Lifetime enhancement of disaster recovery systems based on IEEE 802.11s wireless mesh networks

After the occurrence of a disaster one of the main needs for the rescue teams and volunteer helpers is a functional communication infrastructure even during the first hours. The disaster recovery system (DRS) proposed here is based on an IEEE 802.11s wireless mesh network which is set up by non damaged legacy, mesh capable and battery powered devices still available in the disaster region. For lifetime enhancement, which is a key challenge for the proposed DRS based on battery powered devices, an algorithm is proposed which enhances the lifetime of such a system by an approach which allows to shut down non necessary nodes and to keep them for a later usage while still keeping network connectivity. The achievable lifetime enhancement is evaluated through simulation and compared to theoretical results. Finally, the network performance achievable with the proposed lifetime enhancement algorithm for disaster recovery systems (LEA-DRS) is validated by a network simulation in ns-3 evaluating a Voice over IP connection between two nodes (e.g. between two rescuers).