Communications Infrastructure No Match for Katrina 483
jfourier writes "In this age of cheap commoditized consumer electronics and advanced mobile technology, why can't all the people of a city make contact during an emergency? Cell phone circuits filled up during 9/11 attacks and in the wake of hurricane Katrina very few victims can make contact with their families, despite the fact that they have all those mobile phones. The Red Cross is looking to deploy satellite equipment to restore communications in affected areas." From the article: "Katrina made landfall in Louisiana early this morning with sustained winds of 145 mph, but veered just enough to the east to spare New Orleans a direct blow. Even so, flooding, power outages and heavy damage to structures were reported throughout the region.
The Red Cross tomorrow expects to begin deploying a host of systems it will need, including satellite telephones, portable satellite dishes, specially equipped communications trucks, high- and low-band radio systems, and generator-powered wireless computer networks, said Jason Wiltrout, a Red Cross network engineer. "
Red Cross Donations (Score:5, Informative)
1-800-HELP-NOW
Ham Radio (Score:5, Informative)
Round up of New Orleans News Sources (Score:4, Informative)
-Crow T. Trollbot
amateur radio is alive and well in New Orleans (Score:3, Informative)
Amateur Radio Volunteers Involved in Katrina Recovery (Aug 30, 2005) -- Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers in Louisiana are engaged in the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort, and more are waiting in the wings to help as soon as they can enter storm-ravaged zones. Winds and flooding from the huge storm wreaked havoc in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama after Katrina came ashore early Monday, August 29. Louisiana ARES Section Emergency Coordinator Gary Stratton, K5GLS, told ARRL that some 250 ARES members have been working with the Red Cross and the state's Office of Homeland Security Emergency Preparedness. Much of the affected areas remain flooded and dangerous, however. As a result, state officials have not allowed emergency or other units to enter the flooded zones, and there is still no communication with many coastal areas.
Simple (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Windy (Score:4, Informative)
Ku Band singals are in the microwave range of EM frequencies, so are vulnerable to rain fade (which is ironic since many Meteorologists get their data this way).
C-Band isn't as bad.
Flooding (Score:2, Informative)
One of the city levees has been leaking and without power they estimate the homes of hundreds of thousands will be flooded. Without power there's also the lack of pumps running. Much of the city is 6 ft below the level of the Misssissippi River.
This is pretty much your worst case scenario in the Gulf Coast happening. Nice weather now, but people won't even be allowed back to some neighborhoods for at least one week. Others are still being evacuated, by boat, as flood waters rise.
Re:Dumbass question (Score:2, Informative)
Of course, that is the PSTN, and I suppose cell providers aren't held to nearly the same standard.
Re:Money to be made here (Score:2, Informative)
/. has been watching too much mass media (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Ham Radio (Score:4, Informative)
Go to http://www.arrl.org/ [arrl.org] - download the question pools (they are about to change - so get the correct ones), go by a shi^H^H^HRadio Shack and get the Tech, General, and Extra study guides, and spend a few minutes a night studying.
The ARRL should have a list of testing sessions and locations - failing that, let me know where you are and I'll see what I can find out.
HAMS: Help Needed! (Score:2, Informative)
After watching all of the major news outlets they are all mentioning that communications in and out of the city of New Orleans is practically nullified.
Tens of thousands (if not a hundred thousand) or more are trapped in the city following hurricane Katrina. This problem is worsened by the fact that after this cyclone, the city is flooded and the waters are RISING, not receding! This is an urgent situation and needs immediate attention!
Because of the need of hundreds of search and rescue missions, and the lack of ability of communications infrastructure to operate, assuming it is still existent at all, I would call FOR EVERY AVAILABLE HAM RADIO OPERATOR TO ATTEMPT TO GIVE THEIR ASSISTANCE TO THIS AREA!
Well-prepared self-sufficient mobile ham radio operators would make a difference in saving lives and passing 'life and limb' traffic in and out of the disaster area. I would like to propose hams descend on the city and surrounding areas to provide a temporary communications infrastructure until such time that officials are able to provide this on their own.
KG4JYD
Matt Collins
Nashville, TN
Re:Money to be made here (Score:3, Informative)
You mean like COLTs [verizonwireless.com] (Cell on Light Trucks)? This seems like prior art to me:
Rapid Disaster Response - COLTs
Verizon Wireless "Cell on Light Trucks" (COLTs) can process thousands of calls every hour in the event cell sites or other key communications equipment are damaged or disabled by a community disaster. The 25,000 pound vehicle features two retractable masts, a microwave antenna to link network components, an emergency power generator and a small office. The COLT is also fully equipped with resources needed during emergencies including equipment, fuel, electrical generators, food, water and cots.
Re:Money to be made here (Score:3, Informative)
In order to make a boatload of money, somebody would have to pay for it. Who would pay?
Sure, the service would be worth paying for, but Verizon would immediately be accused of price gouging if they tried to actually get somebody to pay for it. Everybody would expect the `enhanced' service to be provided for free.
