An Overview of Emergency Communication Networks

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This article provides a very detailed overview of the current state of emergency communication network technologies, including satellite networks, self-organizing networks, cellular networks, and wireless private networks. The article as a whole is logical and grammatically correct, but the only drawback is that the subheadings of the article are easily confused with the main headings, so we suggest replacing them.

Author Response

Reviewer 1

This article provides a very detailed overview of the current state of emergency communication network technologies, including satellite networks, self-organizing networks, cellular networks, and wireless private networks.

Comments:

The article as a whole is logical and grammatically correct, but the only drawback is that the subheadings of the article are easily confused with the main headings, so we suggest replacing them.

Author response:

Thanks for the positive comments and the authors are thankful for the significant recommendations. In response to the reviewer’s comments, we have optimized and modified the entire title, and all the changes have been highlighted in the article.

Changes:

The manuscript has been modified accordingly and is highlighted in Yellow in the actual manuscript.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

This survey paper is very suitable for knowledge and understanding of state-of-the-art emergency communication networks. Especially, the paper gives an insight to the readers who wish to aquire a concept about emergency networks. Also, this paper is well written and well organized. 

Author Response

Reviewer 2

This survey paper is very suitable for knowledge and understanding of state-of-the-art emergency communication networks. Especially, the paper gives an insight to the readers who wish to aquire a concept about emergency networks. Also, this paper is well written and well organized.

Author response:

Thanks for the positive comments and suggestions. We have optimized the paper and hope it will be satisfactory to you.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The reviewer would like to thank the authors for this thoughtful manuscript. This work has good potential. The authors are requested to put in some additional efforts to improve the quality of this manuscript. 

Introduction 

The authors are requested to elaborate more on the natural disasters and cite the following article that reported a major disaster over the Himalayas with satellite data. The event largely impacted the local human livelihoods as well as manmade infrastructure. How can emergency communication networks help in pre and post-disaster management?

-Shugar et al, A massive rock and ice avalanche caused the 2021 disaster at Chamoli, Indian Himalaya, Science, 2021.

Role of Earth Observation Satellites As Early Warning Communication System

Please include the role of Earth observation or remote sensing satellites in monitoring slowly creeping climate change related events such as dissipating cryospheric entities, which gives rise to events such as downstream droughts and avalanches. Please highlight the contributions of the following articles in achieving such observational requirement.

-Muhuri et al., “Snow cover mapping using polarization fraction variation with temporal RADARSAT-2 C-band full-polarimetric SAR data over the Indian Himalayas”, IEEE JSTARS, 2018. 

-Tsai, Y.L.S., et al., 2019. Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review. Remote Sensing.

-Qiao, H., et al., 2021. A New Geostationary Satellite-Based Snow Cover Recognition Method for FY-4A AGRI. IEEE JSTARS.

Table: Advantages and Limitations of Each System

The authors are requested to tabulate the available system and provide advantages and limitations for each system.

Interoperability 

Please provide a diagram that shows the scope of interoperability of these systems in case of a disaster.

Conclusion 

The authors are requested to list the key contributions in this section. At the moment the section is not detailed enough.

Author Response

Reviewer 3

The reviewer would like to thank the authors for this thoughtful manuscript. This work has good potential. The authors are requested to put in some additional efforts to improve the quality of this manuscript.

Comments:

1. Introduction

The authors are requested to elaborate more on the natural disasters and cite the following article that reported a major disaster over the Himalayas with satellite data. The event largely impacted the local human livelihoods as well as manmade infrastructure.

-Shugar et al, A massive rock and ice avalanche caused the 2021 disaster at Chamoli, Indian Himalaya, Science, 2021.

Author response:

Thanks for constructive suggestions and comments. We have revised the introduction section of contributions according to the reviewer's following remarks.

Changes:

From 1894 to 2021, the Uttarakhand Himalaya has witnessed at least 16 major disasters. In 2021, the glaciers in the Himalaya Mountains broke, causing a series of floods, mudslides, avalanches and other disasters, which destroyed many bridges, dams, power stations, tunnels and villages in Chamoli, North Akande, India, leaving 174 people unaccounted for and 32 dead. If adequate communications support can be provided in the aftermath of a disaster, we believe that casualties and property damage can be reduced.

Reference:

Shugar D H, Jacquemart M, Shean D, et al. A massive rock and ice avalanche caused the 2021 disaster at Chamoli, Indian Himalaya. Science, 2021, 373(6552): 300-306.

