MOSCOW, June 18. A portable system for providing emergency communications in hard-to-reach areas and during interruptions in cellular communications was developed by MIET specialists. This system is based on miniature portable devices that can detect and amplify each other's signals, and can operate for up to 5-6 hours without a power source, the scientists reported. Results presented at the 2024 Conference of Young Researchers in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (ElCon).
Today, cellular communications in 3G format, which includes both mobile communications and an Internet connection at moderate speed, are available from 84% to 100% of the population in different regions. The density of cell towers in urban areas is higher than in rural areas. For example, in Africa the ratio is two to one.
However, far from populated areas, in the sea and in the mountains, there are also so-called “dead zones” of coverage. It is also difficult to maintain cellular communications in underground buildings: communication only works to a certain depth, below which the signal can neither be received nor sent. This poses a threat to people working underground: in an emergency, they cannot send a distress signal even using emergency communications.
According to the law, in case of emergency communication, a person sends a signal not to the tower of his mobile operator, but to any nearby one. Strictly speaking, any modern device is standardly equipped with the ability to make a call to 112, even if the subscriber’s number is blocked, there is no SIM card in the device, or there is no money in the subscriber’s account.
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“But what if the signal doesn’t even reach the nearest tower? For example, when carrying out rescue operations in mines, where there are many labyrinths of tunnels, and underground communications are very poor. Or it is necessary to transmit a signal about an incident or a leak of hazardous substances in places where there is no cellular communication and there are problems with satellite. Our system is aimed at solving these problems,” said the co-author of the project, senior lecturer at the Department of Telecommunication Systems of MIET Sultansaid Muratchaev.
He said that a team of MIET scientists has developed a communication system based on based on miniature portable devices capable of interacting with each other in a two-way mode.
“We have created a prototype of a microcontroller-based device that can, in certain cases, when a button is pressed or a sensor is triggered, send a distress signal to all other devices nearby, transmitting coordinates and telling them what’s wrong. We have made 20 devices that can move relative to each other at a distance of up to 100 meters. When one device transmits a distress signal, other devices exchange this information and bring it to the desired point,” explained Muratchaev.
MIET employees have produced a prototype network that can be developed and integrated into a real one. system, including increasing the signal reception and transmission area. The new system works on the principle of “breadcrumbs”: by arranging small devices in series, you can deploy your own emergency communications network.
«In a fairy tale, children in order not to get lost, they left a trail of bread crumbs behind them. In essence, here is something similar. Along your route, every 500 meters you leave a device that forms a telecommunications network between them and allows you to contact any remote user,” he said. scientist.
He called Wi-Fi the best analogue of the proposed system, with one drawback: if the main Wi-Fi router stops working, the entire network does not work.
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“The technology we are working on is the same as Wi-Fi routers in the “bridge” mode, when two routers transmit information to each other and distribute it to nearby devices. But in our network, all devices are routers,” Muratchaev explained.
Another advantage of the system is its resistance to device loss: if one of the devices fails, you can replace it with another one, and everything will work, the scientist emphasized.
He noted that today new devices are already capable of self-configuring and operating autonomously for up to 6 hours.
In the future, the team plans to implement various video image recognition systems based on MANET networks. They consist of any portable devices that do not necessarily need to be tied to a single base station — they communicate directly with each other.