How would you react if you were a Verizon customer and your phone, which hadn't worked before, rang, and it was Verizon offering to make your phone work again for the next three days for only $29.95? Just give your credit card! It might be a bargain, it might even save your life and many other lives, but the outcry against it would be enormous.
I do see how this would be useful, but unless the governments have already made some sort of deal to fund this sort of thing in advance, I don't see where a boatload of money could be made. In fact, all I see is an opportunity to provide service for free -- which gets them a lot of good karma and brownie points, but it's often hard to take that to the bank.
Re:I've got a friend (Score:2, Informative)
I talked with a Cingular tech, and he says that the situation is that they are trying to set up the network to find the phone anywhere, but it may be some time before they have it up and running. I'm sure that other cell phone companies are rushing to do the same, so that they can provide connectivity to those who have fled the area and need to call folks to let them know they're alive and safe.
212 Calling 504 (Score:4, Informative)
New Orleans ain't New York City. I lived there, too, and I know it's hardly "Silicon Alley": It's Carbon Swamp. The telecom services there aren't really comparable to NYC's, even on leisurely good days. But the Big Easy could take a lesson from the Big Apple, just as all cities can. We proved that disaster recovery can be highly effective, and those results are available to the world. These scale disasters are becoming more frequent. People should become familiar with techniques for coping with them now, before the crisis, when planning and preparation can be done on one's own schedules, and not merely the best one can do when disaster strikes.
Re:Red Cross runs IT now? (Score:3, Informative)
The Red Cross is bringing in telcom equipment to not only provide an outside link to those affected by the disaster, but to also coordinate the RC's response to this disaster.
Each service center and shelter needs comms back to their assigned HQ which also needs comms to other HQ's and to the National HQ in Washington D.C. How do you do that in areas which have had their infrastructure wiped out? You bring it with you.
That is why the Red Cross is deploying their ECRVs (mentioned in the article) and "Fly Away Kits" which provide stationary sat comms.
This is not about giving people cell service (something the Red Cross isn't equipped for), this is about creating a lifeline to the rest of the world using satellite links and VoIP.
This is a silly question that requires a profound (Score:2, Informative)
Lets see:
The Thelephone Systemm is designed with statistical multiplexing in mind (extremely simplified explanation: the capacity is that of what is expected in the peak hour as an average) but the system is not able to fullfill EVERY SINGLE REQUEST from EVERY SINGLE USER at the same time. For those interested, the capasity is derived from Earlang tables (link for the Danish Matematician: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agner_Krarup_Erlang/ [wikipedia.org] Link for the unit and calculations in telecoms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlang_unit/ [wikipedia.org])
Mobile systems, being telecom systems, are designed along the same lines, but allowing for mobility. That is why, when there is rush hour, or when there is a concert, or when there are demonstartions (in my country, Venezuela, at least) it was hard to get throug. With Mobile systems, you have two choke points. The antena itself (Called BTS in GSM terms, I will use GSM terminology because I worked for 6 years in various positions and capacities the field), and the switch itself (MSC, again in GSM Terms). Normaly you engineer the system so that the blocking rate due to the MSC is many times lower that the blocking rate due to the BTSs (RF)
If everybody tries to call 911 at the same time, or call their relatives, or receive a call from relatives, the system will not be able to cope. Add to that the fact that many BTSs (and other infrastructure) will be out of service due to the following reasons:
- The Towers/Antenae themselves are damaged
- The tower/antenae are ok, but the Microwave links between them and the MSC (BSCs and transcoders taken into account) are missaligned due to the wind.
- ADSL Links to the BTSs not working.
- Lack of power
- Equipment destroyed (A tree falls on the shellter damaging the electronics, but the antena is ok. It happens. Once One of our BTSs was out because some moron fired at the shelter, and the bullet perforated a Satellite modem).
- et cetera
Now you begin to see the challenge here.
Is not that there is nothing to be done. In GSM you have a copuple of tricks down your Sleeve. First, you can activate a mode known as Half-Rate. This will decrease the datarate of a voicecall, from aprox 13.3Kbps to aprox 6.7Kbps. The voicequality will suffer, but the (remaining) Capacity of the radiofrequency system will be doubled, just like that!.
The second thing that can be done is to put the system in Emergency mode. In this mode, Some calls get priority over the others. That is to say, police, firefigthers, goverment oficials, the phones of the people that work for the operator, and calls alerady stablished to the emergency number (911 in USA, 121 in europe, 127 here in venezuela) get priority over all other calls, allowing the relief personnel to better coordinate their efforts.
I do not know what can be done in the CDMA200 1xRTT world, but I am sure there are some tricks for them as well.