2. How can emergency communication networks help in pre and post-disaster management?

Author response:

Authors are thankful for careful consideration and useful remarks. In response to the reviewer's comments, we added content on the role of emergency communication networks before and after disasters in the introduction section.

Changes:

Before a disaster, the emergency communication network can combine the data obtained from different systems to provide a technical platform for early warning, disaster reduction and prediction, so as to improve the ability to monitor, manage and control accidents and disasters. After a disaster, the emergency communication network can quickly and reliably restore communication in the disaster area, assist users, rescue workers and disaster relief headquarters, realize on-site personnel scheduling, on-site data transmission and other functions, to promote emergency rescue work, provide valuable time and first-hand information for rescue, so as to save more lives.

3. Role of Earth Observation Satellites As Early Warning Communication System

Please include the role of Earth observation or remote sensing satellites in monitoring slowly creeping climate change related events such as dissipating cryospheric entities, which gives rise to events such as downstream droughts and avalanches. Please highlight the contributions of the following articles in achieving such observational requirement.

-Muhuri et al., “Snow cover mapping using polarization fraction variation with temporal RADARSAT-2 C-band full-polarimetric SAR data over the Indian Himalayas”, IEEE JSTARS, 2018.

-Tsai, Y.L.S., et al., 2019. Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review. Remote Sensing.

-Qiao, H., et al., 2021. A New Geostationary Satellite-Based Snow Cover Recognition Method for FY-4A AGRI. IEEE JSTARS.

Author response:

Thanks for the positive comments and the authors are thankful for the significant recommendations. In response to the reviewer’s comments, action has been taken following the suggested paper to introduce the role of Earth observation or remote sensing satellites in monitoring slowly creeping climate change-related events.

Changes:

With the development of satellite communication technology, earth observation satellite remote sensing technology has been extended. This technology uses the visible light, infrared and microwave sensors built on satellites to detect and identify the earth's resources and environmental information by collecting the electromagnetic radiation data of the earth's surface and near-earth space. At present, it has been widely used in many fields such as land natural resources survey, marine ecological environment protection, meteorological disaster prediction and so on. NISAR is a "dual-frequency" synthetic aperture radar imaging satellite built by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Its primary purpose is to spot potential natural disasters, help monitor groundwater supply, track ice sheet melting rates associated with sea level rise, and observe changes in the distribution of vegetation around the world. With the rapid increase of the number of remote sensing satellite platforms, remote sensing satellite snow monitoring has been widely used. Tsai et al. [57] used spaceborne SAR to detect the snow cover area, so as to better understand the global snow cover dynamics. Haiwei Qiao et al. [58] proposed a snow cover recognition method based on FY-4A AGRI geostationary satellite data, which can accurately and effectively identify snow cover phenomena. Muhuri et al. [59] used satellite sensors to monitor the snow coverage of the Himalayas, which can timely detect snow cover and snow melt, and predict the occurrence of avalanches, floods and other natural disasters.

Reference:

[57] Tsai Y-LS, Dietz A, Oppelt N, Kuenzer C. Remote Sensing of Snow Cover Using Spaceborne SAR: A Review. Remote Sensing. 2019; 11(12):1456.

[58] Haiwei Qiao et al., A New Geostationary Satellite-Based Snow Cover Recognition Method for FY-4A AGRI. IEEE JSTARS. 2021.

[59] Muhuri, Arnab, Manickam et al., Snow Cover Mapping Using Polarization Fraction Variation with Temporal RADARSAT-2 C-Band Full-Polarimetric SAR Data Over the Indian Himalayas. IEEE JSTARS, 2018.

4. Table: Advantages and Limitations of Each System

The authors are requested to tabulate the available system and provide advantages and limitations for each system.

Author response:

Thanks for the constructive suggestions and comments the manuscript has been revised accordingly.

