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Emergency Satellite Communications: Research and Standardization Activities

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Emergency Satellite Communications: Research and Standardization Activities 1 Emergency Satellite Communications: Research and Standardization Activities Tommaso Pecorella, Luca Simone Ronga, Francesco Chiti, Sara Jayousi and Laurent Franck Abstract Space communications is an ideal candidate to handle critical and emergency situations arising at a regional-to-global scale, provided an effective integration among them. The paper presents a review of solutions offered by space communication systems for early warning and emergency communication services. It includes a up-to-date review of public research and standardization activity in the field, with a specific focus on mass alerting. The main technical issues and challenges are also discussed along with the cutting-edge researches from the scientific community. Index Terms Satellite Integrated Communications; Early Warning and Emergency Response Phases Management; Research Projects and Standardization Activities. I. INTRODUCTION Climatic changes and complex political scenarios have generated unseen contexts for public authorities called to react to emergency situations. Fast chained events require an exceptional capacity of monitoring and action, often on wide areas. In the response phase, satellite commu- nication technologies provide operative communications regardless of the availability of regular terrestrial infrastructures. These capabilities are built on three major properties of satellite com- munications: (i) broadband capabilities with flexible management, (ii) inherent broadcasting and (iii) resilience with respect to Earth damages. By taking advantage of these properties in a timely T. Pecorella, F. Chiti and S. Jayousi are with Università di Firenze (Italy) L.S. Ronga is with CNIT Firenze (Italy) L. Franck is with Telecom Bretagne (France) February 26, 2015 DRAFT 2 manner, it is possible to effectively apply it to manage the early warning and emergency response phases. With this aim, we present a review of research and standardization activities, focusing specifically on mass alerting. Additionally, we discuss some relevant scientific and technical challenges that will improve the effectiveness of satellite communications. A. Early warning and emergency response Satellite communications solutions are deployed at various level of the end-to-end early warn- ing chain. COSPAS- SARSAT (Cosmicheskaya Sistyema Poiska Avariynikh Sudov - Search And Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking) payloads embarked on-board of non geostationary (LEOSAR) or geostationary (GEOSAR) satellites are able to detect, locate and forward emergency signals sent from compliant beacons. Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations, as Iridium or Globalstar, provide short message services that are used for sending warning messages. For example, the national plan for flood detection and warning in Haiti relies on a combination of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Iridium Short Burst Data Message Service for sending flood detection alerts to a crisis center. Satellite communications can also be used for sending warning messages to the actual recipients. In the Haiti flooding warning systems mentioned priorly, sirens are triggered through satellites. Finally, satellite backhaul links can be used as backup trunks for critical communications, among them, early warning networks. [Fig. 1 about here.] Early warning systems may benefit from the integration of different heterogeneous space systems. Galileo (Global Navigation Satellite System - GNSS) can provide small data broadcast to low cost receivers; real-time sensors over wide areas can be efficiently polled by GEO-based phone systems (i.e., Immarsat, Turaya). A global picture of the evolving context is depicted in Figure 1. All the main space components (data collecting, navigation, interactive data and broadcast) are here integrated to provide a common early warning system. When the disaster event strikes, a priority for the first responders is to conduct a rapid assessment of the situation and proceed with the initial response missions. Voice and facsimile are favourite bearers of information. Because time is a critical resource, satellite phones and portable satellite terminals, such as Inmarsat BGAN (Broadband Global Area Network) are the preferred technologies. They are easily available, portable and worldwide provide voice and limited data capabilities. However, as the operation continues to be rolled-out, the intermediate stages of February 26, 2015 DRAFT 3 emergency management (e.g., field headquarters) are also deployed with two consequences: (i) to shift the need for long haul communications from the field to the headquarters, and (ii) to increase the communications requirements, both