Design of Multi-Path Network Topology for Contingency Cellular Network

When stricken by a large-scale disaster, the efficiency of disaster response operation is very critical to lifesaving. However, communication systems, such as cellular networks, usually crashed due to various causes making coordination among disorganized disaster responders extremely difficult. Unfortunately, rapid deployment of many existing emergency communication systems relies on a good transportation system, which is usually not available in a catastrophic natural disaster. We propose a Contingency Cellular Network (CCN) for emergency communication by connecting disconnected base stations together using wireless links to construct a multi-hop contingency cellular network. CCN can support existing mobile phone users with reduced capability. Such a system can support a large number of disaster responders and victims in the early hours of a catastrophic natural disaster, thus save many lives. The paper addresses the multi-path network topology design problem of CCN. In which, selected nodes will have multiple path to reach the core network, and thus, have higher resiliency against link failure. The problem is proven NP Hard. Therefore, we design an efficient heuristic algorithm (LBDK) to solve the problem when it is needed in urgent. Finally, we evaluated the proposed algorithms by simulation. A significant improvement in resiliency by using multi-path topology is reached.