Feasibility study of a SDR-based reconfigurable terminal for emergency applications

Today, more attention is paid to emergency systems and rescuer organizations due to the increasing sensitivity to natural disasters and terrorist attacks. In this paper, we would consider the feasibility of telecommunication technologies that can enhance the interconnection between accident zones and rescue teams. A novel philosophy inspired by Software Defined Radios is proposed in order to design a reconfigurable receiver for rescue team assistance in emergency scenarios, which can encompass some basic functionalities, i) spectrum sensing and automatic mode identification, ii) dynamic multistandard reconfigurability, iii) navigation and communication integration. Results shown can prove the feasibility of the software implementation of the reconfigurable terminal over suitable processing architectures, characterized by affordable cost and open-source software development.