in volume and services. Satellite VSATs (Very Small Aperture Terminals) are, then, the favourite choice, as they provide broadband capabilities with the capability to backhaul terrestrial traffic coming from PMR (Professional Mobile Radio), cellular, Voice over IP (VoIP) or wireless networks. These satellite communication hubs are often located so that the satellite access resources can be mutualised among the various organisations that are involved in emergency response. B. General Communications Architecture Though information broadcasting is a natural feature of satellites, the recent growth of machine- to-machine (M2M) data exchanges and massive improvements of space-borne radio links created the basis for new emergency related services provided by space systems. These features might be advantageously applied to more complex scenarios for supporting critical missions, improving the flexibility, reactivity, robustness and effectiveness of intervention by means of an efficient and flexible coordination of all the involved nodes. It may be achieved with ad hoc and application driven networking, complementing the classical telecommunications infrastructure and possibly involving all the potential actors, which are federated in order to accomplish data gathering to achieve context awareness, processing and dissemination tasks, as well as, distributed decision making and reconfiguration of the main parameters of the critical mission. In particular, it possi- bly involves heterogeneous satellites together with and both manned (i.e., MAVs) or unmanned (i.e., UAVs) aircraft. To generalize as much as possible, the architecture consists on a a dynamic topology relying on the following nodes, as explained in Fig.2: • heterogeneous satellites. • Satellite Earth Station (SESs). • High Altitude Platforms (HAPs), which are in charge of improving coverage by intercon- necting isolated domains. It could be accomplished by directly providing connectivity to ground forces, or forming a backbone (so that the resulting topology is a mesh), or also involving intermediate nodes acting as relays. • UAVs, normally in charge of monitoring and sensing a specific region: they can be isolated or act in group with predetermined instructions. February 26, 2015 DRAFT 4 • MAVs, that make the decisions and intervene on the basis of the fused and processed information. • Network Control Center (NCC). [Fig. 2 about here.] II. RESEARCH PROJECTS AND STANDARDIZATION ACTIVITIES A review of public research and standardization activity in Europe is reported in the following sections. A. Public Research Activity The increasing interest on emergency services provided by space is proven by the growing number of research projects addressing this theme. A not exhaustive list of ongoing or recently concluded projects is provided below. Alert4All: Alert4All (Alert for All, EU FP7 2011-2013) project developed an advanced concept for alert and emergency communications from a European perspective. Alert4All investigated five major investigation areas: Authorities and Responders Operations, Human Behavior, Role of New Media, Information Management and Communications Technologies. MAIA: MAIA (Mobile Alert InformAtion system using satellites, EU FP7 2008-2010) project is a feasibility study of a satellite-based system aiming at supporting alert and information dissemination using mobile satellite services in S-band over Europe. The MAIA Alerting System provides one-way messaging from the Civil Protection (CP) agencies to the citizens, where ter- restrial and satellite based communications are integrated to enable message reception diversity. CHORIST: CHORIST (Integrating Communications for enHanced envirOnmental RISk man- agement and citizens safeTy, EU FP6 2006-2009) addressed environmental risk management in relation to natural hazards and industrial accidents. The CHORIST project developed a system composed by three subsystems: a risk assessment report subsystem, a warning message dissemination subsystem and a rapidly deployable telecommunication subsystem. MASSCRISCOM: MASSCRISCOM (Mass Crisis Communication with the Public, EU FP7 2009-2011), whose general objective was to achieve an increased common capability in society to communicate between competent authorities and the public in crises. Participating partners in the study were mainly emergency agencies form northern European countries. The main component devised in the MASSCRISCOM project is the Crisis Communication Centre (CCC). February 26, 2015 DRAFT 5 ALIVE (ESA): The ESA ALIVE (ALert Interface Via EGNOS, 2007-2008) concept is a proposal put forward by ESA to provide emergency communications through SBAS (Satellite- Based Augmentation System, such as EGNOS). ALIVE is conceived to act as an interface between the various disaster management centres and the users (general public) in distress. The purpose is to provide the users in distress
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