Changes:

As shown in Table 7, describe the features of various emergency communication technologies from six aspects: characteristics, advantages, disadvantages, existing schemes, application scenarios and development directions. Satellite communication system has the advantages of large communication capacity, low bit error rate, flexible networking, high communication quality and wide coverage, and has the disadvantages of high cost, high latency and communication blind spots. At present, the implemented schemes include VSAT, Inmarsat, Starlink, Tiantong-1, and Beidou, which are mainly applied in the fields of personal positioning, marine ecological environment protection, meteorological disaster prediction, and will mainly develop in the direction of miniaturization, low-cost, and hybrid networks in the future. Wireless ad hoc network has the advantages of flexible networking, wide network coverage, self-organization, self-healing and self-balancing, high network reliability and high scalability, However, their delay is high and bandwidth capacity is limited. Existing technologies include WMN, MANET, VANET, FANET, SANET, mainly used in mine emergency rescue, fire protection, earthquake, military communication, marine surveillance, and will move towards Miniaturization, Low attenuation, low bandwidth, portability, and hybrid networks. Cellular mobile communication has the advantages of unrestricted distance, wide coverage area and low cost. At the same time, it is insufficient in terms of stability and anti-jamming capability. The technologies currently used include D2D, 5G, and 6G, which can be applied in the fields of military field, medical treatment, security, household, transportation, and construction. In the future, it is necessary to improve its coverage and communication capacity through hybrid networks. Wireless private network communication technology has high reliability and high security, but its high cost, small communication capacity. The technologies currently used are mainly PDT, DMR, DPMR, P25 technology, PMR, LTE, TETRA, which are widely used in the fields of public security, fire protection, rescue, petrochemical and earthquake. In the future, different technologies need to unify standards and develop in the direction of fixed-mobile integration, broadband-narrowband integration, and public-private completion.

5. Interoperability

Please provide a diagram that shows the scope of interoperability of these systems in case of a disaster.

Author response:

Thanks for the constructive suggestions and comments the manuscript has been revised accordingly. We added a diagram to illustrate the interoperability between systems.

Changes:

To sum up, each emergency communication network technology has its own advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, in the field of emergency communication, various networks should be used together to complement each other's advantages and cooperate with each other, so as to better complete more complex communication tasks. A typical collaborative network scenario is shown in Figure 13. The system integrates satellite communication systems, cellular networks, wireless private network and ad hoc network to obtain resilient post-disaster communication services through collaboration with various systems. The accident scene and the rescue command center realize data, voice and video services through the cellular network. When cellular communication is interrupted due to major accidents and disasters, the wireless private network can be used to continue communication. The system can expand the communication range by means of ad hoc network. Due to the advantages of the rapid and flexible deployment of UAVs in complex environments, FANTE can be used to provide wireless network access services for air platforms. The emergency network at the disaster site can be deployed by emergency communication vehicles, but in the face of complex terrain environments such as earthquakes and floods, satellite communication system is a better choice. In general, in the face of sudden large-scale natural disasters and public emergencies, a single communication network technology cannot guarantee communication needs, so the emergency communication network should integrate multiple communication technologies to ensure normal communication.

6. Conclusion 

The authors are requested to list the key contributions in this section. At the moment the section is not detailed enough.

Author response:

Authors are thankful for careful consideration and useful remarks. In response to the reviewer's comments, we list the key contributions in the conclusion section.

Changes:

Different from traditional communication networks, emergency communication network has the characteristics of fast communication speed, unfixed communication location and high flexibility, which can effectively make up for the deficiency of communication network. Establishing an emergency network is a prerequisite for the smooth implementation of rescue and recovery after geological disasters. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of emergency communication network, highlighting their classifications, characteristics, applications and development directions. The main findings of this review are summarized as follows:

• The application of communication network is introduced by citing different examples. Subsequently, characteristics and importance of emergency communication network are discussed.
• The classification of emergency communication network under different standards are introduced, and then describes the advantages, disadvantages and applications of different network technologies, such as satellite network, WMN, MANET, VANET, FANET, SANET, cellular networks, wireless private networks.
• This paper summarizes a large number of emergency communication schemes currently in use, analyzes the challenges of the schemes, and puts forward some possible directions.
• A solution case study is introduced: a portable broadband-narrowband integrated emergency communication command system. The characteristics, topology structure and application method of the case are introduced in detail, and the system is tested in the field. The test results show that the communication distance of the system is 15~20km, which provides a communication guarantee for the visual dispatching of emergency rescue.
• The problems, challenges and future research directions of the emergency communication network have been prospected, and the development trend of the space-air-ground-sea integration networks is emphatically introduced.

