebuilding, maintaining law and order."
The researchers' next step is to increase range, improve sound quality and develop a way of air dropping the system into a disaster zone.
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