Here in Venezuela (and in Colombia, where I also worked), we have very bad Electrical systems, so many of our BTSs (and all of our BSCs and MSCs) have battery backup power AND motogenerators, giving them an autonomy of Two or more days (until the Diesel fuel dries out). In a situation like that of Katrina, it may not be possible to replenish the fuel. But to make it worse, in america the electric system is so good, that is dificult to justify the use of motogenerators in the BTSs themselves, but just in critical pieces of equipment. So, after some hours, is goodbye to the cell system. The MSC may Still work, and the BSCs. The SMSs that your family sends you from the other side of the globe will be received, and will be stored in the SMSC server, but will not get to you because there will be no towers on. GAME OVER.
So, is not the ubiquity of the equipment, but a design focused on availability and disaster handling that will allow you to be able to stay comunicated during time
Technology is secondary (Score:2, Informative)
This is not limited to natural disasters and other such situations. I have a beach house. When the weather is not so nice, my cellphone works fine there. When it's beautiful, it doesn't work so well because a large amount of people have flooded to the beach and there isn't enough local capacity for them. Why people are yammering away on the beach instead of enjoying themselves is beyond me. Or maybe they just have a boss like me.
Re:/. has been watching too much mass media (Score:2, Informative)
I guess my question is, whatever happened to good citizenship and being a beneficial, constructive part of society instead of a leech of money?
Wireless phones have become commoditized and I'm surprised people don't tend to expect them to work the same way land-line phones, electricity and water work. They're utilities, everyone has them, they're dirt cheap and the people got together to use our collective power and legislative influence to require the costs to be low and to recognize them as basic services that 100% of people should receive (though we accept lower percentages as a way of being reasonable).
People can point and shout and call me a communist until they're red in the face, but as long as we let companies divide and milk us we'll never move beyond this paradigm. What have phone companies promised that they deliver? Digital services? Great, so now instead of my phone fading out but having clear voice services it cuts o t at r ndom t mes com lete y and sounds like it was compressed with lossy compression and decompressed ten times along the way. 3G? I'm still waiting for 3G services from my provider. When they do manage to do something right, like move their phone services onto their Internet networks, it never results in tangible benefits for customers. I don't know about you, but since I've had a wireless phone the cost per month has only gone up and the quality of customer service and wireless service has gone down.
I don't know about the rest of you, but if it comes down to Sprint making another twenty million dollars next month and fixing the problems with their networks and capacity, I'm all for the part that benefits people and not corporations.
Re:/. has been watching too much mass media (Score:2, Informative)
Actually it's all the rain that's in the distance between the satellite and the dish reflector itself that kills the signal. The small space between the reflector and the LNB is where the signal's strongest. And the "socks" are there to keep snow, squirrels, birds, etc. from collecting in that small space and absorbing the faint signals.
Re:Cellular blimps (Score:3, Informative)
My guess is, they didn't feel the need for it. As they knew the capactity of the Superdome + the nine orther emergency locations would not be exceeded. In fact, in the end, only about 10k went to the Superdome. It can hold 80k for an event.
That may turn out to be a bad decision, but not because people couldn't get Amtrak to play ball. The board is federally controlled, and they require the US Federal Governemnt to approve their budget each year. The US Govt has Amtrak by the balls, for better or worse.
Re:Windy (Score:2, Informative)
Re:/. has been watching too much mass media (Score:3, Informative)
The "stalk" is called the feed assembly. Old timers like me still call it the "feed horn". In most satellite receive systems, it contains the actual receive antenna (usually a horn-coupled waveguide) and a preamplifier and frequency converter commonly called a "LNB" (low-noise block converter).
Heavy rain affects Ku-band satellite signals by attenuating them as they make their way through the area of rain near the surface. The signal can also be scattered somewhat by the rain but it is not as significant a phenomenon as rain attenuation. Here is a good explanation [spacecom.com] of rain fade.
I've seen rain fade affect terrestrial microwave links as well. I once lost a 13-GHz link for about 10 minutes when a heavy rain storm moved into the path between the transmitter and receiver. The fade margin on that link was around 30 dB, so the rain cut the signal to less than one-thousandth of what it was. I've also seen C-band rain fade, but this was on a very-small-aperture (1-meter) dish which has just enough gain to get the signal it's supposed to get.
"dish socks" stretchy covers that go over the dish. It keeps rain from passing through the dish and the LNB.
These are actually covers that primarily prevent snow from accumulating in the dish and spoiling the parabola, greatly reducing the antenna gain and consequently the recovered signal strength. Other methods of accomplishing this are a non-stick coating applied to the dish so that the snow slides off, and heating systems, either heat tapes applied to the surface or hot-air systems, which blow heated air into cavities behind the dish panels. The latter is most often used on uplinks, where a change in gain and directivity could mistakenly illuminate other satellites.
problem: hurricanes do not file flight paths (Score:3, Informative)
there is also the case of many people not wanting to leave. in a way i could see their thinking. people did not expect this kind of devastation. people have a habit of recalling the worst storm they remember and figure "i survived that". they also fear leaving all their possessions to looters or whatever.