Virtual Access Points for Disaster Scenarios

This work focuses on increasing the network coverage for stream traffic in disaster scenarios, which is often critical for preventing damages to property and, most importantly, loss of life. The technique described here, based on the so-called virtual access points (VAPs), and increases the network coverage in a non intrusive and transparent way. It creates a distributed and cooperative cache among the mobile nodes in the affected area. When using the VAP technique, nodes cooperatively work as virtual access points rebroadcasting messages they have in their own cache helping nodes that didn´t have access to those pieces of message. The main advantages include that the proposed technique does not rely on any specific characteristic of the network, is transparent, and achieves highly improves the efficiency of stream traffic dissemination resulting in much lower message loss. Our results show that VAPs greatly enhance network coverage. In fact, for some of the scenarios presented, it allows the system to remain operational under conditions it would otherwise be inadequate for stream traffic.