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on) in the area near the emergency. This helps in deciding where each victim must go
depending on the resources of the hospital and the condition of the victim. Furthermore,
it provides additional information that can help in making decisions in an emergency,
such as weather reports, action plans, network status, location of the PDAs, and so forth.
4.2.2 Infrastructure in Emergency Situations
Deploying an infrastructure is something complex in emergencies which require prompt
action and when the personnel is engaged in tasks that require greater attention than the
deployment of a network. Many of the systems and papers propose the use of wireless
networks using mesh nodes installed by first aid teams when arriving at the scene of the
accident [28] [8] [17] [41].
Deploying a network is more complicated in places where communication networks
are partially operating than in places where no infrastructure exists. This is due to vari-
ous factors such as interference with existing signals, saturation of these networks, and
so on. [29].
The alternative to deploy a network is using mobile ad hoc networks (MANET)
(mesh or not) in the devices of the emergency personnel. This way they can communi-
cate each other when they are close enough or if there are devices that behave as routers.
A disadvantage is that if the devices are too far they cannot communicate, since their
coverage does not reach the coverage of the another device. Several proposals to solve
the problem of lack of infrastructure in an emergency scenario exist.
The project IMPROVISA [48] addresses the provision of information services in
scenarios which, lacking a fixed communications infrastructure for any reason, require
collaboration and performance of human resources and IT. The project provides tech-
nological solutions to this problem using MANETs that communicate with each other
through wireless links. Furthermore, mobile agents are also used for the management
of the deployed network.
The article “A Situation-Aware Mobile System to Support Fire Brigades in Emer-
gency Situations” [28] describes the deployment of network and system support for
emergencies, especially fires. For the network deployment, it proposes the use of mesh
networks. Fire trucks are provided with wireless network in order to create a mesh net-
work with PDAs carried by firefighters. This mesh network is interconnected to a fixed
network (either wired or wireless) through one of its nodes. PDAs are provided with
an indicator of the mesh network coverage. When a firefighter sees the coverage level
decreases significantly and that it is about to disappear, he is responsible for installing a
node to increase the mesh coverage. These nodes are small, portable, battery-operated
and can be installed all around the area where necessary.
4.2.3 Decision Support Systems
They also urge the creation and use of a common language among all the teams, un-
derstood by all standard signals and of a compatible communication network between
groups that help to coordinate the emergency from a decentralized point of view.
To manipulate so much heterogeneous information when designing a system, it must
be carefully modeled its structure, the path followed and the decision process of the
action. This will produce some tasks that have to be physically carried out by staff.
The coordination of these tasks will also be important and will require the involvement
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