Finally, emergency network mainly consists of satellite network, narrowband private network, broadband private network and cellular network, and integrating various networking technologies. As public network communication starts from 4G to 5G, digital cluster private network is gradually evolving to broadband multimedia direction. Broadband private network is driven by the demand of complex emergency communication scenes, and has become the mainstream trend of communication construction in major countries around the world. In the field of emergency communication, various networks should be combined to form an integrated network with complementary advantages and mutual cooperation, so as to better complete more complex communication tasks. In the future, the emergency network will develop in the direction of intelligence, integration, popularization, low cost and integration of space-air-ground-sea. With the continuous development of economy and society, the emergency communication network has been further improved and more new network technologies have emerged, which will further promote the rapid implementation of emergency rescue work.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

This paper offers extensive research regarding emergency communication technology, with a systematic review of the literature. As a survey paper, I’m not sure why the authors proposed a solution in section 3.3 with some basic characteristics of a proposed solution. Even without this section author provided a quality manuscript..

The results section may be renamed to review of the xx technology etc.

The paper lacks one large table that summarizes all available and existing technologies/approaches and provides some additional info as follows:

• Who is the end user of this network (civilian, fist responder etc.)
• What kind of service network may provide (voice, data, short messages, one-way or two-way communication, bandwidth) etc.
• Availability (proposed or existing)

Additionally, there is no info about analog private communication networks that are still today used (combination of PMR + repeater) or their digital derivates like DPMR/ DMR (used by my local fire services). Info and a few comments may be added in Section 3.1.4,

It is not clear why Section 3.4.1. is included I the manuscript?

Some minor comments:

Additionally, some abbreviations are not described when the first time apparat is in the text (eg MANET line 288, MIMO line 297 etc.)

Line 67-77, should those bullets be the same sentence (bullets?)

Line 754, someone proposed but there is a clear reference and author provided.

Author Response

Reviewer 4

This paper offers extensive research regarding emergency communication technology, with a systematic review of the literature.

Comments:

1. As a survey paper, I’m not sure why the authors proposed a solution in section 3.3 with some basic characteristics of a proposed solution. Even without this section author provided a quality manuscript.

Author response:

Authors are thankful for careful consideration and useful remarks. In response to the reviewer's comments, our explanation is that the solution introduced in Section 3.3 is the direction that our research group is currently studying. The scheme covers private network technology, trunking technology, satellite communication technology and cellular network technology. At present, the system has been applied in the fields of fire protection and mine rescue, and our research team is developing and upgrading the system.

Changes:

We have changed the subheading of this section to introduce it as a case study.

2. The results section may be renamed to review of the xx technology etc.

Author response:

Thanks for positive comments and authors are thankful for significant recommendations. In response to reviewer’s comments, we have optimized and modified the title of the results section.

Changes:

The manuscript has been modified accordingly and are highlighted in Yellow in the actual manuscript.

3. The paper lacks one large table that summarizes all available and existing technologies/approaches and provides some additional info as follows:

• Who is the end user of this network (civilian, first responder etc.)
• What kind of service network may provide (voice, data, short messages, one-way or two-way communication, bandwidth) etc.
• Availability (proposed or existing)

Author response:

Thanks for constructive suggestions and comments and manuscript has been revised accordingly.

Changes:

As shown in Table 7, describe the features of various emergency communication technologies from six aspects: characteristics, advantages, disadvantages, existing schemes, application scenarios and development directions. Satellite communication system has the advantages of large communication capacity, low bit error rate, flexible networking, high communication quality and wide coverage, and has the disadvantages of high cost, high latency and communication blind spots. At present, the implemented schemes include VSAT, Inmarsat, Starlink, Tiantong-1, and Beidou, which are mainly applied in the fields of personal positioning, marine ecological environment protection, meteorological disaster prediction, and will mainly develop in the direction of miniaturization, low-cost, and hybrid networks in the future. Wireless ad hoc network has the advantages of flexible networking, wide network coverage, self-organization, self-healing and self-balancing, high network reliability and high scalability, However, their delay is high and bandwidth capacity is limited. Existing technologies include WMN, MANET, VANET, FANET, SANET, mainly used in mine emergency rescue, fire protection, earthquake, military communication, marine surveillance, and will move towards Miniaturization, Low attenuation, low bandwidth, portability, and hybrid networks. Cellular mobile communication has the advantages of unrestricted distance, wide coverage area and low cost. At the same time, it is insufficient in terms of stability and anti-jamming capability. The technologies currently used include D2D, 5G, and 6G, which can be applied in the fields of military field, medical treatment, security, household, transportation, and construction. In the future, it is necessary to improve its coverage and communication capacity through hybrid networks. Wireless private network communication technology has high reliability and high security, but its high cost, small communication capacity. The technologies currently used are mainly PDT, DMR, DPMR, P25 technology, PMR, LTE, TETRA, which are widely used in the fields of public security, fire protection, rescue, petrochemical and earthquake. In the future, different technologies need to unify standards and develop in the direction of fixed-mobile integration, broadband-narrowband integration, and public-private completion.

4. Additionally, there is no info about analog private communication networks that are still today used (combination of PMR + repeater) or their digital derivates like DPMR/ DMR (used by my local fire services). Info and a few comments may be added in Section 3.1.4.

Author response:

Thank you for careful consideration and useful comments. In response to reviewer’s comments, manuscript has been updated with the addition about analog private communication networks in section 3.1.4.

Changes:

The Wireless private network, represented by digital trunking wireless communication system, which has the characteristics of high confidentiality, high reliability and low service cost. It is mainly used in specific fields such as public security, fire protection, rescue, petrochemical and so on. Private network mobile communication system includes interphone, non-central digital system and trunking communication system, of which interphone is a two-way communication tool, it suitable for real-time communication, emergency dispatching and collective cooperation, especially when natural disasters destroy the public network infrastructure and cannot communicate, its role will be more obvious. Trunked mobile system is a special dispatching communication system, belonging to the advanced development stage of the private radio dispatching network. The system can dynamically, automatically, quickly and optimally distribute the limited channels to all users of the whole system, so as to make the maximum use of the channel frequency resources of the whole system. At present, 800MHz wireless trunking mobile communication system has been gradually established in various cities in China. Trunked mobile communication network can be divided into two types: Public Access Mobile Radio (PAMR) network and Private Mobile Radio (PMR) network. So far, digital private communication commonly used standards include Digital Mobile Radio (DMR), Digital Private Mobile Radio (DPMR) and PDT. The DMR standard adopts Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technology, supports single call, full call, group call, selective call modes, and also supports direct mode communication without base station. DPMA is a narrowband (6.25KHz) Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) technology that can provide various forms of voice/data applications. PDT standard adopts TDMA multiple access mode and is based on the Chinese public security market. It not only supports low-cost single-base station system communication, but also can achieve efficient regional coverage. While satisfying the basic business, it also adds innovative functions such as simulcast and dynamic frequency resource management. In earthquake, wind disaster, fire and other emergency events, the private communication network can quickly access the rescue dispatching platform, to realize flexible networking, efficient command and dispatching, high-quality voice and data transmission and other functions.

5. It is not clear why Section 3.4.1. is included I the manuscript?

Author response:

Authors are thankful for careful consideration and useful remarks. We have checked the person pronouns question of paper.

Changes:

The manuscript has been modified accordingly and are highlighted in Yellow in the actual manuscript.

6. Additionally, some abbreviations are not described when the first time apparat is in the text (eg MANET line 288, MIMO line 297 etc.)

Author response:

Authors are thankful for careful consideration and useful remarks. We have improved the abbreviation of the article to make it easier to read.

Changes:

Professional Digital Trunking (PDT)

Very Small Antenna Terminal (VSAT)

Long Term Evolution (LTE)

Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (COFDM)

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO)

Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN)

Digital Mobile Radio (DMR)

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

7. Line 67-77, should those bullets be the same sentence (bullets?)

Author response:

Thanks for positive comments and suggestions. After checking these bullets, we improved some bullets description.

Changes:

In the case of public communication network facilities being damaged, performance decreasing and traffic volume increasing suddenly, it is necessary to use unconventional and multi-communication means combination to restore communication capability. The importance of emergency communication networks is shown below:

• Ability to work during both a disaster situation and at time of normal;
• Dynamic expansion of the network to provide more coverage;
• Accurately transmit disaster information and provide comprehensive services;
• With high reliability, high redundancy, high safety and high anti-interference capability.

8. Line 754, someone proposed but there is a clear reference and author provided.

Author response:

Authors are thankful for careful consideration and useful remarks. We checked and updated the paper for clear references and authors provided in the description.

Changes:

In the coal mine emergency communication system, Guan Chao proposed an underground disaster relief communication system based on WMN.

ZHONG Jianfeng et al. put forward the technical route of integrating 5G and UAV emergency communication system. Xu Bingyu et al. put forward the technical route of integrating 5G mobile communication network and satellite communication network.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 4 Report

The authors have responded to all of my comments, and significant changes have been done to the manuscript itself.